THE early bird catches the worm.
Philippine Under-22 men’s football squad coach Norman Fegidero had this in mind when he called for national tryouts with still 18 months to go before the 33rd Thailand Southeast Asian Games football tournament in December 2025.
“Early preparation is what is best because of my experience in the last 2021 Vietnam SEA Games in Hanoi when we only had three months to prepare,” Fegidero said the other day during the start of the five-day training camp at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
With Fegidero at the helm, the PH Under-22 squad had a promising start in Group A with a 4-0 shutout of Timor Leste, following it up with a fighting 0-0 standoff against host Vietnam.
But showing the lack of cohesion because of the short training together as a squad, everything went downhill from there, as the squad absorbed stinging back-to-back losses at the hands of Myanmar (2-3) and Indonesia (0-4) and failed to advance to the next round.
“Kulang tayo ng preparations. Three months lang so I proposed to Freddy (Gonzales, Philippine Football Federation national teams director) na habaan namin ‘yung preparations so maganda ito,” said the former national team standout.
Fegidero, who scored the winning goal in the PH side’s stunning 1-0 upset of Malaysia in the group stage of the 1991 Manila SEA Games, said he is putting a premium on speed “and I am very happy that some of the players I see here have it.
“I am very excited to form this team and see how they respond to our demands as a coach.”
While skill and ability are important, the coach, the deputy of national senior squad tactician Tom Saintfiet of Belgium, said character would also play a vital role in being chosen to the PH Under-22 side for the Thailand SEA Games.
“Ang importante sa akin ‘yung character na handang ipaglaban ang bayan; that the player is not a quitter. Because my personality as a player and as a coach is gustong kung manalo, having represented the country for so many years,” Fegidero pointed out.
Saintfiet said his goal during the five-day training camp is “to select the possible players for the national team, regardless of what age, which is why we invited some four to five players who played in the last Philippines Football League to come to the camp.
“When you see players playing for a club, they play in a system but you don’t get to know them as a person, their motivation. So we get to view the personality of a player if he is in a group. Is he a leader, a follower, a clown, or a fighter?” Saintfiet mused.
“Secondly, we look at the skills. How good is he on the ball. His dribble and everything, then later on we see him in games when we can see his tactical quality. All these things we try to combine before making a final judgment. Whether a player can be interesting for us or not,” the Belgian tactician said.
