Little Azkals to battle Chelsea FC on Jan. 25

AFTER the cancellation of their three friendly matches against Singapore last December, the Little Azkals, or the Philippine Under 14 national football team, will go up against the Chelsea FC U14 squad on Jan. 25 in Manila.

Little Azkals team manager Richard Montayre said Chelsea FC’s management wanted the match earlier but he had to move it due to the Sinulog festivities. They also needed time to get the permission of the boys’ respective schools as they want team members coming from Visayas and Mindanao to be there at least two days earlier for team bonding and practice.

They would not have needed to be in Manila early if the training camp scheduled last December had pushed through, Montayre said.

The training camp, which was scheduled from Dec. 26 to Jan. 6, was cancelled due to typhoon Quinta.

The Chelsea FC U14, who is now in the country, had come from Korea and will be leaving the country on Jan. 28.

Aside from the Little Azkals, the visiting team will also be seeing action against other junior teams in Manila.

Montayre said that they are still negotiating on the venue either at the Rizal Memorial Stadium or in Alabang.

He added that the Little Azkals lineup will most likely be the same as that in Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-14 Festival of Football (FOF) in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. /CORRESPONDENT MARS G. ALISON