Cuadrat stays as phl mentor

The national men’s football team will be sticking with Carles Cuadrat of Spain to serve as its head coach in various international tournaments in the future.

Philippine Football Federation president John Gutierrez said Cuadrat, who used to be the assistant of former national team tactician Albert Capellas, will stay in his post while the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers are ongoing.

“We won’t be changing head coach for the national men’s team. It will still be steered by none other than Carles Cuadrat,” Gutierrez said, noting that the Philippines rose to No. 145 in the latest International Football Federation rankings.

“If you remember, he took over the last game against Tajikistan from coach Albert Capellas and he will be our coach until the end of the qualifiers.”

With Cuadrat calling the shots, the Nationals forged a 2-2 draw against Tajikistan in the Asian qualifiers last June at the New Clark City in Tarlac.

Cuadrat said there will be continuity in the system since he worked closely with Capellas at FC Midtjylland in Denmark back in 2023. He said he will retain Capellas’ possession-based system as they aim for a slot in the Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia.

After all, it was Capellas’ blueprints that propelled the Philippines back in the ASEAN Championship semifinals for the first time since 2018 and steered the Nationals to a 2-1 win over Thailand, the first victory since 1972.

“You understand that it’s a very big challenge for the national team to try to be in that. Also, because I was here before, I know the methodology and the dynamics of the team, so we didn’t change a lot of things,” Cuadrat said.

“There are still a lot of games to be played and the team can probably win all the games.”