Manila, Philippines – The Philippine Under-23 football team tries to bounce back against Timor Leste today in the Indonesia Southeast Asian Games preliminaries at the Lebak Bulus Stadium in Jakarta.
Game time is at 5 p.m. with the Azkals still smarting from their 3-1 defeat at the hands of 2009 SEAG runner-up Vietnam in Thursday’s opening match.
German coach Michael Weiss blamed jet lag as one of the contributing factors to their loss, with some of his players coming from different parts of Europe just days before the biennial hostilities begin.
“Many of our players had suffered from jet lag, and I think that was evident in the way they played. But we would like to take it day by day. We will get this game behind us,” said Weiss after their opening match.
Weiss is optimistic that his wards will be rejuvenated in their coming matches, but remains wary of Timor Leste even prior to their departure to Jakarta.
“Our second and third matches (against Timor Leste and Laos) are crucial because it will set the tone on our fourth match against Myanmar, which I expect, will be tough,“ Weiss earlier said.
Timor Leste, which has never won a single match in the previous edition, will be drawing inspiration from its 2-1 victory over less-fancied Brunei last Saturday to beef their semifinal chances.
The squad is expected to lean on another good performance from Murilo Ribeiro de Almeida, who scored the team’s two goals in the second half of that match.
The Filipinos, for their part, are looking at improving on their offense after tallying a dismal 29 percent possession in their opening match.
Goalkeeper Roland Muller is expected to be a force to reckon with after displaying steel nerves against the aggressive offensive attacks of Vietnam.
Aside from Timor Lester and Vietnam, Myanmar also barged into the winning column after beating Laos, 3-2, also last Thursday.
0 comments:
Post a Comment