There’s little time to prepare the Philippine Azkals national men’s football team for the coming Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup qualifiers in Mongolia.
And coach Thomas Dooley, who is finding inspiration in his coming wedding next month, will just have to do with whoever will be available when it gets going from June 8 to 14 in Mongolia.
The present lineup will include Birmingham City goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, J2 League defender Jefferson Tabinas, Bundesliga standout Gerrit Holtmann and Johor Darul Ta’zim FC duo Bienvenido Marañon and Carli de Murga.
Longtime skipper Stephan Schrock won’t be around as Dooley needed to cut him off as he won’t be available for the training that has been going on since Monday at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in Adriatico St., Manila, Manila.
“It’s very difficult. Because we don’t have a lot of time,” said Dooley.
Also included in the callup were Anthony Pinthus, Kevin Ray Hansen, and Quincy Kammeraad, who are the other goalkeepers in the squad.
Amani Aguinaldo, Diego Bardanca, Daisuke Sato, Miguel Mendoza, Jaime Rosquillo, and Matthew Nierras are the other members of the team.
Dooley has put the likes of young players like Dennis Villanueva, Oskari Kekkonen, Mike and Manuel Ott, Jesse Curran, OJ Porteria, Patrick Reichelt, Sandro Reyes, Dylan De Bruycker, Oliver Bias, and Dennis Chung in the midfield.
The 61-year-old Dooley said he is happy and inspired in coming back after coaching teams in Vietnam and Malaysia.
Dooley, who is set to marry his Filipina girlfriend next month, returned to the Azkals a few days after Scott Cooper resigned from his Philippine national team coaching job.
The Azkals have three scorers, namely Mark Hartmann, Ivan Ouano, Jhan-Jhan Melliza and Kenshiro Daniels.