By Jonas Terrado
The Philippine Football Federation is in the process of evaluating the future of coach Thomas Dooley, whose contract expired over the weekend after steering the Azkals to a historic berth in the 2019 Asian Cup.
Azkals team manager Dan Palami was noncommittal when asked about the Dooley situation, adding that a multiple factors will play a determining role in whether the national squad needs to make a change or keep the former United States captain in charge for the prestigious continental competition set in January.
“There’s a lot of reasons for him to be extended. We’ve had our best performance under his tenure,” Palami said in yesterday’s PSA Forum at the Tapa King Cubao branch. “Ang kailangan na lang namin tignan is what are the conditions as well as talking to the players to see how they will respond to him, whether at the level of the Asian Cup, kaya pa mag-respond ng players or we can be successful.”
Dooley was hired to replace Michael Weiss in January 2014 and almost brought the Azkals to the 2015 Asian Cup, falling short in the AFC Challenge Cup Final with a 1-0 defeat against Palestine in Maldives.
He also helped the Azkals post historic wins over Indonesia in the 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup and North Korea in the earlier rounds of the World Cup/Asian Cup qualifiers before achieving his crowning glory a week ago when the team cemented its place in the Asian Cup with a 2-1 victory over Tajikistan.