MANILA, Philippines — United City FC Stephan Schrock and Bienvenido Marañon will banner the Philippine Azkals in the upcoming AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 set in Singapore beginning December 5.

Schrock, a veteran for the Philippine booters, will skipper the squad while Marañon is expected to make his first appearance for the national team after gaining Philippine citizenship earlier this year.

Joining Schrock and Marañon are veterans Patrick Reichelt, Mike Ott, Martin Steuble, Angel Guirado and Kenshiro Daniels.

Also making a return to the squad after missing out on the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup joint qualifiers are Amani Aguinaldo, Kevin Ingreso, Iain Ramsay, and Daisuke Sato.

Jeff Tabinas, Mar Vincent Diano, and goalkeepers Bernd Schipmann and Kevin Ray Mendoza will also be available for the Azkals.

Call ups from the youth team are also joining the Filipino booters with Oliver Bias, Justin Baas, Dennis Chung, Oskari Kekkonen, Sandro Reyes, Christian Rontini, and Quincy Kameraad called up.

First-timers Jesper Nyholm, Amin Nazari, Matthew Custodio, and Harry Foll will also fly to Singapore for the tiff.

However, the Azkals will be missing some big names like Gerrit Holtmann, Patrick Strauss, Raphael Obermair, Michael Kempter and Neil Etheridge as the tournament is held outside the FIFA window.

The booters are held up with their respective clubs.

Other players who were also unable to secure a release from their clubs are Josh Grommen, Patrick Deyto and Randy Schneider.

Azkals coach Scott Cooper is aiming for a better result for the Azkals, despite missing some key players.

“This is a very prestigious tournament,” he said. “We have a history of doing well and going to the semifinals, but we need to do more than that.

The Azkals also had to deal with injuries which led to withdrawals of players.

Among them are Jarvey Gayoso, Manny Ott, Carli De Murga, Michael and Matthew Baldissimo, Sebastian Rasmussen, and Adrian Ugelvik.

Cooper said that the missing players will be a big blow, but still believes the Filipinos can come out with a competitive campaign.

“It’s extremely difficult hence we have to temper our expectations. [But] we have a nice squad and we have a new addition in Jesper Nyholm, whose season is finally finished, so we can bring him in and there’s couple of new faces coming in.” Cooper said.

“We have a good squad, we must be positive and go on and show what we can do.” he added.

The Azkals begin their Suzuki Cup campaign on December 8 against hosts Singapore. They will then play Timor Leste on December 11, Thailand on December 14, and finally Myanmar on December 18.

The tournament was originally scheduled to run in 2020 but was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.