Azkals ready vs Nepal; tickets for Tuesday’s home friendly still available

PH-NEPAL FOOTBALL MATCH At the pre-match press conference held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila on October 10, 2011: (from left) Nepal National Football skipper Sagar Thapa , Nepal head coach Graham Paul Roberts, Philippines head coach Hans Michael Weiss, Azkals Rob Gier and Jason De Jong.

MANILA, Philippines—Bannering the best assembled squad yet, the Philippines is ready to take on Nepal on Tuesday in a Fifa-sanctioned international friendly at home in more than a decade.

With the Fil-foreigners in full force for the Azkals, head coach Michael Weiss is expecting a taut match versus Nepal, another football country raring to get as much exposure and experience as possible.

“They [Nepal] have had very good preparation. We have to be careful about their counter-attack. It will be a tight match,” said Weiss in a pre-match press conference at the Ninoy Aquino stadium Monday.

Game time is 7 p.m. as the Philippines will have European-tested players like Jason De Jong, Rob Gier, Ray Jonsson, goal keeper Neil Etheridge, Jerry Lucena, Dennis Cagara and Paul Mulders, along with locals Chieffy Caligdong, Aly Borromeo and James and Phil Younghusband.

“We’ve watched a couple of games of Nepal. We have a strategy we would stick to. Hopefully we did our homework well,” said Gier, who is seeing action again after missing the Long Teng Cup and the friendly against Singapore.

Unlike in the Fifa World Cup qualifiers last July where tickets sold like hot pancakes, tickets for Tuesday’s clash at the Rizal Memorial Stadium are still available a day before the match via Ticketworld.

Prices are pegged at P3,000 and P2,000 for the center grandstand, P1,500 and P1,000 for the upper and lower grandstand while the center and side bleachers are at P500 and P300, respectively.

Ticketworld will also be selling tickets at the venue as early as 10 a.m. Tuesday.

“The crowd won’t be as big as the World Cup qualifiers, but we’re hoping the Filipino fans will give the team another warm welcome,” said Cathy Revilla, Philippine Football Federation’s Local Organizing Committee coordinator.