Azkals ready vs Kyrgyzstan in the return friendly

Thomas Dooley and Aleksandr Krestinin shook hands as Phil Younghusband, Pavel Sidorenko and Valery Kashuba look on.
By Kevin Estrada

MANILA -- The Azkals are looking forward to the Suzuki Cup with huge confidence when they face the media on the eve of their final friendly with Kyrgyzstan on their pre-match press conference earlier this morning at the Century Park Hotel.

It was no less than skipper Phil Younghusband who said that, noting that they are on the heels of back-to-back home defeats in October and is looking to end the streak when they seek to defeat the Central Asians tomorrow

"Kyrgyzstan will be a test and a strong team to play against, so it'll put us in we'll know where we are after this game," the country's leading goalscorer said to open the proceedings.


Head Coach Thomas Dooley echoed Younghusband's opening statement and added that was happy to have this game.

"This is what we want. We learned a lot from the last two games, and we would to improve obviously for this game and most importantly, the Suzuki Cup," the American said, added that the Central Asians are more stronger than Bahrain and North Korea.

Afterwards, Dooley is confident that Roland Muller and Patrick Deyto tomorrow can emulate what Neil Etheridge did at Bishkek last September.

"Both the NoKor and the Bahrain game are a learning experience. They boasted a good job. I'm happy with both of our goalkeepers and I'm not concerned about that," he concluded.

Kyrgyzstan manager Aleksandr Krestinin thanked the hospitality extended to them and acknowledged the strength of the hosts.

But midfielder Pavel Sidorenko wants to know the press what the result on this game. "We only need one goal to win this game," Sidorenko quoted.

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