Azkals' Coach Michael Weiss Traumatized By Filipinos' Crab Mentality: The Coach Speaks His Heart Out

Source: www.malaya.com.ph

"SO, are you also questioning my decisions now?"

Those were the first words that Coach Michael Weiss said in an interview that was conducted by Malaya.com.ph after the Azkals lost to Kuwait in their first leg match, 3-0 last Saturday. Shortly, after those initial words, Coach Weiss followed up with these words:

"These people keep questioning my decisions but they were not aware of the realities that forced us to make these decisions in Kuwait. All they need to do is talk to me and I could have told them why but all they do is just criticize."

Oh! Those words probably came out from the sad heart of Coach Weiss. He sounded like he was angry, angry to the people who has been criticizing him about his substitution pattern against Kuwait.

From a point of view of a football fan like me, I feel bad about those sad words of coach Weiss. It's just his first year with the Azkals and so far, for me, he's been doing great. I don't know, but I think he was already traumatized by the criticisms that he's been getting from the Filipino Football Fans because whenever someone from the media approaches him, he'll always say those words above. I can't blame him for acting like that. He's just being defensive. He probably can't take it anymore. He's just one of the many victims of such harsh criticisms. I'll not be surprised if he will leave the Azkals if his critics won't stop.

Unfortunately, I have to admit it. Some Filipinos still have the so called Crab Mentality as shown in their ways. I don't get the reason why they have to hate and pull down Coach Weiss. He's just new to the team! I just feel sad that he has to experience that dreadful disease in our society.

I continued to read Coach Weiss' interview and I found more paragraphs that expressed his disappointments on how he was criticized by the Filipino Fans with regard to his substitution pattern because according to them, he should have replaced Guirado and Caligdong late in the match because they were already tired, but he didn't do so because they lack players who can replace them. Couldn't they understand that they were undermanned that time? They don't have their team captain Aly Borromeo and Stephen Shrock due to suspension. They should have think twice before they throw mud on coach Weiss.

Here are the other sad statements of Coach Weiss that showed how bad he is feeling coming into their 2nd leg match later against Kuwait:

• "Had I done so, the score might have been easily 8-0. We were up against a superior squad which had been together for years but I have only had my team for six months, so we did what had to be done."
• "I have coached all over the world and have given my best to the Azkals, who have made great progress given the time we have had with them, and yet it isn’t even enough."
• "Now I am beginning to understand the crab mentality in this country."
• "I am the coach and have to make the hard decisions. If you want to question my actions, approach me and I will explain why but just do not criticize until you know the reason why. If you are not satisified, that’s fine but please don’t criticize just for the sake of criticizing."
• "These people are not even part of the coaching circle where we discuss all our field decisions," he said. "If they were in my difficult shoes I wonder what they would have done."

To the fans who still believe in the Azkals, let's help coach Michael Weiss get over this bad experience by extending our support to his team later against Kuwait and by letting those critics know that they hurt someone's feelings.