AFTER a disappointing performance in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup 2016, the Philippine men’s national football team now looks ahead and hopes to get better in its future endeavors.
The Azkals are now in the process of analyzing what went wrong and learn from those mistakes as they begin their long preparation for the 2019 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup qualifiers in March.
Azkals Coach Thomas Dooley plans to have more intense and longer series of training camp to make the team more intact and well-prepared next year after the PHL XI’s worst Suzuki Cup finish and missed the semifinals for the first time since 2010.
“We will rest and we will be planning for the Asian Cup by doing the right things to do to prepare. We need to plan a full-week camp and probably make the training sessions maybe every day,” Dooley said.
“It’s something we have to be careful, don’t give players too much time to rest. We need to have a good preparation, maybe four weeks for the Asian Cup qualification in March. We may have two friendly games before, but this team needs four weeks of constant training,” he added.
The Azkals blew their Suzuki Cup 2016 dream after absorbing a heart pounding 0-1 downfall to the second stringers of the defending champion Thailand last week at the Philippine Sports Stadium in Bocaue, Bulacan.
Indonesia clinched the last semis berth in Group A with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Singapore at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
Dooley did not hide his frustrations on the team’s performance, especially playing in front of the home crowd.
“That’s part of the game. Sometimes, you have to learn from those losses, too,” Dooley said. Azkals skipper Phil Younghusband was also disappointed because they failed to continue their semis streak.
“The progress of football has been there and not qualifying for the semis feels disappointing because we have high expectations,” Younghusband said.
“We had such good players and we know the quality, so the circumstances of Philippine football situation at the moment, it’s not always easy,” he added.
“Maybe next time we will do our best. We did our best, but we were unlucky we did not finish again,” said Misagh Bahadoran, who scored the first goal of the team against Indonesia. “It was a big disappointment that we did not qualify for the semifinals of the Suzuki Cup, but we will come back stronger.”