The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) has urged fans to rally behind The Philippine Men’s National Team for the FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign starting next month. The Azkals is brimming with optimism as it embarks on another World Cup journey, seeking to relive the days when fans packed Rizal Memorial Stadium.

The Philippines is grouped with Iraq and Southeast Asian rivals Vietnam and Indonesia. This is surely not an easy group. Fan support is a great motivation for any team, in any sports to win games. The team needs to be at least in the second place to advance to the next round.

“The fans have always played a vital role in the success of the Men’s National Team,” said PFF president Mariano Araneta. “As the Azkals embark on another historic World Cup qualifiers campaign, our objective is to make them feel the support of the fans. Let us rally behind our team and show that we can pack Rizal Memorial Stadium. Let us stand our ground for our team and for our country.”

The venue for all the Philippines fixtures will be at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in Manila. Filling those 12,873 seats with at least 10,000 fans would be great. I personally wish PFF would have at last one game outside Manila, perhaps in Bacolod or Cebu.

The PFF is launching a three-part campaign to promote the qualifiers:

1. Fan experience: The PFF will ensure that the fans have a great time at the matches, with good food, drinks, games, and entertainment.
2. Promotional campaign: The PFF will reach out to fans through social media, influencers, and fan-made content. The PFF will also reach out to schools, football clubs, and academies to invite them to the matches.
3. Consistency: The PFF will ensure that this initiative is consistent and that fans keep coming back to the future home matches.

The PFF is emphasizing the importance of collaboration with the fans in this endeavor. The PFF hopes that this campaign will reignite the passion for football in the Philippines and help the Azkals to achieve their goals.

Ticket details for the 16 November 2023 match vs. Vietnam will be announced in due course.

The tentative line up of players to play.

ETHERIDGE, Neil Leonard – Birmingham City FC (England)
DEYTO, Patrick Phillip – Chonburi FC (Thailand)
HANSEN, Kevin Ray – Kuala Lumpur City FC (Malaysia)
CURRAN, Jesse Thomas – Ratchaburi FC (Thailand)
SATO, Daisuke – Persib Bandung (Indonesia)
KEMPTER, Michael – Grasshopper Club Zurich (Switzerland)
STRAUSS, John Patrick – FC Hansa Rostock (Germany)
INGRESO, Kevin – Sri Pahang FC (Malaysia)
DE BRUYCKER, Dylan Alain Lucienne – Bhayangkara FC (Indonesia)
HOLTMANN, Gerrit Stephan – Antalyaspor (Turkey)
RUBLICO, Santiago – Atletico de Madrid (Spain)
RONTINI, Christian – Persita Tanjerang (Indonesia)
PORTERIA, Jose Elmer – Kelantan United (Malaysia)
OTT, Manuel – Kedah Darul Aman (Malaysia)
OTT, Mike Rigoberto – PS Barito Putera (Indonesia)
REYES, Sandro Miguel – SpVgg Greuther Furth II (Germany)
AGUINALDO, Amani – Trat FC (Thailand)
REICHELT, Patrick – Kuala Lumpur City FC (Malaysia)
MARAÑON, Bienvenido – Chanthaburi FC (Thailand)
RASMUSSEN, Jens Sebastian – Hobro IK (Denmark)
MARTINEZ DE MURGA, Carlos Alberto – PS Barito Putera (Indonesia)
GROMMEN, Joshua Jake – Khon Kaen United (Thailand)
LINARES, Enrique – PSM Makasaar (Indonesia)
KEKKONEN, Oskari – Lamphun Warriors FC (Thailand)

Photo credit to Philippine Women’s Football Team.

The Philippine Women’s Football Team has made history that the Men’s team have failed, by qualifying for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. This will be the first time that the team has ever qualified for the tournament, and they will be making their debut in the world’s biggest women’s football competition.

The Philippines is in Group A:
Here is the Filipinas’ schedule for the World Cup, and they will be competing in Group A against Switzerland, New Zealand, and Norway. Switzerland is currently ranked 19th in the world, New Zealand is ranked 22nd, and Norway is ranked 11th. The Philippines is currently ranked 46th in the world, but these ladies are capable of upsetting any of these big teams.

The team’s Aussie head coach, Alen Stajcic, is confident that the team can make a good showing at the World Cup. “We know that we are the underdogs in our group, but we are not afraid of any team,” he said. “We have been working hard for this moment, and we are ready to make history.”

#		Group A	MP	W	D	L	G	PTS
1		Norway	0	0	0	0	0	0
2		Switzerland	0	0	0	0	0	0
3		New Zealand	0	0	0	0	0	0
4		Philippines	0	0	0	0	0	0

For live football scores, check out Flashscore.

The Venues:
The Philippine Women’s Football Team will kick off their World Cup campaign against Switzerland on July 21, 2023, at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin, New Zealand. They will then face New Zealand on July 25 at Sky Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand, and Norway on July 30 at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.

The team aren’t there just to simply “attend” the competition, they will be hoping to make history by advancing out of the group stage and into the knockout rounds of the World Cup. They will need to play their best football and upset some of the higher-ranked teams if they want to achieve their goal. However, with the right attitude and determination, the Philippine Women’s Football Team has the potential to make some noise at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Below is the table of schedule of games provided by Flashscore

But the sad state of affairs of Filipino football is that it’s still behind in terms of popularity and financial returns compared to basketball and boxing. The Philippine Women’s Football Team have qualified the Women’s World Cup this year. But there is not a single local media network that bid to be the local broadcaster.

