with Nepal, Taipei set for Azkals

RETURNING Philippine national men’s football team head coach Michael Weiss said there’s little time to prepare the Azkals for the coming 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification when it starts this October.

But Weiss said he looks forward to his second tour of duty with the team, and how the players will grow under him.

“I know the players. We have quality in our games, and we have to show that in the field,” said Weiss ahead of their two friendly matches on Thursday and on Monday.

The Azkals will first face Nepal at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, before tackling Chinese Taipei on June 19.

“I look forward to these games. We don’t have much time,” added Weiss, who recently signed a one-year contract with the team, with the officials of the Philippine Football expressing confidence on his return.

“He needs to focus, the World Cup qualifiers are about to start later this year,” said PFF secretary general Ed Gastanes.

So far, the PFF has called up players to comprise a 26-member pool, led by Fil-British goalie Neil Etheridge.

Among those in the pool are Patrick Deyto, Julian Schwarzer, Amani Aguinaldo, Jesper Nyholm, Carlie de Murga, Martin Steuble, Daisuke Sato,Santiago Rublico, Jesse Curram, Mike and Manny Ott, Sandro Reyes and Hikaru Minegishi. Peter Atencio

Malone said he had taken inspiration from words by Miami and Los Angeles Lakers coaching legend Pat Riley, a five-time champion as head coach.

“Pat Riley said something many years ago,” Malone said. “I used to have it up on my board when I was a head coach in Sacramento, and it talked about the evolution in this game and how you go from a nobody to an upstart, and you go from an upstart to a winner and a winner to a contender and a contender to a champion.

“The last step after a champion is to be a dynasty.”

Malone said he believes the Nuggets have all the pieces in place to follow through on their goal, with a young core of players led by Nikola Jokic all expected to remain with the franchise for several seasons.

“We accomplished something this franchise has never done before, but we have a lot of young talented players in that locker room, and I think we just showed through 16 playoff wins what we’re capable of on the biggest stage in the world,” Malone said.

Jokic hails team effort

Denver star Nikola Jokic, the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, joked he was not looking beyond the off-season.

“I don’t think about the next year,” Jokic said. “I’m going to ask the coach to give me a couple weeks more off so I can be ready for the season.”

But the Serbian ace admitted he had always believed Denver’s entire roster were building something special.

“It’s not the starting unit -- it’s the whole team,” Jokic said. “Since day one ... it was something different about this team.

“I felt it. I felt some different energy and every day since then I had the same feeling. I’m not really optimistic guy, but that gave me hope that we can do something.”

Nuggets forward Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a member of the Los Angeles Lakers championship-winning team in 2020, believes Denver has the quality to keep winning into the future.

“Everybody wants to run it back after you win,” Caldwell-Pope said. “But that’s up to the organization to bring back the players.

“But this team is special. I knew it from training camp, and just been telling them all the way through training camp and the whole season—we can do this.”

Malone, who started his coaching career in his early 20s as an unpaid high school coach, reflected on his journey to the pinnacle of the NBA.

“These moments are surreal. I got in the league 22, 23 years ago, and I dreamed of becoming a head coach,” the 51-year-old said. It hasn’t hit me, and I don’t think it’s going to hit me tonight because I’m going to drin k too much.” AFP