abs-cbnNEWS.com

Posted at 03/14/2011 5:00 PM

MANILA, Philippines – In their second day in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, the Philippine team Azkals checked out the football pitch they will be playing on against the Mongolian Blue Wolves this Tuesday.

The Azkals said they are excited to outpace their opponents in the city’s National Sports Stadium as they clash in the second leg of the AFC Challenge Cup.

“The field is very big, which means there’s a lot of space for us to play,” midfielder Phil Younghusband told ABS-CBN News.

“Iyong pitch nila, okay naman eh,” team captain Aly Boromeo added.

The multi-purpose National Sports Stadium has an artificial pitch suited for football matches.

It has a seating capacity of 20,000—apparently larger than Bacolod City’s Panaad Stadium at 15,500.

Panaad Stadium, meanwhile, was the venue of the Azkals’ home game.

The Azkals, who dominated the Blue Wolves, 2-0, will have to beat or tie with their foreign rivals to advance into the Challenge Cup group stage.

Confidence vs Cold Weather

With their eyes on the prize, the Azkals stressed that their gameplay will still be offensive..

Phil Younghusband said he is hoping to strike the ball on the goal again, as he did in the first leg where he contributed a goal.

“Honestly I expect 2 or 3 goals,” he said, “Hopefully a better result than the last game.”

However, the players said…

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

By Cedelf P. Tupas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:15:00 03/13/2011

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine football team arrived in Ulan Bator early Sunday and got a chilling reminder that it would have to deal with more than just Mongolia in the second leg of its AFC Challenge Cup duel.

Temperatures ranging from minus 16 to minus 20 degrees Celsius greeted the Azkals in their first few hours in the Mongolian capital, where they will be hoping to protect their 2-nil first-leg advantage.

The Mongolians need to win by at least three goals to prevent the Azkals from advancing to the AFC group stage, but the Azkals’ coach, Hans Michael Weiss, is confident they can survive the challenge.

“My team must stand this character test,” said Weiss in an e-mail to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “The preparations have been very good and done in a professional environment (in Japan). It could not have been better.”

Weiss took the two losses to a Japanese university side in stride, saying the team learned much from the experience.

“Training in Japan helped a lot,” said Weiss, whose squad was outscored 1-12 in two matches against Kanto University. “Even with two hard defeats, the team learned.”

Azkals team manager Dan Palami is also upbeat with the team’s chances.

“It’s just another adversity that the team has to overcome,” he said. “I know the players very well and rest assured, they will be there fighting for every ball on Tuesday despite the cold.”

But concerns remain on how the players will deal with the extreme weather in Ulan Bator, which is about 4,300 feet above sea level.

“It was freezing out there, we couldn’t stay put,” Borromeo told the Inquirer in an e-mail after checking out the artificial turf at the playing venue. “We had to keep moving. I think we will be okay once we get warmed up.”

Borromeo added: “It would really help tremendously if there won’t be a wind chill and the sun would come out.”

“We will just try our best to overcome the cold,” said co-skipper Chieffy Caligdong, the scorer of the first goal in the opening leg in Bacolod City last February 9, in a separate interview.

The match is scheduled for Tuesday at 1 p.m., said to be the hottest time of the day in Ulan Bator.

“It’s really cold especially when the wind is blowing,” said defender Jason Sabio. “But otherwise, it’s no problem.”

The Azkals’ conditioning coach, Josef Malinay, who is with the team in Mongolia, said…

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

abs-cbnNEWS.com

Posted at 03/13/2011 2:25 PM

MANILA, Philippines – Members of the Azkals Philippine national football team have landed on Ulan Bator, Mongolia, 2 days before their AFC Challenge Cup match against the Mongolian Blue Wolves.

The team arrived in Mongolia around 3 a.m. Sunday morning.

The Azkals went direct to the Palace Hotel in Ulan Bator.

Although exhausted, the players said they are thankful they were able to leave Japan.

They said they took buses and trains just to get to the Tokyo Narita Aiport for their flight to Beijing, then to Ulan Bator.

“Grabe iyong journey talaga. It’s been a long journey,” said Azkals captain Aly Borromeo.

“Iba, iba talaga. It’s a different experience. Sobrang pagod kami. We were carrying boxes across the hall of Japan,” Phil Younghusband said.

The Azkals trained in Japan, which was hit by a 8.9-magnitude earthquake.

If their arrival in Ulan Bator got delayed, they risked postponing their game against the Blue Wolves on Tuesday.

The Azkals will play amid freezing conditions in Ulan Bator, where the temperature has reportedly dropped minus-18 degress Celsius and where ice has formed on the ground.

Simon Greatwich catches up

Simon Greatwich, who traveled way back from New York, has also met with the rest of his teammates.

Greatwich was supposed to train with the team in Gotemba City in Japan.

However, because of the massive earthquake, the player’s flight was diverted to Osaka.

Greatwich then had to spend the night in the airport, and in the morning took another flight out to Incheon in South Korea en route to Mongolia.

