BANGKOK – The campaign of the Philippine men’s football team in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup suffered a big blow Saturday night as coach Michael Weiss has been suspended for the Azkals’ next game against Vietnam.
The suspension came about after the German mentor was sent off in the final few minutes of the Azkals’ opening game against the Thailand War Elephants for unnecessarily throwing a ball at an injured Thai booter who was lying down in a dead-ball situation.
The Azkals lost the match, 2-1.
Weiss said the move wasn’t intentional on his part.
“I just wanted to roll the ball, but I (ended up) throwing it. It was not intentionally to hit the player. Why would I do that?” said Weiss after the match at the Rajamangala National Stadium.
But the Azkals coach failed to hide his feelings against the game officials, whom he believed was being a bit unfair to the team during the highly-emotional match
“I felt in several situations we were not correctly charged,” Weiss further explained the root of his outburst. “I found that quite unfair.
“But we don’t want to complain against the referees. I think we didn’t play at our best and we needed that game to understand the rhythm.”
Weiss won't be around when the Azkals take on the Vietnamese on Tuesday.
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