Showing its progress, the Philippine Under-22 team bound for the Southeast Asian Games showed how good it can be by scoring a 1-0 victory over Green Archers United on Sunday night in its debut in the Copa Paulino Alcantara at Aboitiz pitch in Lipa City.
Fil-Nigerian striker Chima Uzoka headed home a corner off a Jerome Marzan delivery in the 50th minute as the Young Azkals secured maximum points to take the lead in Group A, after Mendiola and Ceres Negros battled to a 2-2 draw earlier.
Serbian Goran Milojevic is the man responsible in molding this younger generation of Azkals.
The Young Azkals are using the Copa as the main tournament for their SEA Games buildup. They face Ceres on Wednesday in their toughest test yet in the competition.
Aside from the current pool, the Young Azkals will be reinforced by two overaged players for the SEA Games, one of whom will likely be national senior team captain Stephan Schrock.
The team will be grouped with Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Timor Leste in the SEA Games starting Nov. 25.
“The team has worked very hard and our homegrown players have actually improved significantly over the last two months,” said manager Dan Palami.