THE Philippines begins its AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 campaign on Wednesday night against host Singapore with motivation to prove doubts about their chances to make the semifinals wrong.
Azkals in Suzuki Cup 2020
Head coach Stewart Hall on Tuesday said during the virtual pre-match press conference he has been using the doubts as a motivational tool to the Azkals, a team that reached the semifinals in four out of the last five editions.
Hall recalled the first press conference he did over the weekend of someone asking to react on the ‘low expectations’ on the squad mainly because of the unavailability of some of the players in the tournament.
“And obviously, I remember that very consciously about how that was worded,” said Hall, who has been working closely with Scott Cooper in this AFF Suzuki Cup campaign. “And I thought that’s a strange statement really.”
“When you look at the history of the Philippines in those tournament and somebody saying that we realize that in the Philippines, there’s no pressure on this squad because of the low expectations because of the people that are here, again I use that as motivation to the players. I said to the players that ‘You’ve been written off in the Philippines.’ They think we are here to just make the numbers. I think it was a great motivational tool,” said Hall.
Twenty-seven players were called up for the Azkals campaign in Singapore, but names such as Neil Etheridge are not in the line-up with the AFF Suzuki Cup not falling on the Fifa international window.

Other Azkals mainstays such as Jarvey Gayoso and Manny Ott are dealing with injuries although some of the core players in skipper Stephan Schrock are still in the team.
Hall doesn’t see any problem with the composition of the squad as this is a perfect time for the others to take the cudgels and prove their worth in the Azkals.
“That’s no problem for us. We are about 27 players short of what we would consider to be a strongest squad. You can be disrespectful to the players here and say that this is a ‘C squad’ or you can say to the players here it’s a fantastic opportunity for everybody so go out and take it, maximize the chances that you are going to get and that’s the way I want to look at it,” said Hall.
Heading into the match against Singapore, Hall looks to capitalize the Azkals playing their first game and having already scouted the host country in their 3-0 win over Myanmar last Sunday.
The match is at 8:30 p.m. local and Philippine standard time to be held at the National Stadium in Kallang, Singapore.
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