Little Azkals open bid in AFC U-13 today

THE Philippine Under 13 (RP U13) tagged as the “Little Azkals” will open their campaign in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U13 Festival of Football today.

The team is composed of Major Dean Ebarle of the Abellana National School (ANS); Mario Lorenzo Ceniza of Springdale; Moiselle Angelo Alforque and Vincent Lobitos of Don Bosco Technology Center (DBTC); Kintaro Miyagi of Bright Academy; Lawrence Colina of the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF); Lorenzo Genco; Yared Anton, Ian Daniel Eamague, Kyric Parao and Henry Hamdam of the Negros Oriental Football Association (NORFA); Mason Trent Vergara of Dumaguete City; Darios Diamante and Javier Romero-Salas of Davao FA; Sebastian Patangan of Dipolog FA; Jeremaih Borlongan and Dimitri Lionel Limbo of Cagayan de Oro-Misamis Oriental FA; Harel Dayan, Josh Albert Miller, John William Abraham, Ray Vincent Sanciangco and Marco Alessandro Casambre of the Rizal Football Association (RIFA).

First up for the Little Azkals will be Laos and Singapore this morning and Indonesia in the afternoon.

Team manager Richard Montayre explained that teams will play a total of 40 minutes with the first 11 of each team playing in the first 20 and the second 11 playing in the remaining 20 minutes.

On June 4 will be a skills test and matches will resume on Sunday and Monday.

The Little Azkals coaching staff is made up of Oliver Colina as head coach, Eleazar Toledo as assistant coach, Noel Marcaida as goalkeeping coach and Eliezer Fabroada as coach instruct.

Marcaida said the target for the Little Azkals is to better the winless performance last year’s RP U14. /CORRESPONDENT MARS G. ALISON