Azkals up close: Team manager Dan Palami

MANILA, Philippines – Football is alive and well in the country, thanks to the popularity of the Philippine Azkals.
But behind the resurgence of the sport in this basketball-crazy nation is a no-nonsense Azkals team manager named Dan Palami.
Palami, the current Leyte Football Association president, is credited for assembling the core of the Azkals team we came to know.
He became part of the Philippine Azkals in late 2009 when the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) asked him to manage the team.
“Nobody wanted the job… I mean nobody wanted to handle a team that was losing

Palami threatens to crack whip on ‘popular’ Azkals

By Cedelf P. Tupas


As the Philippine football team gears for its biggest match yet in the next two months, Azkals manager Dan Palami yesterday said they will be taking a tougher stand on disciplining players who may lose their focus because of their new-found popularity.

Seeking to sustain their impressive run of results that started with a semifinal appearance in the AFF Suzuki Cup last December, the Azkals began training for their first round qualifying clash for the 2014 Fifa World Cup against Sri Lanka last week at the Alabang Country Club.

The team has been thrust into the limelight because of its achievements, but Palami has been quick to remind the Azkals of their goals.

“We are entering a different level of competition and now more than ever, there is a bigger responsibility to be more focused,” said Palami, who is ready to risk dropping players just to drive home his point.

“Nobody is bigger than the team. Nobody should feel they are indispensable,” he said. “We are willing to take a step back (by dropping players), just to make significant steps forward.”

With the camp in Duren, Germany, just a month away, the battle for spots in the squad is expected to intensify in the coming weeks with several foreign-based players seeking to impress coach Hans Michael Weiss.

Among the players who are currently training with the squad are Filipino-British striker Chad Gould, a veteran of several international tournaments, and Filipino-Australian Leigh Gunn.

Also joining the workouts are Filipino-Americans Nathaniel Burkey and Neil Ignacio and Filipino-Iranian Misagh Bahadoran, who is among the leading scorers in the first division of the United Football League.

Palami said they will only bring 23 to 25 players in the two-week camp in Germany and the players’ performance in the workouts will be heavily considered in the selection process.


Inq

Phl Azkals to get 'feel' of home turf

By Olmin Leyba (The Philippine Star)

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Azkals hope to immediately use the Rizal Memorial pitch to fully capitalize on the homefield advantage in the facility, site of their July 3 home game against Sri Lanka in the 2014 Fifa World Cup Asian qualifiers.

According to team manager Dan Palami, the plan is to hold practices at the refurbished pitch for a week from May 16 to 22 before heading to Iloilo for a friendly game and Cebu for their team-building sessions in the last week of May. By June 1, they intend to resume practices at Rizal Memorial right until their leave for Germany on June 12 for a two-week training camp.

“We’re hoping that by the 16th, we could already do our practices at Rizal Memorial, so we can familiarize ourselves with the pitch and get a general feeling on the area,” Palami told The STAR yesterday. “We really want to take advantage of the home game by getting practices in the stadium.

The Azkals are scheduled to play Sri Lanka on hostile grounds first, on June 29, before they host the second match on July 3 in Manila.

The football pitch at the decades-old Rizal Stadium has already been renovated by the facility’s owner, the Philippine Sports Commission through an agreement with De La Salle University, but would still need some work to make international standard.

“The pitch is not 100 percent ready. Our guys will be doing another inspection by tomorrow; we’ll be bringing flaglets para makita ang areas na dapat pa ayusin; mataas pa ang grass (We’ll inspect the pitch again and see what needs to be fixed as some of the holes are covered by the grass),” he said.

Overall, more work has to be done for Rizal Memorial to make it ready for the WC qualifiers. This includes fixing and marking the seats at grandstand and bleachers area, repairing the restrooms, putting up temporary dressing rooms for the two teams, match officials, and the secretariat, and improving the VIP lounge.

“They really should start now para ma-ready yung grandstand by game time,” Palami said.

After a one-month break, the Azkals will resume training on May 9 at the Ayala Alabang Country Club, where they will be encamped for a week before testing the pitch at Rizal Memorial.

The Philippine Star