Philippine Azkals was invited by Taiwan’s Long Teng Cup to compete on a tournament which will be featuring some of the toughest football teams in Asia. Long Teng Cup in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei was scheduled on September 28 to October 4, 2011. Azkals will compete against depending champion Hongkong, Macau and host-Chinese Taipei.
The Azkals was the first Philippine National Football Team who have reached the second round of the World Cup Qualifying, although unsuccessful with their campaign against powerhouse team from Kuwait, one of the top 100 Footballing nation in the world. The experienced they gain will surely bring a brighter future for Philippine football.
According to Philippine Football Team President Nonong Araneta, the Azkals will take a one month break. He was quoted as saying “The team will again gather in the third week of August to begin their preparations.” said Araneta.
The Philippine Football Federation will also preparing for a possible invitational game to be held in the Philippines. National Teams from South-east Asian powerhouse will expected to join the competition upon completion of the necessary requirements. Powerhouse Malaysia and Singapore were invited to play against the Azkals.
The Azkals were also preparing for the South-east Asian Games and the Asian Football Confederation Finals. The management of the Azkals were doing it’s best to keep the team in top shape and stick together as a team. The only problems with the Azkals were the commitment of some players to their foreign ball clubs.
Neil Etheridge will play again to his European team Fulham FC while Stephan Schrock will go back to Germany to play for SpVgg GreutherFürth club.
Meanwhile the 2011 Long Teng Cup were also planning to extend the four-nation met to include other teams from South-east Asia such as, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia depending upon the schedules of the national teams from respective nations.