Philippines – Pinoy Soccer

Philippines Football Seeing Enormous Growth in the Last Few Years

Football has seen a sharp increment within the Philippines after a long time, as have interest and association within the region. There are many reasons why football has ended up more well-known within the Philippines, counting the victory of the national group, grassroots advancement activities, and extended media scope. The Philippine national football squad has seen surprising victory after a long time, after their first-ever qualification for the Asia Cup.

Iain Ramsay Impressed by Sven Goran Eriksson

Iain Ramsay lauded praise on Philippines manager Sven Goran Eriksson for his presence at the Asian Cup in January. The Australian forward used to play for the likes of Adelaide United, Sydney FC, and Melbourne City. However, he was able to the present Philippines at the Asian Cup due to his Filipino roots. There has been a lot of positive news for Philippines soccer in the last couple of years and one them was the appointment of Eriksson as the manager a couple of years ago. Even though Philippines left the Asian Cup without any victory, there were multiple positives for the national team at this tournament.

Ramsay did not feature regularly at this tournament and was on the fringes of the starting line-up. However, the experience of working with the former England got seems to have left a big impression on the 31-year-old.Ramsay claims that it was important for the Philippines to qualify for the Asian Cup as it improves the profile of the football team in the country. It presents a great way to get new fans and talented player away from other sports. The football Federation in the country has been doing a lot of effort in order to improve the popularity of the sport and the quality of the national team. One of the chief efforts was to bring Eriksson as the manager back in October, and he has been able to get the Azkals success in the Suzuki Cup apart from qualifying for the Asian Cup.
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Philippines National Team Earn Draw with Oman

Philippines were able to get a hard-earned 1-1 draw with Oman in a recent friendly match. After having been regularly considered as the whipping boys, it was a major result for Philippines as a whole. The result can also have greater implications for the nation in the upcoming group stages of the AFC Champions Cup. Philippines have lost only once in the last five games across all competitions and they head into the opening game against Singapore in a positive frame of mind. Despite being one of the oldest football Association’s in Asia after being founded in 1907, Philippines have not been able to make much of an impact in the Asian football.

The popularity of other sports like basketball and boxing has resulted in football being downgraded to a lower level in terms of Philippine sports. This has directly affected the quality of the players who have been coming through the ranks. Since 2000s, however, there has been a significant change with overseas talent – who have Filipino lineage in their blood – being accepted into the national team. Players who were unable to feature for popular national teams have decided to opt for Philippines due to their lineage. Some of the popular names to have gone down this road are James Younghusband and Phil Younghusband – both players have been associated with the Chelsea youth system in the past.
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