The Philippine Azkals during their Middle East friendly match series. | Photo from the PFF
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Philippine Men’s National Football Team or the Philippine Azkals will face Chinese-Taipei anew in the FIFA International Match Windows in September.
The Azkals also hosted the Taiwanese national football team last June at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in a back-to-back friendlies with Nepal.
Their match ended in a 2-3 loss in favor of the Taiwanese squad.
In September, their match will be under the FIFA International Match Windows. The said game will be held on September 8, 2023 at the National Stadium in Kaohsiung.
After that, the Azkals will face Afghanistan on September 12, 2023 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila.
The Azkals’ regular friendlies abroad and in Manila improved their FIFA world rankings from 136th last April to No. 135 in June. It can further improve given they’re set to embark in another friendlies next month.
The back-to-back friendlies against Chinese Taipei and Afghanistan is part of the Azkals’ preparation for the joint FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 preliminary qualifiers in November.
The Azkals are grouped with Vietnam, Iraq, Indonesia, and Brunei Darussalam in the upcoming joint qualifiers.
Also, the Azkals revealed their official roster for the upcoming friendlies is headed by team captain and goalkeeper Neil Etheridge. He is joined by Patrick Deyto, Kevin Ray Hansen, Jesse Thomas Curran, Daisuke Sato, Michael Kempter, John Patrick Strauss, Kevin Ingreso, Dylan De Bruycker, Gerrit Holtmann, Santiago Rublico, Christian Rontini, Jose Elmer Porteria, Manuel Ott, Mike Ott, Sandro Reyes, Amani Aguinaldo, Patrick Reichelt, Bienvenido Maranon, Jens Rasmussen, Carlos De Murga, Joshua Jake Grommen, Enrique Linares, and Oskari Kekkonen.
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