My thoughts on Azkals US tour

@Olonam (870)
Philippines
August 3, 2012 12:45pm CST
Hey there Azkals fans. I'm sure we're all excited for Azkals USA tour. I've searched hard on the internet about our opponents, Chicago Inferno and the US Virgin Islands. Virgin Islands is ranked about 170 in the FIFA world rankings so there's a big chance for Azkals to win this. I'm not sure about the Chicago Inferno. They are currently playing in the amateur 4th division league of USA. Our opponents don't sound too strong but we must never underestimate them, they might put in a great performance just like Azkals did vs Vietnam back on 2010. The squad list for the US tour was released today. My thoughts on that: First thing of all, I expected that we won't have our main players, Phil and James aren't coming and I read somewhere that all the European players weren't coming. So I was expecting a very weak squad from us. But then when the squad was released I realized that our team isn't going to be very weak anyway. So here is my dream starting line-up. Formation 4-4-2. Goalkeeper: Eduard Sacapano Eduard Sacapano, Paolo Pascual and Ref Cuaresma are the three goalkeepers going to the US tour. I'm quite sad that Etheridge and Muller couldn't come, I don't feel safe without those two goalkeepers. Sacapano I think will start on the games. He is the most experienced, Pascual is too young and I'm not sure how old Cuaresma is. But since Sacapano is the third goalkeeper for the Azkals. I'll pick him. Wing Backs: Carli De Murga and Jason Sabio. There are many players in the Azkals that I'm not really sure what their position is. Just like Lucena he plays as Center back and Center Midfield, Paul Mulders played as a wingback on the World Cup qualifiers and Guirado plays as a striker sometimes. I'm not sure if Sabio will be a good wing back but since there's no space for him on my starting center backs I will put him on the wing. Carli as we all know is a good wing back (and goalkeeper haha!). He always starts for the Azkals as the right wing back. Gener will be a good substitute if one of our wing backs get tired or injured. Center Backs: Aly Borromeo and Rob Gier. I'm very happy Rob Gier can come. He always comes to any game that the Azkals play even if he's injured. And I'm also happy that captain Aly Borromeo has finally recovered from that injury of his on October. If any of these players get injured than I would put Sabio in their place and put Gener in the wing back place. So that complete my back four. I think we will have a very solid defense. Wide Midfielders: Angel Guirado and Chieffy Caligdong. I hope Guirado will come. His name is on the squad list but it is still unconfirmed. I hope he can come and replace the missing James Younghusband. If he comes and performs like he did against Guam than Azkals will be very strong. And Chieffy, I'm surprised he is coming. Chieffy I think needs to work a little harder. I've never seen him perform like he did on the Long Teng Cup in the recent games. If Chieffy doesn't work harder he might lose his first team spot to Jeffrey Christiaens. But anyway, good substitutes for this players are Christiaens, Bahadoran and the SEA games wonderkid OJ Porteria. I hope Porteria gets a chance to play. He is very skilled winger, he showed it to us on the SEA games. Center Midfielders: De Jong and Marwin Angeles. De Jong and Angeles as we already know are very good players. They can pass the ball very well. De Jong, I hope he gets a volley right and scores, his volleys haven't been working so well. And Angeles, what a quality player he is. He very nearly scored against Malaysia. Anyway, Chris Greatwhich is coming. But I'm not sure what position he plays. I think Chris played in midfield vs the Galaxy. But since I didn't really get to see how good Chris is he will just be a substitute for me. Strikers: Denis Wolf and Ian Araneta. This is one part of the squad that i'm very worried about. Denis Wolf's finishing wasn't good vs Guam and Araneta has been getting a little slow. I'm so sad Phil couldn't come, he is so cool under pressure. But what I hope is that Wolf will be having a great game unlike vs Guam. Wolf is actually good too but I'm still worried. Hopefully the midfield will give him a great through ball and find him one on one with the goalkeeper. Or a cross from the wingers will find the head of one of our strikers. The others: I'm not sure about the other guys. I really haven't seen them play so I didn't put them on the starting line-up. So, what are you thoughts on our squad going to the US and play some pre season friendly games against the Chichago Inferno and US Virgin Islands?
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