Azkals’ World Cup chances promising − team manager

After their back-to-back victories, including a 2-1 shocker over a Bahrain side, Philippine Azkals team manager Dan Palami has described their chances of qualifying to the Russia World Cup in 2018 as “promising.”

With the team’s fine start, Palami is also hoping that “everything will fall into place” as they bid to join the ranks of worldclass beaters in the biggest sporting spectacle.

In an article that came out in FIFA. com, it described the Azkals as “fastprogressing” following their win over Bahrain.

Five days after beating Bahrain, the Azkals blanked Yemen, 2-0.

Palami cited teams like South Korea, Japan and Australia and Middle East squads such as the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Iraq as powerhouses in Asia, one of the six FIFA continental zones where the qualifying rounds are being held. The other zones are Europe, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Africa, and Oceania.

From a large field of over 200 countries, the ongoing qualifying process will reduce the competition to just 32 countries for the World Cup Finals.

“These Asian teams are always expected to figure prominently in the qualifiers,” said Palami.

He admitted there’s plenty of work ahead “and we need some luck along the way to make the next round.”

“But, as they say, anything’s possible,” he added.

Crowd support will play a very important role in the team’s success, so Palami is asking help from sports fans to cheer for the Azkals when they face Uzbekistan on Sept. 8 at the Philippine Sports Stadium.