Football fans like me are rare. We gather in online forums and share our ideas on how to improve this beautiful game in the Philippines.

Here are mine and have personally practice these.

1. Be a good person yourself. Start off with yourself. People will associate the thing you’re passionate about. If for example, a non-soccer person close to you sees another soccer fan, he will also remember you. But if that person hates you because of your bad character, there’s also a chance that he or she will also hates soccer. So, be nice.

2. Do not hate other sports. Somewhat related to number one, but I will emphasize it here. Some Filipino football fans literally show their hatred towards other sports like basketball, especially on social media in order to lift football as the preferred sport for Filipinos . These soccer fans don’t do any good for soccer’s advancement. Stop being hateful towards other sports, be friendly, and this friendliness attract friendliness towards soccer.

3. Be passionate about soccer. Simply be a fan. If you see a good video about soccer, share it on social media. The video may be about a good soccer player like Messi or Ronaldo showing their good skills. Show it to your friends. A simple share can have an impact.

4. Play the game or play it virtually. If you know how to play soccer, then play it. It’s good for your mind and body. Occasionally, share some photos of you playing on social media. If you don’t know how to play in real life, you can play it on a computer or phone. There is no excuse.

Years ago, when smartphones weren’t smart enough, I used to have a PSP, a portable gaming device made by Playstation. I installed just two games, Tekken and FIFA 2007. My purpose was, if my friends want to borrow my PSP, they’ll be forced to play either of the two games. My primary purpose was to promote soccer in my own little way.

Nowadays, you can easily install apps on your phone. Just go the app stores and download. There are also browser games you can “install” on your phones. Old popular site such as Y8 has about 118 football games, and a new site Plays has over 60 soccer-related games. There is really no actual installation, you simply save the page. Here is how to save a browser on an Android and here on iOS. Saving the page can save you a lot of memory space on your device.

You play these mobile soccer games on your free time, while in public places like in train or bus. Make sure to minimize the sound.

5. Volunteer, donate or help in soccer-related events. Volunteer as a coach, train young kids to play football. If you don’t know how to be a coach. There’s a lot of tutorials on Youtube. I learned coaching by watching videos. You can donate some cash or shoes to local teams in your area.

Below is the photo of me wearing a blue Brazil soccer jersey, posing with the kids I coached back in 2012.

What did I miss? What is the best ways to promote football in the Philippines?

In this batch, all the pictures were taken at Rizal Memorial Sports Complex last June 15 of this year.

The photos are all owned by Azkals.com. You can use it for free if it’s for personal purposes, as a photo cover or profile photo, whatever it is basta, not in negative way or for wholesome use. But if you use it for commercial purposes, contact me. I don’t ask too much, just fair for both parties.

The Azkals has an upcoming FIFA International friendly this June 15 and 19, against Nepal and Chinese-Taipei respectively. Games will be held at Rizal Memorial Stadium.

Ticket information are the following:

Do you want to be part of the Azkals? Then start by trying out for the Azkals Development Team.

There will be a tryout this at Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila from January 19-24, 2023, at 2:00 to 4:00PM.

You should be born between 2001 – 2005.

According to the guys at ADT:

Signup at the link below. Shortlisted participants will be contacted by our staff. No walk-ins will be entertained at the venue for the health and safety of participants.

SIGNUP FORM: https://bit.ly/3Gwue84

Again, walk-in tryout is not allowed, you need to register first through the link above.

Kyle Biagan sent an email inquiring about a trial for the Philippine Men National Football Team.

He gave a brief background about himself. He recently turned 18 last July 18, was born in Irvine California in the United States, and is a dual citizen.

According to him he plays in Center Back, Right Back, Left Back and
Center Midfield.

Furthermore, Kyle shares his football plans, and I will quote him:

I was offered to be a red-shirt player by UC San Diego, now a Division-1 team in the NCAA Big West Conference, to be in their practice squad by Head Coach Jon Pascale, former Stanford Head Coach.

I was also being recruited by Division-2 and -3 universities such as Vanguard University, Colorado School of Mines, and Illinois Wesleyan University, but I chose to attend UC Santa Barbara.

If PFF officials are watching, you can reach out to Kyle Biagan through the following:
Email: kjbiagan23@gmail.com
Cellphone: (949) 689-8270

Check out his Youtube videos and judge for yourself.

Disclaimer: This is not the official Philippine Football Team scout, and the comments made by the author and the readers are solely based on personal opinion.

Reminding you that X is zero. I don’t know why 0 won’t appear in the tables.

Group A

	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	+/-	Pts
Syria	4	4	X	X	13	4	9	12
China PR	4	2	1	1	13	2	11	7
Philippines	4	2	1	1	8	7	1	7
Maldives	4	1	X	3	3	9	-6	3
Guam	4	X	X	4	1	16	-15	X

The Philippine Football Team is grouped with Syria, Guam, China PR and Maldives in the Round 2 of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifying Round.

If the Azkals will at least place second in the group, it will go to the next round, and there would be another draw or new schedule of games, this time against better or experienced teams.

In this group, Only China has the experience in the FIFA World Cup once in 2002 held in South Korea and Japan.