ALBERT Capellas begins his stint as Philippine men’s football coach when the national squad competes in the King’s Cup in Thailand.
PMNT faces host Thailand on October 11 in Songkhla in the competition that will also see Syria and Tajikistan also playing against each other.
The winners of the two matches will play in the final, while the losers will battle for third place.
It will be the first competition of Capellas since being named as head coach last September.
The Spanish coach has a resume that includes being part of the FC Barcelona program as B assistant, and handling the youth program of the club in different roles.
He also coached renowned players including Andres Iniesta, who recently retired at age 40.
READ: Albert Capellas takes over as PH Men's Football coach
Capellas said he is out to put in a system that encourages more attacks to create scoring chances.
“We want to play more from the back to build up the game. We want to avoid long balls. We want better ball positions. We want to run more and we want to create more chances,” said Capellas during a recent press conference.
“We wanted to play offensive and create chances. It’s my job to find the right players to achieve this. I will look for players who are highly-skilled, smart, and fast who can handle the pressure because to play that way, we need courage,” said Capellas.
Called up for the Kings’ Cup are goalkeepers Patrick Deyto, Kevin Mendoza, and Quincy Kammeraad, defenders Amani Aguinaldo, Joshua Grommen, Michael Kempter, Christian Rontini, Santi Rublico, Jefferson Tabinas, and Paul Tabinas, midfielders Zico Bailey, Kevin Ingreso, Manny Ott, Patrick Reichelt, Sandro Reyes, Patrick Strauss, and Scott Woods.
Gerrit Holtmann marks his return to the PMNT up front, with Dylan Demuynck, Bjorn Kristensen, Alex Monis, and Sebastian Rasmussen joining him.
Jarvey Gayoso and Audie Menzi were the recent call-ups in the team, taking over the spot of Kevin Ingreso and Jesper Nyholm due to injuries.
PMNT skipper Neil Etheridge will not be seeing action in the Kings’ Cup.
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