Top-caliber coach meets Azkals and likes what he saw

After taking charge of England’s World Cup team with high-profile players like David Beckham and Steven Gerrard in tow and calling the shots for several successful clubs in Europe and other parts of Asia, Swede coach Sven Goran Eriksson embraces the new challenge and the pressure of helping an aspiring side like the Philippine Azkals to reach new heights.

“I want to do something a little bit different from what I’ve done before,” shared Eriksson, who will be the guiding voice when the Azkals try to rewrite history in the Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup next month and go for a strong debut in the AFC Asian Cup in January 2019.

“I have some experience in football in Asia, Australia, Korea, Japan and China but I don’t have experience in this part of Asia. But football is more or less the same all over the world; if you can do it in Europe, you can do it in Asia as well. And that’s the target – to do as well as possible initially in the Suzuki Cup,” he added in a press conference also attended by Azkals senior football advisor Scott Cooper, team manager Dan Palami, and advertising manager Jun Miras.

The 70-year-old Swede met the nationals over the weekend and said he likes what he saw.

“From the few training sessions we had, we have very good players, who are dedicated and who work very hard so I think the future is bright,” he said.

For the Suzuki Cup that begins with a home game against Singapore on Nov. 13 at Panaad Park and Stadium, Eriksson said the primary goal is to surpass the team’s previous best showing of semifinal qualifier.

“I think the pressure is on the whole team, the federation, the coaching staff and myself to try to do better in the Suzuki Cup than Phl has done before; that means at least reaching the finals. Of course, there’s pressure but we’re going to try and we all look forward to it,” said the top-caliber coach, who will be assisted by Cooper.

Further down the road, the Azkals look to make their milestone stint in the Asian Cup a memorable one.

“I could easily say (the target is to) win it. I don’t know if it’s realistic to think that for a first time. But if you want to speak about the Asian Cup, we want to go through (to the knockout rounds). Go farther, which is not easy as you have (as groupmates) South Korea and China, not easy teams to beat. But that’s too far away, we have other things to do before that,” he said.

And that is, to form the best possible squad from the pool of 29 for the Suzuki Cup opening salvo against the Lions next week.