Hope's not lost as the Philippines square off against Vietnam in WCQ away from home

Photo Credits: The Philippine Football Federation / Philippine Men's National Football Team

Hoping for a more positive result to give them a fighting chance for the next round, the Philippine Men's National Football Team (PMNFT) will be banking on the youngbloods and Tom Saintfiet's tactics in the hopes of winning against Vietnam at the My Dinh Stadium on the 6th of June, 2024.

With three matches into the qualifiers, the Philippines is in fourth place with just a point in their group with Iraq currently in first place with a perfect record of four wins in four matches while Indonesia is in second place with seven points and hosts Vietnam in third with three points.

“We are well prepared. We made changes, with some new players,” said Head Coach Tom Saintfiet. “The Philippines and Vietnam have played 21 times, and Vietnam has won 18. We’ve won only twice, with the last one in 2012. Sure, Vietnam is the favorite, but we come here trying to get the three points. That’s the intention, even if we know it’ll be difficult.”

The Philippines is looking to introduce 10 changes to the squad from how it looks during the March international window and six of these players are expected to make their debut for the country.

They're also coming off a training camp in Dubai which began last May 26 where the main goal was to identify their strengths and see where players should be positioned come matchday.

“We’re playing in a World Cup Qualifier and we have no doubts, we are full of motivation. With Coach Tom in the last 10 days, our team has prepared well. With the new faces and the younger generation also now part of the senior team, we don’t have any excuses tomorrow — it’s a final. We are playing for the qualification and I’m very happy and excited to give everything for my nation, and hopefully we get the best from this game,” said Christian Rontini who's quite confident with his teammates considering the amount of time they had in the camp.

With two more games remaining in the group, winning against Vietnam would be Saintfiet's priority to give them a huge hope to make it out of the group as the second-best team.

“Vietnam is a strong team in Asia and one of the best in South East Asia. I love the style of Vietnamese football - speed, skills, combinations,” he said, “We know that maybe he’s (Kim Sang-sik) a little bit different - more defensive and organized coach - but we don’t know. Will he implement his style or implement the style of the past? For us, we know how Vietnam of the past played, and we know the qualities of the new coach, but it’s difficult to say what will happen.”

The last time the Philippines and Vietnam met, it was a two-nil win for the Golden Star Warriors at the Rizal Memorial Stadium and would use that as a source of inspiration to shut out the visitors' chances to progress to the next stage of the qualifiers.

The kickoff of the match will be at 20:00 PH Time. The game will be aired on One Sports, OneSports+, and Pilipinas Live, and will be streamed live on the Facebook page of the Philippine Men’s National Football Team.