WAS ready to write off the Philippine team’s campaign in the Suzuki Cup when, as recently as two months ago, I learned the team still had no coach.
The funds mess that the PFF has found itself in, which has resulted to the CFA filing a case of falsification of public documents against the PFF president, also made me wonder if the morale of the RP team has been affected.
I shouldn’t have doubted the squad, thanks to Dan Palami and Simon McMenemy.
While the PFF president was making palami with the perks of his office, Palami, the team manager who’s bankrolling the team, had the Azkals train seriously for the Suzuki Cup qualifiers, not that rushed two-week training the team usually has.
They went to Leyte and when they got McMenemy, had a series of friendlies with Taiwanese teams.
The team’s fighting attitude, so different from the let’s-not-lose-by-much of the past, showed in their 2-2 draw against Laos.
After getting down 2-0, this team, unlike those of yesteryears, fought back.
I saw a clip of that game in YouTube and it makes you proud to be a Pinoy football fan.
After Phil Younghusband (Yep, it’s a weird name but there are Butts and a Buffon in the World Cup) equalized with a penalty in the 74th minute, you could clearly hear one of the Fil-Brits scream:
“WE NEED ONE MORE GUYS!!!”
They got it in the 94th minute. Yep, four minutes past full time.
Showing they were ready to take a gamble, Neil Etheridge, the goalkeeper, took the free kick, just before the halfcourt line.
Etheridge, the former England U16 keeper who’s riding the bench for Fulham FC in the Premier League, connected with James Younghusband, who headed past the Laos keeper for the equalizer.
After that game, the Philippines held Cambodia, 0-0, while Laos beat Timor Leste, 6-1, to take the first qualifier’s spot.
McMenemy credited the team spirit and their hard work for the past 10 months, which was made possible under Palami.
He told affsuzukicup.com. “When I arrived in the Philippines in August, the team’s preparations for the Suzuki Cup were already well under way… what I found was a group of good players who play together but not necessarily for each other. We had to work hard to get the team to gel…But the effort that they put in during the last few days was fantastic and they fully deserved to advance in the competition.”
The last time the Azkals advanced, they got hammered in the finals, losing to Thailand, 4-0, with captain Ali Borromeo getting injured. They also got hammered by Malaysia, 4-0, and a clip of that match was shown on CNN after a striker scored a wonderful bicycle shot.
But in their last game, when they had nothing to gain, they thwarted Myanmar’s dream of a semifinal spot by holding them to a 0-0 draw.
This early, I am upbeat of the RP team’s chances, even if it is in Group A with Vietnam, Singapore and Myanmar. A semifinal spot is unlikely but not impossible.
And I also like McMenemy’s attitude.
“Once we get to the final rounds, every game will be tough. But the tougher the opponents, the more I think the boys can rise to the occasion.”
Now that’s the Azkal spirit.
P.S. What the team achieved in Laos makes you wonder what the boys—or RP football—could achieve had we had a president who is really concerned about the sport, doesn’t it? (Why, you think I could resist letting this one go?)
(www.football.cebunetwork.com)
Sun Star Cebu
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You just gotta love some of the lazy Philippine journalism.......
ReplyDeletea) you could clearly hear one of the Fil-Brits scream:
“WE NEED ONE MORE GUYS!!!”
That was Simon McMenemy who shouted that, not one of the players.
b) This early, I am upbeat of the RP team’s chances, even if it is in Group A with Vietnam, Singapore and Myanmar.
We're in Group B not Group A.
LOL !! Maybe the writer has basketball in his head..
ReplyDeleteNo he hasnt.
ReplyDeleteHasThisBeenTaken
ReplyDeleteYou are really a loser.
I like the whole article.
?????????????
ReplyDeleteOh come on. I point out a couple of mistakes which clearly is lazy journalism and yet I'm the bad guy?????
You would at least expect a little more accuracy from journalists. But that right there was laziness. And when that happens, it makes them look somewhat clueless.
@HasThisBeenTaken
ReplyDeleteYou are the kind of person whose main purpose of existance is to look at others mistake, you have a sorry ass life.
To the guy who wrote the article, keep it up, nice job. Dont let losers like HasThisBeenTaken stop you from writing.
Yan na nga ang sabi ko, pino.potray na nga ang national team in good light ng journalism...eh negativity naman puros itong si HasThisBeenTaken.
ReplyDeleteBasahin mo nga ang mga nag.comment HTBT, puro ka nila ayaw! Kaya wag mo nang ipahiya sarili mo! Akala mo spokesman ka ng mga fans, eh mas baliw ka pa kaysa kay Paul Weiler!
Magpakamatay ka na! Walang nagmamahal sa iyo!
I'm not hating or bashing the article. If I did then please tell me where because I clearly didn't.
ReplyDeleteI'm merely pointing specifically at the mistakes. There's a difference. And it's true it's lazy journalism.
You're also another example who just goes on agreeing and okaying everything and therefore thinking and saying that there's nothing wrong with anything when clearly there are mistakes. You're also the type who always perceives criticism as bashing or hating when again it isn't. You and most other Filipinos need to learn that.
And it's not like I'm bashing the article itself, it's those two mistakes (which was lazy) that I'm referring to.
I'm not hating or bashing the article. If I did then please tell me where because I clearly didn't.
ReplyDeleteI'm merely pointing specifically at the mistakes. There's a difference. And it's true it's lazy journalism.
You're also another example who just goes on agreeing and okaying everything and therefore thinking and saying that there's nothing wrong with anything when clearly there are mistakes. You're also the type who always perceives criticism as bashing or hating when again it isn't. You and most other Filipinos need to learn that.
And it's not like I'm bashing the article itself, it's those two mistakes (which was lazy) that I'm referring to.
^^ now who's the idiot with double posts?
ReplyDeleteIt is true; marami talagang pinoy na mabilis mapikon at hyper sensitive and believes everything they read , madaling ma uto. Konting correction lang napipikon na.. They don't know what constructive criticism is..
ReplyDeletecan we just all be one in supporting our national team? they deserve well to qualify and us fans need to recognize that. ten months of training is a first for the national team, i guess. a pat on the back for the squad is what they need. the mere "mistake"/ laziness or what you might call it should not remove the whole context of the article. to HTBT: please give the boys, coach, and management some credit. your are soooo such full of negativism. get a life, bro.
ReplyDeleteHasThisBeenTaken
ReplyDeleteWe see other peoples mistakes like you do, but the difference between you and US, we dont rub it to them. Your are nothing but a hater. Can you sense nobody likes you here. We dont need people who pull downs people.
@Has Been,
ReplyDeletethat you might understand the nature of the profession better:
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20101102-301004/One-mistake-and-youre-out
"To use the old formula: It is the responsibility of journalists to get all the facts right and all the right facts. But because of the press of deadline, the circumstances of reporting, the biased nature of information itself, it is almost impossible to discharge this responsibility all the time.
Journalists make up for this by correcting errors in fact or interpretation as soon as they are discovered or proven, by keeping an open line with their audience of readers and viewers and listeners and users, above all by relying on the sorting-out process that journalism itself makes possible."
so who's the idiot now?