Anything & Everything

Tonight the Philippine Azkals will play against Kuwait for the second round World Cup Qualifying match at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila. Everyone is praying for a miracle, especially after Kuwait’s 3 goals in the first round. As my son and nephew has been saying, the Azkals need 4 goals and they should not allow the 95th-ranked Al-Azraq to score any. Three factors could help the Azkals today: The boost from the return of Aly Borromeo and Stephan Schrock on the field.       The first round showed us how important effective defenders are. The twelfth man. The profound impact of supporters and fans on how a team      performs has long been acknowledged as effective, and in the case of Azkals it certainly helps. They have played against Kuwait before and have studied how the team plays and work together, and most importantly the team has learned their lesson from the first game and can correct the misconceptions and errors in the first. While everyone is rooti...

While all eyes are on the Philippine National Football Team or Philippine AZKALS as they prepare for the next qualifying game against Kuwait, the next generation members of the team called Teen AZKALS will be competing in the ASEAN Football Federation Under-16 Youth Championship 2011 in Vientiane, Laos from July 7 to 21. The Philippine Azkals’ goal to qualify to the FIFA World Cup remains a question, as the long road to World Cup will entail them to compete with several national football teams including Kuwait who has been playing for a long time and is ranked 101 st to Philippines 159 th   in the world. The Kuwait has appeared once in World Cup and 8 times in AFC, and has even won the AFC Cup in 1980.  Even manager Dan Palami admits “the chances are quite slim but that is all they need to attain victory as long as they train with their heart.” And certainly the Filipinos are rooting for them, but whether they do qualify or not, the Azkals has brought football to the heart...

At last! After so many years of rooting for Los Blancos (and recently, FC Schalke 04 becoz of Raul) and by default to Spain, I can now support my own team, the Azkals, our very own Philippine National Football Team. We were watching the game last Sunday inside my sister’s bedroom since I do not have a TV inside mine, and though the TV in the living room is bigger, it seemed more natural (and excitingly noisy) to watch together. So one can only imagine how crowded it was with 4 adults and 5 children ranging from ages 6 to 13 and all of us shouting, getting all excited, and giving their own versions to some of the moves. Since I started watching late coz I had to finish something I thought the Azkals were wearing their home team uniforms which is the white so I was lost for a few seconds. I know that they wore the blue soccer kit in Sri Lanka because that is their away team uniforms. My son was teasing me that it was okay for me to cheer for the white team if I really wanted t...

Only Option Left for the Azkals : WIN ~ Philippine Azkals Online Check out this article by Ryan Fenix, where he shows us the accurate standing and what the Azkals needs most...and that is a WIN !

After winning over Mongolia Blue Wolves with an aggregate score of 3-2, the Philippine Azkals were able to join the group stage of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup where they will play against Myanmar, Palestine and Bangladesh. The first game against Myanmar was yesterday, March 21st and fans were totally disappointed when it was not aired live so they had to make do with getting the latest information over Twitter. At least the tweets showed the updates though as Dyan Castillejo tweeted it was kind hard for them too since internet was not working that well. The one thing that was a problem in Mongolia that resulted in having a winter team wear for Azkals was not a problem in Myanmar since we almost have the same weather. The absence of Neil Etheridge was not felt in Myanmar but it certainly made you want to see him in action again. For a comprehensive report and analysis of the game, please see other sources such as Craig Burrows and Ron Moore's PinoyFootball...

Azkals win on 3-2 aggregate score, advance to meet Myanmar By Odi M. de Guzman, GMA News 03/15/2011 | 02:54 PM The stingy Azkals defense came into play in the second half as they denied Mongolia any more goals to seal their advance in this pre-qualifying round where they go up against Myanmar next on March 21. Despite the 1-2 loss to Mongolia Tuesday in the 2nd leg of their AFC Challenge Cup pre-qualifying match in freezing Ulan Bator, the Azkals enjoyed an aggregate 3-2 lead courtesy of their 2-0 win during the 1st leg in Bacolod last month. The aggregate lead was enough to get the job done for the Azkals to advance. They will be playing Myanmar next. At the end of the first half, the Azkals trailed Mongolia's Blue Wolves 1-2 in the 2nd leg of their 2012 AFC Challenge Cup pre-qualifying match in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Despite the freezing temperature, the Azkals - came out smoking as James Younghusband scored at the three-minute mark but the Blue Wolves equalized righ...

Image Source: Life's My Trip Despite the very strong earthquake in Japan that destroyed lives and infrastructure, the Filipinos are still as focused as ever with the second leg of the AFC Challenge Cup where the Philippine National football team duels with Mongolia Blue Wolves. Fans were worried about the situation of the Azkals especially because they were in Japan when the earthquake occurred. It’s a good thing that members of Azkals also kept Filipinos informed with their situation and continuously tweeted updates. Simon Greatwich and Jason Sabio were not able to join them in Japan but had to make do with sleeping at the airport. The trip to Mongolia took longer than the usual travel time, almost 24 hours, since the major earthquake caused a big disruption in transportation services. Finally, around 4am Sunday the Azkals arrived Ulan Bator and met a chilling response. Not from the fans but from the Mongolian climate which was around -20 degrees Celsius. Mongolia’s temperature wa...

Nothing could make Filipinos than to see one of our own win in any sport or event. Last night Filipinos showed their support to the Philippines National Football Team better known as the AZKALS. When I arrived home, my son was trying on his new school uniforms , last October I blogged about getting a new pair of pants, this time around I had to get him two school polos because 2 of his old ones (which btw was made for him last April). He was trying it on at home because he just asked his uncle to get it for him since he was waiting for the football game between Azkals and Mongolia’s Blue Wolves to begin. Everybody was on their seats waiting; I don’t think they even checked on the news channel to get the latest update. The problem with me is that I am a pretty noisy when I watch, whether it be basketball, soccer or baseball or volleyball. So you can just imagine the kids looking at me every time I would shriek each time they missed a goal or something else happening. But the wors...