Fil-British goalkeeper Neil Etheridge will keep his place in the Azkals.
The 32-year-old Etheridge is among the 24 players the Philippine Football Federation called up to make the Philippine national men’s team for the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup 2023 Qualifiers.
This will be Etheridge’s 14th year with the Azkals, since his first season back in 2008.
The Azkals are situated in Group B in competitions that will be held from June 8 to 14 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Returning coach Thomas Dooley has picked Etheridge to be back, along with defender Jefferson Tabinas and holdovers from the Philippine under-23 team that competed in the recent 31st Southeast Asian Games.
The young players include midfielders Oliver Bias, Oskari Kekkonen, and Sandro Reyes.
The Azkals will start their qualifying campaign against Yemen on June 8, before fighting host Mongolia on June 11.
Palestine will be the Azkals’ last opponent on June 14 in matches that will be played at the MFF Stadium.
The Philippines seeks to be one of the 11 teams hoping to qualify for the final competition to be held next year.
The team is done with its training camp at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in Manila and left for Mongolia last Saturday.
Joining the trip to Mongolia are goalies Kevin Hansen and Anthony Pinthus, defenders, Amani Aguinaldo, Kenshiro Daniels, Vincent Diano, Miguel Mendoza, Simone Rota, Tabinas and Dennis Villanueva.
Among the midfielders are Oliver Bias, Jess Curran, Dylan de Bruycker, Hartmann, and Kekkonen.
The forwards are Jesus Melliza, Manyel and Mike Ott, Reyes, Gerrit Holtmann, Bienvenido Maranon, Jose Portreria and Patrick Reichelt.
