GLOBAL hosts Singapore’s Home United in the Asean Zone semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup tonight at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
The match is set at 7:30 p.m., with Global making its first appearance in the Zonal Semifinals of the AFC Cup.
And the Filipino side will have to do it without Japanese coach Toshiaki Imai Japan, who flew home to attend to important family matters.
Interim coach Marjo Allado takes over from Imai and vowed to use the same system as what the Japanese used in steering Global to the top of Group F with 15 points on five wins against only one loss.
“We cannot change any system, we have to stick to the routine,” Allado told the prematch press conference on Monday at a Manila hotel. “The mentality is to keep on winning. It would be a tough game. It will not be an easy one for us. The focus is just to get three points.”
Skipper Misagh Bahadoran said he feels a lot better after nursing a knee injury he sustained a few months ago. He came off the bench in their last group stage assignment—a 3-1 win over Cambodia’s Beoungket Angkor—on May 3.
“I will be ready for the game. If coach needs me, I will be ready to play,” Bahadoran said. “We will do our best against them. I hope we won’t allow any goals from them.”
Bahadoran, together with his Filipino teammates Paul Mulders, Amani Aguinaldo, goalkeeper Patrick Deyto, Pika Minegishi and Marco Casambre, as well as foreign reinforcements Darryl Roberts Shu Sasaki and Wesley Dos Santos, takes on the Group H first placer Home United, which are not first-timers in the zonal semifinals.
The Singaporeans last appeared in 2012 and they reached the semifinals of the inaugural tournament in 2004.