Azkals’ ranking as ASEAN’s best ‘misleading’, not a factor in Suzuki Cup, says coach Dooley nterAksyon l November 20, 2014 Looking at the world rankings, one can easily argue that the Philippine national men’s football team is the best squad competing in the ASEAN Football Federation Suzuki Cup. After all, the Azkals, ranked 129th in the world, are well ahead of their regional rivals Vietnam (136th), Myanmar (137th), Laos (154th), Malaysia (156th), Indonesia (157th), defending champion Singapore (161st) and Thailand (165th). But it would be foolish to summarize the tournament that simple, according to Azkals coach Thomas Dooley. “Everybody puts us as the favorite because we’re ranked No.1. But it’s always misleading because it depends on the game you play and we don’t play the same games,” Dooley told InterAksyon. FIFA calculates every country’s ranking based on match results (a win, a loss or a draw), its importance (i.e. a friendly or a World Cup match), and the strength of the nation’s opponent ranking-wise. These points are then accumulated from the country’s past results in the previous four years. That means teams could move up and down in the rankings depending on the type of competition they play and their past results. Just this month, the Azkals, the best-ranked team in Southeast Asia, suffered a 3-nil loss to Thailand, which has the lowest world ranking in the region, in a friendly match before the Suzuki Cup. Dooley said that the rankings should not be looked at as every game in the group stages will be tough for the Azkals, which are looking to punch a finals ticket for the first time in history. The Filipinos are grouped with Laos, Indonesia and host Vietnam. “We have to treat every game as the most important one and we have to find out how we can beat them — their weaknesses and strengths and do the best to win it. So we have two, three games to scout,” Dooley said. admin*ping interaksyon/interaktv/azkals-ranking-as-aseans-best-misleading-not-a-factor-in-suzuki-cup-says-coach-dooley
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 15:17:36 +0000
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