IT’S COMING FOLKS.

Tomorrow we take on the men from the Middle East at the Philippine Sports Stadium in Bulacan.

Maybe it’s too late to urge you guys to go, but I can supply some match info, if you’re watching on TV or even just following the match on Twitter.

A Moderator named cjeagle from the Philippine football blog Usapang Football posted a picture of the Azkals team photo before their friendly with the UFL All-Star XI at the PSS.

The photo can be found on this page here.

He (cjeagle) said that the men in the photo are the most likely starting XI tomorrow, plus Neil Etheridge (not in photo).

If we did line up like that it would look something like this:

This formation is certainly an odd one, because it uses only three defenders instead of the regular four.

A regular 3-5-2 is used by tactical coaches, either defensively or offensively.

The ‘3’ in the 3-5-2 is composed of three centerbacks, with both wingers needing to be fast, full of stamina, and blessed with enough versatility to chip in at fullback, so when defending, the team has a formation like a 5-3-2.

Here’s a bit of a visual explanation:

FIGURE A:

FIGURE B:

In Figure B, the two wingers move down, and now the formation is defensive.

This formation is foolhardy, even if you have dependable centerbacks and speedy wingers, because a decent counterattacking side can get straight into you.

The starting back line that featured against the UFL XI utilises Simone Rota, a right fullback, Daisuke Sato, a left back, and the only centerback is Luke Woodland, who plies his natural trade in the English League One (England’s third tier of football) at Oldham Athletic as a CENTRE MIDFIELDER.

He was only positioned at centerback by Dooley because of his height!

Sure, given his age and skill level, he can transition to centerback, but not in ten days, and certainly not in such a crucial game such as tomorrow’s.

Dooley is no fool at defending. He’s played over two hundred games in the defence at the very highest level of football.

The starting XI in the UFL All-Stars game was just another bold tactical experiment, by the same man who fielded Kenshiro Daniels, a winger, at RIGHT BACK against Chinese Taipei, and the man who blooded Amani Aguinaldo in a Challenge Cup match.

But I believe Dooley’s going to stick with either “Manong” Rob Gier, “Lolo” Juani Guirado or the youthful Amani Aguinaldo, three very dependable players who’ve played in big games.

This is the formation that I think we’ll play:

This is a much more sane formation, with two natural centerbacks.

I put in Ingreso and Lucena, but it can be any midfield pair from Woodland, Ott, Ingreso, or Lucena.

Dooley has an excellent base form which to choose from.

The Philippines hasn’t had a deeper bench in a long time.

Now for Bahrain…and for history.