DESPITE their short training but buoyed by the rousing outing of their Pinay counterparts in the last Asian Women’s World Cup, British coach Stewart is hoping the national Under-23 squad can hit its stride early when it battles Timor Leste today at the start of the AFF Under-23 Youth Football Championship in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Bracketed in Group A, the Filipino booters kick off their campaign at the Mordok Techo National Stadium at 4 p.m. (5 p.m. Manila time) against the Timorese, virtually the same squad the Azkals whipped 7-0 in last December’s AFF Suzuki Cup group stage in Singapore.
The other group match pits host Cambodia against comebacking Brunei at 7 p.m. (8 p.m. Manila time) also at the same venue.
The group topnotcher after the single-round series will advance to the semifinals while the second-placed team could also get in depending on its relative placing with the other runners-up in Group B and C.
“That Timor Leste squad in the Suzuki Cup is also virtually the same team we will face here tomorrow. It’s a good game to start with but we expect it to be a hard game, meaning we have to step up our level right away,” Hall, who also coached the Azkals in Singapore, said yesterday in an online pre-match press conference.
“We have to hit the ground running and that is good for us.”
