MANILA (20 July 2011) – The Philippines national side remained confident ahead of their second round tie of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Kuwait in spite of the two defeats they suffered this week.
The Azkals as they are more popularly known as suffered a 2-1 loss in their first friendly against the Bahrain Under-23 team before conceding a second 3-1 defeat to the same side a few days later.
But chief coach Michael Weiss said that there are important lessons to be learnt from the loss, beyond just the mere score line.
“Taking into consideration the whole development process, it was a fantastic match and a fantastic camp, especially for the young players and the new ones,” said Weiss.
“Now everyone knows that the Gulf region is the standard that we need to look at, and the fact that we were able to experience it here makes it better for us.”
Weiss pointed out that that while the two losses to the younger Bahraini side was not exactly inspiring, still it could not gauge the chances they will have against Kuwait.
“It’s very difficult to say because it is not the team that will play on Saturday,” said Weiss.
Weiss expects Rob Gier, Ray Jonsson, Neil Etheridge and also Paul Mulders, the Fil-Dutch attacking midfielder, will be allowed to play by his club ADO Den Haag.
