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MANILA, Philippines – The coaching carousel continued to revolve for the Philippine Azkals last week as the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) unveiled Hans Michael Weiss as the new head coach of the men’s national football team.
Succeeding Barae Jrondi, Josep Ferré, Thomas Dooley, and Scott Cooper, Weiss is now the fifth head coach since the Azkals parted ways with Sven Goran-Eriksson in January 2019.
The surprising news came out a week before the Azkals welcome Nepal and Chinese Taipei at the Rizal Memorial Stadium for a couple of friendly matches on June 15 and June 19.
“I’m honored that the [Philippine Football] Federation has considered to reach out to me and then it was, for me, a no-brainer, it was clear,” said the 58-year-old Weiss, who returned after his departure in January 2014.
“When I had a chance to come here, mostly because of the quality of players, I know many people here and we never lost touch. It was clear that I would be very happy to come back.”
Leading the 26-man squad list for the friendlies against Nepal and Chinese Taipei is veteran goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, who plays club football for Birmingham City in England.
The 33-year-old Etheridge will be joined by Julian Schwarzer and Patrick Deyto as the team’s goalies.
Amani Aguinaldo, Jesper Nyholm, Carli de Murga, Martin Steuble, Santiago Rublico, Daisuke Sato, and Marco Casambre form the team’s defense at the back.
Making up the midfield are Dylan De Bruycker, Jared Pena, Oskari Kekkonen, Manny Ott, Mike Ott, Kevin Ingreso, Jesse Curran, Sandro Reyes, Hikaru Minegeshi, and Chester Pabualan.
The 37-year-old naturalized forward Bienvenido Marañon leads the attack and will be supported by Jarvey Gayoso, Patrick Reichelt, OJ Porteria, Kenshiro Daniels, and Andres Aldeguer.
Despite being away from Philippine football for almost 10 years, Weiss was full of praise for his players. “If you can get 70%-80% of this talent together and let them play, not only in one window, but in three, four, five windows, you will see a different team.”
“We are hard to beat, we will be hard to beat, but we must get them. We must make the right preparation, we must prepare them, we must prepare ourselves. You know, we have to give good conditions for these people to consider to come and play with the team.”
Sato, who has missed the last training camp, shared that he was “happy to be back” and is excited to embark on a “new journey” with Weiss. “We want to have a positive time this time, the last couple of years [have] been not the best time for the Azkals, but I’m looking forward for the new start.”
The 28-year-old defender believes that with the guidance of Weiss, the veterans and the youngsters can “achieve something together, really good things.”
Weiss had a magnificent initial stint with the Philippines as he guided the Azkals to 21 wins, 11 draws, and 12 losses in 44 matches that spanned from 2011 to 2013.
He was the head coach when the Azkals finished at third place in the 2012 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup after holding off Palestine, 4-3, in the third place play-off.
Another semifinal appearance followed for Weiss and the Azkals as they finished second place in Group A of the 2012 AFF Championship to book a clash with eventual tournament champions Singapore.
Since his departure from the team in 2014, Weiss has coached the national teams of Mongolia (2017-2020) and Laos (2020-2023), and is confident that he is different from the first time he handled the Azkals.
“I’m a better coach now and I did a lot of research and studying as far as tactical approach is concerned.”
He added: “I will try to use a similar system here with, of course, more firepower upfront and with offensive oriented attractive pressing football, high up the pitch, and try to score. You know we have to bring excitement back, and you don’t get excitement when you sit deep and just wait for counters.”
Weiss will have an opportunity to immediately reintroduce his brand of football to Filipino fans on Thursday, June 15, 7 pm, as the Azkals take on Nepal in a friendly match at the Rizal Memorial Stadium. – Rappler.com
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