Game today:

(Rizal Memorial Football Stadium)

6:30 p.m. — Philippines vs Myanmar

The national men’s football squad will be in high spirits when it battles Myanmar to open its ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup campaign today at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

Action starts at 6:30 p.m. with the Filipinos looking for a win that will give their head coach Albert Capellas a rousing debut as head coach of the national squad.

The Filipinos and the Burmese are in Group B along with Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam — the finalist in the previous edition of this prestigious regional tourney that is being held every four years.

Only top two from each group will advance to the semifinals, something that the Filipinos have to achieve since 2018.

In fact, the last time they made it to the two-legged semifinals was when the late Sven-Göran Eriksson was still the head coach with the wildly popular Phil and James Younghusband, Patrick Reichelt, Stephan Schrock, Amani Aguinaldo, Neil Etheridge and Patrick Deyto as key players.

Now, only Reichelt, Deyto and Aguinaldo, the team captain, were left as the only members of the 2018 squad in the national roster.

The Philippines will be favored, thanks to the expected solid support of its home crowd.

But the Burmese will be entering the competition with fire in their eyes as they try to bounce back from a 0-1 home loss against the Indonesians last 9 December at the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon.

Goalkeeper Zin Nyi Nyi Aung scored an own goal in the 76th minute as he was trying to save a tap-in strike from Indonesian team captain Asnawi Mangkualam.

Capellas said they can’t be complacent as they expect the Burmese to go hard from start to finish.

The former FC Barcelona B interim mentor also said he hopes to see the crowd get more involved and boost their morale come game time.

“We will try to keep the ball, we will try to dominate the game, and try to win from minute one. I expect a team who will try to do quick counter-attacks, that they try to bring the ball in front as quick as possible,” Capellas said.

“I hope that they would like to come to watch the game. It is very exciting for me to play in the Mitsubishi Cup, to play at home. and I am looking forward to feeling the support of the fans, and especially the support of the players.”