“It was very very stressful for the past 24, 48 hours… I spent the night rough on the floor in the airport,” he said.

Meanwhile, Azkals Jason Sabio who was also stranded in a separate Japan airport last Friday, is…

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By JULIEN MERCED C. MATABUENA

March 12, 2011, 3:44pm

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Azkals football team is now headed for Ulan Bator, Mongolia after experiencing the magnitude 8.9 quake that struck Sendai City, Japan Friday afternoon.

According to sportswriter Cedelf Tupas’ Twitter account at around 1:45 PM, Saturday, the Azkals are “now in Tokyo, making their way to Narita Airport.”

Earlier at 9:30 AM, he tweeted that the team was “instructed to pack, hoping to make it to Narita in time for 730 pm flight to Beijing then to Ulan Bator.”

An hour later, he followed with “Azkals left Gotemba already. Headed to train station to take bullet train to Tokyo. Then off to Narita to catch flight.” His next tweet, posted another hour after, said that the team already reached Mishima station and “buying bullet train tickets to Tokyo now.”

Tupas also posted that the Azkals might leave at 7:20 PM for Beijing, China via Air China before flying to Ulan Bator.

The Azkals was in Gotemba City for acclimation training in preparation for their second Asian Football Confederation (AFC) prequalifying game vs. the Mongolian football team to be held on March 15.

According to a report aired by TV Patrol on Friday, they were in the middle of the second practice game against the Kanto Gakuin University football team when the earthquake shook Sendai.

Reuters reported that the US Geological Society estimated the epicenter to be at 130 kms. east of Sendai in Honshu, off-shore, at a depth of 24 kms. With Tokyo city as reference point, southern city Gotemba is three hours away while northern city Sendai, two.

“Kinakabahan kahit medyo malayo kami kasi first time namin na makaranas ng gano’n kalakas na lindol. Malakas talaga yun kasi matutumba ka ‘pag hindi ka nakahawak eh,” co-captain Chieffy Caligdong relayed via phone interview.

On the other hand, striker Roel Gener said “Huwag na po sila [mga pamilya] mag-alala. Ok naman kami dito, yun nga lang malamig.”

Other strikers Phil and James Youghusband, Aly Borromeo, Christopher Camcam, and Anton del Rosario made use of Twitter to inform their friends and family of the situation there and that they’re safe.

“No signal on phones because of the earthquakes. Experienced an earthquake during our game today. Don’t know if we will leave tomorrow :(,” Phil reported.

“Everyone is ok guys! Thanks for the concern. Felt earthquake during our game and not sure if we’ll be able to fly out tomorrow,” James said.

Team captain Borromeo said, “Thoughts and prayers go out to all the locals here in Japan. Don’t worry about the team guys we’re all safe over here!” and also mentioned that they felt aftershocks hours after the earthquake.

Goalie Chris Camcam reported that phone lines had been cut where they were and that tsunamis are “all over Japan.”

Azkals defender del Rosario said that there’s “flooding everywhere but we’re far from it” and that he hopes “Japan will overcome this dreadful disaster.”

Their team manager Dan Palami also assured everyone via Twitter that the Azkals “felt the tremors but otherwise okay.”

More, the TV Patrol report mentioned that…

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Cedelf P. Tupas

First Posted 07:12:07 11/03/2011

MANILA—-The powerful earthquake that struck most of Japan Friday spared the city of Gotemba, where the Philippine football team is currently training for the second leg of its AFC Challenge Cup showdown with Mongolia in Ulan Bator next week. 

Several members of the team yesterday assured that the contingent of 24 players, coaches and team staff are safe in Gotemba, a mountainous city three hours away from the Japanese capital of Tokyo. 

The Azkals had actually just finished a scrimmage against Kanto Gakuin University when the earthquake measured at 8.9 on the Richter Scalerocked Japan. 

“We just finished playing when the quake hit,” said skipper Aly Borromeo on his twitter account. “We thought we were all dizzy from the game.” 

Borromeo added: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the locals in Japan. Don’t worry about the team. We are all safe over here.”

“The team is alright here,” said defender Anton del Rosario. “It’s very bad out here. Flooding everywhere but we’re far from it.” 

“The Azkals are safe,” assured Azkals team manager Dan Palami, who arrived from Japan Wednesday after observing training the past three days. “Felt tremors but otherwise okay.” 

Palami, however, expressed concern on the status of the flight of the Azkals to Ulan Bator tonight since the Narita Airport in Japan remains closed. 

Philippine Football Federation president Mariano “Nonong” Araneta also said the PFF was still tracing the whereabouts of two United States-based players – Simon Greatwich and Jason Sabio – who were scheduled to arrive at Narita Airport today (Friday). 

Greatwich was in a United Airlines flight from Houston which was scheduled to arrive in Tokyo at 2:30 p.m. Friday. Araneta said that Greatwich’s flight may still be airborne or diverted to Osaka Airport. 

Sabio’s Japan Airlines flight from Chicago has reportedly…

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