Peter Atencio - Manila Standard Today
THE Philippine Azkals have quickly adjusted to the oven-hot temperature in Kuwait, but will still have to be at their best against the dangerous Al-Azraq national team when they clash in the first game of their 2014 World Cup qualifiers at the Mohammed Al-Hamad Stadium in Hawali, Kuwait.,
The Al-Azraqs, also known as The Blues, recently won a four-nation championship among Middle East countries last Saturday, and are expectedly in top form when they host the Azkals.
Leading the Kuwaitis’ offense will be their ace striker Bader Al-Muttawa and tough defenders Fahd Awad and Hussein Fadhl. The Kuwaitis will be playing before an expected full-capacity home crowd of around 22,000 spectators, with perhaps a sprinkling of overseas Filipino workers cheering the visiting Azkals.
Al-Mutawa, a former Asian Football Confederation Player of the Year nominee, scored the lone goal in the 74th minute, which handed Kuwait a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia in the recent FUCHS International Quartet Championship final at the Amman International Stadium Saturday.
In the semifinals, Kuwait blanked Iraq, 2-0, with Awad putting Kuwait in lead in the 66th minute, and Fadhl sealing the win with just six minutes before the end of the match.
After the finals, Goran Tufegdzic, the Serbian head coach of Al-Azraqs expressed his confidence in the Kuwaitis’ ability to beat the Azkals.
“We have been training and preparing ourselves for the match,” said Tufegdzic in an interview with the Kuwait Times.
The Serbian coach described the coming showdown against the Azkals as “tough, but exciting.”
“While I definitely favor my team, I highly respect the Philippine football team as well. They are also a strong, tough contender. We have an edge over them in terms of experience, two of our players are very strong and they are ready for this,” said Tufegdzic.
Azkals coach Hans Michael Weiss Weiss, meanwhile, said that the Philippine Azkals stand a good chance of defeating Kuwait after seeing the videos of Kuwait’s team matches with other countries.
“I’m quite contented and I think the boys are now counting the hours towards the match. That will be a big match, a massive match as they say in England, and it will give us an idea, where we stand, and if we can compete at this level,” wrote Weiss via email.
The Azkals will be reinforced by Fil-British goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, who arrived yesterday, along with defenders Rob Gier and Ray Jonsson, who have already rejoined the team at their official quarters at the Movenpick Hotel.
National team manager Dan Palami wrote on twitter that they “are keeping their fingers crossed that the weather will not climb to 47-degrees centigrade,” hoping that they will be able to bear the high temperature at around 45-degrees during game time.
No comments:
Post a Comment