Thanks Coach Weiss for Everything!

Azkals team manager Dan Palami gave the team’s German coach Michael Weiss credit for helping the team reach new heights of achievement in the 12 months that Weiss had handled the national football squad.
“If we go by results then I think he has given us the results that we wanted,” said Palami. “He got us to the qualifiers and the main draw (of the AFC Challenge Cup) and we go to third.”
“It's historic already that we got into the final eight and even more historic with the third place achievement,” he said during Tuesday’s PSA Forum.
The Challenge Cup campaign is regarded as the most notable moment under Weiss.
The Azkals won 4-2 on aggregate over Mongolia, then placed second to Palestine in the qualifying round in Myanmar over a year ago to earn a spot in the main draw of the recently-concluded tournament in Kathmandu, Nepal.

From there, the Filipino booters overcame an opening day loss to eventual champion North Korea to reach the semis. They suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 defeat to Tajikistan before salvaging third with a 4-2 victory over Palestine.
Weiss also steered the Azkals to the second of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers last July. It beat Sri Lanka in the first round before bowing to Kuwait.
The most disappointing stint for Weiss was when the Philippine U-23 team won just a single game in the Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta last November. Regardless, Palami is satisfied with the overall result.

“Judging from what I've seen, I think it slowly took a while for the player and the coach to really have the cohesion that we wanted, but I see that they're slowly evolving into a very good combination,” said Palami.

Weiss is Proud

MANILA, Philippines – German coach Michael Weiss is beaming with pride over the accomplishments of his boys in the just concluded 2012 AFC Challenge Cup.

The Philippine Azkals finished third in the biennial tournament, a first in Philippine football.

"I would like to congratulate my team. They showed fighting spirit. I am very proud and want to take this opportunity to thank Filipino supporters for their kind support,” Weiss said in Goal Nepal.

The Azkals were the underdogs of the tournament, having been clustered in the “group of death” together with defending champion North Korea and former titlists India and Tajikistan.

After losing to the fleet-footed Koreans in their opening game, the Filipino booters overcame adversity by pulling upsets against India and Tajikistan to barge into the semifinals.

The Philippine side may have conceded to perennial finalist Turkmenistan, but it was able to engage a tough Palestinian squad in a spirited match for third place.

"The match was a thriller. Do or die. I think we deserved this place (third position)," said Weiss, the former coach of J-League team Purple Sanga Kyoto.

“I am very proud to be a part in this development of Filipino football,” he added.

Courtesy of: abs-cbn.com 

Hooray for Coach Weiss

HAPPY 47TH BIRTHDAY COACH WEISS!!!

Coach Weiss: How we doing?

  We all must be wondering what Coach Weiss thinks about how the Azkals lost against the U-23 team of Uzbekistan last Saturday, which was quite a shame really.
  The real problem was that, in the second half of the game, the Azkals stopped playing offense and started adding on to the defense, which is pretty stupid really.
  If I were to ask you "Which would you like better? To score more goals, or to add defense on your goal so your enemy won't score?", what would you answer? Well, if you asked me that I would say make more goals! But still, we can't blame Weiss on anything because he really is trying his best for the team and working extremely hard just to get things in tow.
  "We fielded younger players in the first half and a lack of coordination and a few mistakes from us got punished severely and quickly, but the spirit of the group was great." he says. "Our problem is we don't have enough training time together. We have to link better and there must be support from the midfielders."

  Which was pretty weird for him to say because, James Younghusband, who usually plays right midfield was actually controlling the defense. I think he was playing for central defense, really.
  But anyway, I do hope that the Azkals do better and win their next game against the Australian team on February 16, at 11 pm. Be sure to watch and tune into Studio 23 for that! 

  Happy Valentines' Day everyone!