U-19 Philippine Coach Admits Difficulty Playing In Natural Grass Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium

Philippine U-19 coach Josep Ferre admitted that his team could not play on natural grass (doc. PSSI).

JAKARTA - The U-19 Philippines was destroyed during the inaugural match of Group A of the 2024 AFF U-19 Cup against Indonesia U-19. Losing 0-6 at Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium (GBT), Surabaya, Josep Ferre said that the grass conditions in the field had quite an impact on the final results.

In the match which was held on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, WIB night, Josep Ferre said most U-19 Filipino players were not used to playing on natural grass fields.

You see, almost all football fields in the U-19 Philippines use synthetic grass, including at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila, which is The Azkals headquarters.

"We tried to defend, we tried to attack. However, most of our players first played on natural grass and made it difficult," said Josep Ferre in a statement after the match, quoted on Thursday, July 18, 2024.

"Most of them (the U-19 Philippines players) play with limited stadiums. It's an extraordinary experience for our players."

"However, Indonesia U-19 is much better. Congratulations," Ferre said again.

The coach who is familiarly called Coco acknowledged Indonesia U-19's superiority. The Spaniard said the difference in quality between Indonesia U-19 and the Philippines U-19 was very far. This is reflected in the results on the ground.

"The Indonesian U-19 rhythm is very high, it's different from the first minute. I thought it would be a tight match, but we failed to deal with the situation."

"For us, to build the U-19 team, we don't have player data and do scouting from the start across the country. When Indonesia played in the Toulon Cup, we were still looking for players. So, it was very different," Ferre said.

Despite losing a landslide in the inaugural match, the U-19 Philippines had to bounce back. They will face Timor Leste U-19 in the second match of Group A.

Ferre then hopes that his team can focus on restoring conditions ahead of the important match against Timor Leste U-19 which successfully defeated Cambodia U-19 with a score of 3-2.

"We have to recover players so that there are no injuries by masse because they need to adapt to playing on natural grass," he said.