Azkals’ Asian Cupcampaign crucial to PH football’s future –Eriksson
Credit to Author: JEREMIAH M. SEVILLA| Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2019 16:19:06 +0000
Philippine Azkals head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson offered his deep thoughts on the national team’s debut appearance in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup.
“I think at this Asian Cup, with this generation of players, the Philippines have the chance to show that football is good in the Philippines and qualifying for the Asian Cup [knockout round] will help,” said Eriksson in an interview with the Associated Press.
Eriksson, who steered England to World Cup quarterfinal finishes in 2002 and 2006, believes that advancing to the knockout round of Asia’s biggest tournament will have a huge impact on football’s popularity among Filipinos.
AFP PHOTO
“If we can go through, that will mean a lot for the country,” added the 70-year old Swede tactician, who also coached Mexico and Ivory Coast on top of club managerial stints in Portugal, Italy and China.
Getting past the group phase, however, will be a tall order for the Philippines with Asian football giants South Korea, China and emerging team Kyrgyzstan in its way.
The Filipinos are the second-lowest ranked squad in the 24-team tournament at No. 116 while the Koreans, Chinese and Kyrgyz stand on No. 53, No. 76 and No. 91, respectively, in the latest FIFA world rankings.
The Philippines has faced Kyrgyzstan and China in the past three years but haven’t battled South Korea in recent times.
Under former mentor Thomas Dooley, the Azkals scored 2-1 and 1-0 wins over the White Falcons in international friendlies in 2016 but lost 1-8 to Team Dragon the next year.
The Azkals will take on the Taeguk Warriors in their opening game on January 7 at the Al Maktoum Stadium in Dubai.
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