Underdog tag to fire up Azkals vs Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY – The Philippine Azkals have switched roles from favorite to underdog in less than a month in the 2014 Fifa World Cup Asian Qualifiers.

From being the touted team against Sri Lanka in the first round, the Azkals now carry tag of the lesser light against top-flight Kuwait and they take it more as a challenge and test of character.

“It seems the consensus of the Kuwaiti football community is that it will be at least 4-nil for them,” team manager Dan Palami said yesterday during the Azkals’ team meeting at their base here, the Movenpick Hotel and Resort.

“We look at this as a challenge. We know we’re the underdogs. But even if we’re coming in as underdogs, we’ll make sure that they don’t leave out of the pitch unscathed and show them that this is a team they can’t take for granted,” Palami added.

The Azkals spent their first day here studying tapes of Kuwait’s AFC Asian Cup matchup with China, with coach Michael Weiss taking extra notice of Al-Azraq’s strong attacking game and singled out forward Bader Al-Mutwa and midfielders Waleed Ali and Fahad Al Enezi as the players to contain.

Rob Gier, who arrived yesterday from London, also contributed to the scouting reports. In addition to playing defender for Phl XI, Gier was recently appointed Azkals European consultant/scout, according to Palami.

Meanwhile, efforts to make suspended Azkals captain Aly Borromeo and Stephan Schrock eligible to play in Saturday’s opener got a big boost after the Asian Football Confederation endorsed the Filipinos’ appeal on their suspension.

The AFC granted the Philippine Football Federation’s request to cancel the two yellow cards and the subsequent one-game suspension that the two received in the first leg against Sri Lanka rescinded.

“Pursuant to Article 37 of the Fifa disciplinary code governing the cancellation of the caution, AFC would like to request to the FIfa disciplinary commitee to cancel the aforementioned cautions that were received by the said players,” AFC general secretary Alex Soosay wrote in his letter to Fifa director of legal affairs Marco Villiger.

The PFF had earlier appealed directly to Fifa to reconsider the decision, saying Kuwait didn’t have the risk of similar penalties and could field an intact lineup since it took a bye in the first round .

But the world body replied that as per Article 37, it is the request of the confederation (in this case the AFC) that the Fifa “may cancel cautions that have not resulted in an expulsion in order to restore the balance among teams that have not played the same number of matches during the first round of a competition.”

The PFF is still awaiting Fifa’s final action.

Borromeo is all pumped up to play the first leg, but Fil-German Schrock may not be available still as his club Greuter Furth have scheduled game on the same day.

“We’re still waiting for the final letter (from Fifa)! (I’m) Still on my toes!” Borromeo said.

Olmin Leyba, Philippine Star