The country’s national football team, the Philippine Azkals will face tonight one of the toughest national teams in the Middle East, the Bahrain national football team in an international friendly match sanctioned by the Association Football’s governing body FIFA. The Azkals will test their new system after a grueling Middle East training camp.
The Azkals vs. Bahrain match up will be held at the Bahrain National Stadium in Manama and will start at around 11:30 PM Manila time ore 6:30 PM Bahrain time. Azkals head coach Thomas Dooley will allow the Filipino footballers to keep the ball better and widen their scheme while maintaining compact defensively.
According to Coach Thomas Dooley he wants his team to play with just three defenders in a 3-4-3 attacking formation that generally turns into a 5-4-1 on defense, instead of the Azkals’ usual 4-4-2 or 4-4-3 systems as the team prepares for the World Cup qualifiers.
The Bahrain national football team are coming off a 0-6 defeat at the hands of South American powerhouse team Colombia last Thursday, as the team promised to redeem themselves and play out their best football game against the Filipinos.
During the previous game, the Philippine Azkals held the Bahrainis to a 0-0 draw in 2012 and the team hopes to secure a win against Bahrain tonight.
The Azkals will be playing without Fil-British Neil Etheridge after he suffered injury from a freak accident during lunch with the Filipino community. Fil-German Roland Muller is set to take the starting spot as Azkals goalkeeper.
Fil-Spanish defender Alvaro Silva, Juani Guirado and Amani Aguinaldo, meanwhile, are expected to start in the backline while Phil Younghusband, Patrick Reichelt and possibly OJ Porteria could spearhead the front.
