ROAD TO SEMIFINALS

2019 SEA Games

After to have watching 18 of the 25 football men matches already played, and having analyzed all the 11 Nat´l teams, from the first games we could have bet on the potential four finalists of these SEA Games.

In only 5 lines we will give some, only some of the main characteristics of each one of those teams. 

CAMBODIA: a cheerful team that enjoys playing football, with very young players with a high spirit of sacrifice and brave when they build up the attacks from the back. They learned to suffer. From the collective, its individualities may surprise.

INDONESIA: a team that makes a religion of the compensatory movements in transitions. They defend intensively and launch the attack occupying spaces to achieve positional/numerical superiority. Through the character of its Coach, his players can find the enough inspiration.

MYANMAR: a "treacherous" team; it "sleeps" the game and changes furiously its pace when it recovers the possession of the ball through an effective, coordinated and high pressing (collective pressure). An enviable physical condition. A team that nobody wants to face.

VIETNAM: an integral roster that owns technical, tactical, physical & mental capacities that every compact team must possess. Playing in depth, creating conditions for shooting, defending through fast runbacks and numerical superiority on the flanks. The great candidate.

As we see, in the above lines, we did not discover the weak points of the teams. That is the job of their Coaches..........

An accurate analysis is the starting point for any success. 

Viva el Fútbol!

CASTE, FOOTBALL, SACRIFICE

2019 SEA Games

As professional football Coaches, we see, watch and analyze the matches and trajectories of the teams in order to discover new tactical trends, technical and physical progresses, what we would do as Coaches against teams that play with one or another style. The feelings here do not play.

Nevertheless when those players are Under 22 players we should detect on what footballers a country will be based for a very next future, and knowing and be aware that these players are the result of the last years (at least 10) of work in the development of young promises. Of course we are talking exclusively about the players who grew in their mothers country. A very large majority of the eleven participating countries in the SEA Games base their teams on players that grew and were developed in their own countries.

Yesterday we had to choose between going to Biñan to see a match that the Philippines would win by several goals and another in which the two teams, yes, both of them, played for an only one ticket to the semifinals. The second part of the Cambodians against the Malays was to frame. Football, caste and sacrifice. And that's where the hand of a Coach is seen, in the corrections done in the locker room, and without looking for advantages through continuous protesting to the referees.

At the end, my choice was correct. All that a football game demands, on and off the field, we lived at Rizal. Very much to learn. Viva el Fútbol!

At the end, my choice was correct. All that a football game demands, on and off the field, we lived at Rizal. Very much to learn. Viva el Fútbol!

Chimera, Dream, Illusion

2019 SEA Games

The Philippine U22 Men is closer than ever to its qualification for semifinals which would be an undoubted success. Without a clear style of play, until now it was enough with the support of the fans and the courage of his players but.....to score many goals against Timor Leste, it would need more football, warm heart and cold mind. Otherwise, the qualification will just be a chimera and the illusion to fill the stadium vs Vietnam, just an unattainable dream.

With a high pressure from the kick off, stopping the Timor Leste fast transitions defense-attack through the interception of their deep passes between lines, preparing especially set plays (air balls), they could be the keys to neutralize the shy offensive attempts of the visitors and to keep blank sheet in the PHI goal. Timor will want to leave the competition showing a better image of what they showed until this moment.

The other part of the history; it would be essential to regain the possession of the ball as close as possible to the box of Timor, in order to play direct with not so much combinations for which the PHI is not so much used to and to avoid unneeded lost of balls in the own half.

Any success (in football in in life) demands effort and sacrifice. As Filipinos say, "We Win As One"........

2019 SEA Games

The Philippines "owe a dinner" to Myanmar.

Myanmar has done the job for the Philippines with its 2-1 win over Cambodia.

From now on, the Philippines will have to worry about scoring a considerable quantity of goals (and more than 4) to Timor Leste without any chance, and to keep the blank sheet at its own goal.

We watched in Biñan an amusing game, playing at high intensity and with forced and unforced mistakes that defined the battle. The goalkeepers shared the mistakes equally.

WE Coaches should be flexible with our approaches according to the circumstances of the game, unless we have a team of players so extraordinary that with an unique style in attack and defense can overcome any opponent.

Myanmar, being loyal to his style, applied a high pressure on the Cambodians and when it regained the possession of the ball, furious launching of counterattacks playing one touch. Cambodia tried to play the ball in a prolix way from the back all the time, something that under the coordinated pressure of Myanmar seemed suicide. Losing balls in one's own field could have sentenced the final result even earlier in the game.

Myanmar has substitutes that can even raise the performance of the first eleven, something Cambodia lacks; also from the benches the games are won.

Moral: in the tactical understanding of the game that players own and which allow the team's style to be adapted to what a game requires, it is based the Myanmar's success, already qualified for the semifinals.

2019 SEA Games

Vietnam 2-1 Indonesia

A ground to air missile from the left foot of Nguyen Hoang Duc (14) decided a high intensity match and a game with contrasted styles.

One of them (INA) looking for "stealing" balls and then to launch furious counter attacks while that its rival (VIE) trying in amplitude, in depth, air balls, combinative play, a whole arsenal of tactical technical resources supported by a great physical deployment.

A beauty of match that could have been an advanced final, although there is still room for some surprises.

Long live to football!