CNMI to test offensive skills in EAFF tourney

The East Asian Football Federation Boys U13 Festival 2015 will give the CNMI U13 National Team an opportunity to showcase its offensive skills.

Players do dribbling drills during a tryout for the CNMI U13 National Team at the Oleai Sports Complex Field early this month. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

“Our national teams before (those who went to Laos and Thailand for Asian Football Confederation-sanctioned tournaments) were told to focus on defense to limit our opponent’s goals, but this time, our U13 players will work on both ends of the pitch. We are also building a counter-attacking team,” head coach Jersh Angeles said in an interview with Saipan Tribune last Sunday.

“This is the good thing with the festival—the players have the opportunity to showcase their skills both on the defensive and offensive ends because this is a developmental tournament,” Angeles added. “The festival encourages participating teams to have balance on their strategy—offense and defense together.”

Angeles and assistant coach Takemoto Suzuki will be bringing in 18 players to the festival, which Guam will be hosting from Nov. 7 to 11. Right now, 25 are battling for the 18 spots and the final selection will be made at the conclusion of this week’s training sessions.

“We will have one more week to decide who will be on the final roster. Right now, the players are doing well in the training sessions. We have five players who were members of the U14 National Team that competed in Beijing in the AFC festival last September and that’s good news for us because experience is always a plus,” Angeles said.

The Teen Ayuyus coach is talking about Thaiphi Austria, Mark Esalan, John Michael Roxas, Sebastien Manabat, and the Guam-based Eddie Cho. Completing the pool are Angelo Bergancia, Floyd Muna, siblings Taka and Ichiro Borja, Kirro Batino, Kirt Andon, Angelo Ada, Ian Maniago, Jhoey Noble, Lolo Benito, Reginald Pascual, Glenn Basillo, Justin Achas, Raseff Altamirano, Eunsyn Hahn, Jon VIllagomez, Jason Quiamzon, David Meyers Jr., Kaden Church, and Blake Mister.

“We have a lot of players in the U13 age group and they have good set of skills that can really help the team,” Angeles said.

The 25-player training pool is practicing five times a week for two hours each day. The selected players are also training with their respective clubs, which are competing in the 2015 NMIFA Fall Youth League.

“For the last two weeks of our training sessions, we will request the final 18 players to solely focus training with the national team so we can fine tune our game tactics and strategies,” Angeles said.