A newly refurbished pitch, two home matches, and fresh talent. The PMNFT are doing all they can to qualify for the Asian Cup.
This year, the Philippine Men’s National Football Team (PMNFT) is focused on one big task: the 2027 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers.
Until early 2026, the men’s team will compete in the third and final round of the Asian Cup qualifying tournament. As part of Group A, they will be facing Tajikistan, Maldives, and Timor-Leste in a home-and-away double round-robin format, where only the winner of the group will advance to the 2027 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia.
With this, the PMNFT will be aiming to win every game.
Important matches ahead
To their advantage, the PMNFT will begin the third round with a match at home against the Maldives. The Philippine side was originally supposed to open their campaign against the 162nd-ranked team away, however, Philippine Football Federation (PFF) Director for National Teams Freddy Gonzalez explained, “It was moved here to the Philippines because Maldives was asking if we could switch because of the difficulties they would have due to Ramadan. So we jumped at the chance.”
However, the Filipino booters will not be playing on their usual home turf, Rizal Memorial Stadium while the football field is undergoing renovation to bring it up to the AFC’s standards.
Gonzalez revealed, “Right now, we’re refurbishing the field, both the stadium pitch and the training pitch outside. AFC was there to inspect it yesterday, and so far they’re happy with what we’ve been doing. The players are really excited because they get to play on natural grass, which is what they wanna be playing on rather than artificial.”
Given the current state of Rizal Memorial’s pitch, the PMNFT will be hosting the visiting team in New Clark City Stadium.
“We contracted a company to come in that renovates golf courses and fixes golf courses, so they’re there [in New Clark City Stadium] right now. So they’ve been there the last two, three weeks, and the pitch is starting to come to life…So by the time match day comes, it should be a pretty fantastic pitch,” Gonzalez happily shared.
While the usual hordes of Filipino fans in Rizal Memorial Stadium will definitely be missed all the way in Clark, the former national team player still expects nothing short of a win in the PMNFT’s opening match.
“We have to go into every game taking the opponent very seriously, and we’re gonna go out and try to win every game,” Gonzalez asserted.
The PMNFT will be hosting the Maldives on March 25 and Tajikistan on June 10. The team expects to be back on Rizal Memorial’s newly refurbished field by June.
From there, the Philippine side will be playing Timor-Leste away on October 9, before hosting them at home five days later, and will conclude their 2025 matches with their away leg at the Maldives on November 18. Their final match of the qualifiers will be against Tajikistan in 2026.
“If we win every game before the last game, which our last game will be in Tajikistan, then we have a very good chance of qualifying. So we just have to make sure we do the business at home and do the business away as well.”
New faces joining the team
The standards are high, especially after the team went on an inspiring run at last year’s ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup, which saw them clinch their first victory against Thailand in 52 years and secure their first semifinal berth in six years.
To keep the momentum going, the PFF is continuing to beef up the PMNFT squad.
“We have, for sure, two new players coming in for that window [against the Maldives] in Randy Schneider and Josef Baccay. They both got their passports, and they’re both committed to coming.”
23-year-old Schneider is a Swiss-Filipino player who currently plays for FC Winterthur in the country’s top flight. Baccay, on the other hand, Josef Baccay is a Norwegian-Filipino footballer who played for the Norwegian national youth teams until 2022, and now plays for Odds Ballklubb in Norway.
In addition, Gonzalez reveals more names expected to join the PMNFT: “Andre Leipold, who plays in the Czech Republic, is still fixing one of his documents, and hopefully — I don’t know if he’ll make it for that match [against the Maldives], but he’ll surely make it for June. Cole Mrowka, who plays with Columbus Crew and the MLS, is also working on his paperwork.
“The beauty about the Asian Cup is we found out that we can register additional players before each match window, so we’re not so worried anymore about new players missing out on the games.”
With two home games to kick off the third round, a refurbished pitch on the way, and talented players waiting in the wings, there is only one thing left for the PMNFT.
“We have to win the group to qualify for the Asian Cup…It’s Asian Cup or bust.”
Banner image from AFP.