Strong Group hopes for crowd support in Dubai meet

MANILA, Philippines — Strong Group is banking on the overseas Filipino workers in Dubai to be the team’s “Sixth Man” in its campaign in the 32nd Dubai International Championship beginning Jan. 27.

Strong Group head coach Charles Tiu said they will need all the help from the Filipino crowd especially going up against the top Middle East teams including the Lebanese squads which according to the youthful mentor pose huge threat to the country’s aspiration for a second straight title in the tournament.

“We definitely need the Filipino fans to come out and support us there. They’ve been our sixth man every time, and we need every single one of them,” said Tiu, who guided Mighty Sports to the title three years ago.

“All the Lebanese teams will be tough. Al-Riyadi, of course, who we played in the championship the last time we joined, and in the semifinals the year before that. Beirut Lebanon, Dynamo-Lebanon are all tough. And then we have the teams from Tunisia, Morocco and Iraq,” he added.

Strong Group is grouped with Dynamo-Lebanon in Group A, along with the United Arab Emirates national team, Al-Wahda from Syria and Al-Nasr from Libya.

Then there’s the absence of Ange Kouame.

“It’s been tough without Ange. It changes everything for us. We built this team knowing we would have him, and his absence is really a game changer,” said Tiu.

In Kouame’s place, Tiu said the team tried to tap the services of Justin Brownlee and Andray Blatche but both are not available due to conflict of schedules.

Still bannering the squads are former NBA stars Nick Young and Shabazz Mohammad along with Fil-American guard Sedrick Barefield, Justine Baltazar and Will Gozum.

Also in the lineup are Jerom Lastimosa, JD Cagulangan, Francis Lopez, BJ Andrade, Migs Oczon and Inand Fornillos.