Neil, Stefan may likely miss future games

SAVOR the latest performances of Neil Etheridge and Stefan Schrock, Filipino sports fans, because you may not get to see them in a Philippine Azkals uniform for quite a while.

Because of their respective club commitments, Etheridge, the squad’s only dependable goalie, and midfield maestro Schrock might miss the national team’s succeeding international engagements this year.

The strapping 6-foot-2 Fil-British goalkeeper, 21, is set to be promoted as regular reliever on the first team of Fulham, which competes in England’s Premier League, leaving him with less time with the Nationals.

The 5-foot-5 Schrock, 26, is likewise tied down to his ballclub Greuther Furth in the German Second Division. Like Etheridge, Schrock needed special permission from his commercial team to play in the home-and-away series of the Asian World Cup qualifiers between the Philippines and Kuwait.

Schrock was able play in the rematch last Thursday after serving a one-game suspension for getting booked with two yellow cards in the previous round against Sri Lanka.

Despite being a man down, the Al-Azraq outsmarted the Azkals 2-1 to advance to the third round with a 5-1 goal aggregate, including the 3-0 shutout of the Filipinos in Kuwait City last July 23.

Etheridge and Schrock were the undisputed stars of the Filipino booters in the exciting match, the goalie stellar as usual at the net while the latter was the midfield glue and scored the host team’s only goal.

"I’ll have to see (the) FIFA international match schedule to see if I can play for the rest of year," said Etheridge, who began playing for the nationals in 2008 at the age of 18. "But I don’t know about next year because I’ll be playing on the first team of Fulham."

He was referring to the play dates the world governing body schedules that allow professional players to be released and play for their respective national teams. The FIFA has pegged Oct 7-11 as "international match days" on its calendar.

"I have the same problem that Neil has because of my commitments with my team," Schrock said. "I always have to explain to team management why I have to play, for example, in the World Cup qualifiers, when we have a tournament going on.

"I cannot understand why we have the same international match schedule with Africa or South America when the tournaments in Asia are scheduled differently," he added.

Both mainstays are unlikely to be available when the Nationals compete in the Taiwan Lo Teng Invitational Cup in late September, although they could be seen in action anew when the Philippine Football Federation hosts a four-nation invitational tournament in October.

Bong Pedralvez, Business Malaya Insight