PFF names Azkals lineup for Malaysia, Azerbaijan friendlies

After speculations arose on who will make it to the squad of newly-installed Philippine National Men's Football Team mentor Thomas Dooley, the Philippine Football Federation has bared the list of players who made it onto the squads which will go up against Malaysia and Azerbaijan.

Local stars will banner the Azkals against their Southeast Asian neighbors Malaysia on March 1 in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur as Phil and James Younghusband, OJ Porteria, Mark Hartmann and Ed Sacapano lead the cast with only Rob Gier and debutant Martin Steuble flying in from their respective leagues in Europe.

There will also be a bunch of returnees in Dooley's first match with the squad as Nate Burkey, Ruben Doctora, Simon Greatwich and Anton Del Rosario will don the national colors anew.

New names are also aplenty with Kenshiro Daniels, Amani Aguinaldo, Nick O'Donnell, Andrew Liauw, and Steuble getting their shot at claiming their first cap for the Philippines.

Completing the 22-man list are mainstays Marwin Angeles, Misagh Bahadoran, Jeff Christiaens, Jason de Jong, Chris Greatwich, Juani Guirado and Patrick Reichelt.

Against Azerbaijan four days later in Dubai, the German-American Dooley is expected to get some big help from the Europe-based Azkals as Paul Mulders, Neil Etheridge, Jerry Lucena, Roland Muller, Javier Patino and Stephan Schrock are all expected to boost the squad's chances in the Philippines' first game against a European squad since 1997.

Stepping aside for the foreign-based players in the March 5 outing are Angeles, Burkey, Simon Greatwich, Liauw, O'Donnell and Sacapano.

Despite making it to both trips, the Younghusband brothers are not expected to be at 100 percent coming into the games, nursing injuries they incurred in the United Football League. Azkals skipper Chieffy Caligdong, meanwhile, will not be able to join the squad as he is currently sidelined with a foot injury. - Rappler.com

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