MANILA (28 March 2011) – The Philippines are looking to play six tune-up matches in preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifying round which will kick off in June.
Shortly after qualifying for the main draw of the AFC Challenge Cup last week, Philippines national coach Hans Michael Weiss said he will need the six games against club teams in Asia to whip the team into competitive form.
“We will start training beginning of May,” said Weiss.
Added Philippine Football Federation (PFF) president Mariano Araneta: “coach Weiss has proposed to have five to six friendly matches against club teams. That’s the initial plan with my talks with team manager Dan Palami.”
Araneta said Asian countries such as Japan and Korea, and Australia are the possible sites of their training camps.
Palami added that the Philippines hope to assemble one of the strongest teams ever for the World Cup qualifiers.
“For the World Cup qualifiers, I’m hoping that we will be able to form our Dream Team,” Palami said.
Among possible recruits for the qualifiers include Fil-German Stephan Schrock, Fil-Danish Dennis Cagara, Toronto-born Jonathan and Julian De Guzman while Filipino-Spanish Angel Guirado, who struck twice in the Filipino’s 3-0 win over Bangladesh in the Challenge Cup group stage last Friday, has made himself available.
The first round home-and-away is set for 29 June and 3 July.
