THE Philippines hosts Myanmar on Tuesday night in its first assignment in the 2026 ASEAN Hyundai Cup at the New Clark City Athletics Stadium in Capas, Tarlac.
Kick-off is at 6 p.m.
The Philippines is seeking to make it deep again in the biennial competition, a landmark achievement highlighted by a 2-1 win over Thailand in the first leg last December 27, 2024 where Kike Linares scored a header on stoppage time.
Thailand, however, came back in the second leg with a 3-1 win over the Philippines after extra time on December 30, 2024 to advance to the finals in the tournament, then known as the Mitsubishi Electric Cup.
The Philippines is also fresh off the heels of falling short of qualifying in the AFC Asian Cup last April. It tied Tajikistan in the group stage of the third and final round, but Tajikistan progressed, winning the goal difference tiebreak by just one goal.
READ: Cuadrat leaning on PMNT's youth entering ASEAN Hyundai Cup
Unfortunately, PMNT won’t have most of the players from that Asian Cup qualifiers with the Hyundai Cup not part of the FIFA international window, meaning clubs are not obligated to release players outside this time period.
Leading the list of players that are not on the team are Bundesliga players Gerrit Holtmann and Raphael Obermair, and Norway-based Bjorn Kristensen, the top scorer of the team in the last AFF tournament with three goals.
In a tweet last July 17, former PMNT player Patrick Reichelt expressed disappointment about the situation as nearly all of the countries participating in the Hyundai Cup have their best possible roster.
“Other than basically every other country participating in the upcoming AFF, PMNFT, the majority of our player pool is based outside our local league making a quick or timely announcement of a squad impossible as we are dealing with many difficulties with the clubs to get our players released in a non-FIFA window, more so a time where every team is going through their preseason for the upcoming year,” Reichelt wrote.
“We appreciate the cooperation of a few but also are absolutely disappointed in dealing with most of the clubs releasing their local talent to their respective national teams but blocking Filipino players from participating. Don’t get me wrong we respect the timing being unfortunate for clubs but the inconsistency in their decisions in regard of their local players compared to our players is very very wrong,” Reichelt also wrote.
With most of the top senior players out, Philippines coach Carlos Cuadrat will be leaning on a young team for this edition of the tournament, including top midfielder Sandro Reyes, who scored two goals during the previous AFF tournament.
“We now have only two players over the age of 30, while the rest of the squad is very young,” Cuadrat said during the prematch press conference on Monday.
“It will be a good test for us. The players have trained very well and understand the ideas we want to implement on the pitch. We hope to produce a good performance.”
The Philippines faced Myanmar during a friendly match as part of the Tri-Nations Tournament last June 9 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, winning convincingly, 5-1, but Cuadrat insisted the AFF Hyundai Cup team is different from the squad from one month ago.
“We will field an even younger team than the one that played in the Tri-Nations Tournament,” Cuadrat said.
Myanmar looks to bounce back after a 2-1 loss to Malaysia last Saturday despite playing at home in Yangon and scoring the first goal in the 10th minute courtesy of Myat Kaung Khant.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
