EIGHT Fil-foreign booters are coming to Manila within the month to try out for spots in in the Philippine Azkals national football team.
National team manager Dan Palami said the players will arrive from the United States, Germany and Sweden as the Azkals start to gear up this week for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifying matches.
The Azkals start their climb to the World Cup with a match against Sri Lanka on June 28.
�We have invited these players from the US and Europe. They are coming over for inspection and to try it out for the team,� said Palami.
The Filipino-German players include those whom coach Hans Weiss spotted when he attended the recent Nagold Cup tournament in Germany.
Weiss identified the Fil-German players as Patrick Reichelt, a striker from the Cottbus second team who made a total of five goals in the kickfest; Oliver Poetschke and Kevin Ingreso, who is also the skipper of Hamburg�s Under-19 squad.
Weiss said there were a total of 21 Fil-Germans who saw action for the Philippine under-20 team, which placed second in the Nagold event.
The Fil-American players, on the other hand, include those who attended the tryouts conducted by team skipper Aly Borromeo and teammate Anton del Rosario in Daly City, California. Among them are OJ Porteria and James Rochilitz, who also showed interest in trying out for the national under-23 team.
Palami said if these players fail to make the cut for the World Cup qualifiers, they could be included in the national under-23 team, which will see action in the coming Southeast Asian Games in November.
The Azkals are set to begin practices this week at the pitch of the Alabang Country Club, before moving on to the newly refurbished Rizal Memorial pitch, where they will clash with Sri Lanka on July 3. Peter Atencio
Manila Standard Today
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