World Cup fever

I once thought that 'instant' can only refer to food or drinks, but last weekend, we had an 'instant football festival' at the San Roque Parish field in Subangdaku, Mandaue City.

Despite the limited time for the teams and the organizers to prepare, the event, which I heard over the public address system last Sunday, was organized by the Philippine Football Federation and backed by Solar Sports and Adidas, was a success. It was part of the campaign for viewer awareness on the 2006 World Cup, which opens this weekend in Germany.

Solar Sports is the exclusive carrier of the World Cup in the Philippines and from what I understand, the event last weekend was one of the many competitions around the country that were organized to help promote the World Cup.

In most countries around the world, football is a national passion. Just making it to the World Cup is already a major source of national pride.

In the Philippines, I wish to say the same, but while the passion is steadily building up, we still have a very long way to go if we talk about our national team bagging one of the 32 slots in future World Cups. I even think it would take longer with all the squabbling of the football leaders in Manila.

I'm just happy that in Cebu we seem to be doing well on our own.

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According to the resident World Cup/football authority in our home, my nine-year-old son Nico, only seven countries have won the World Cup - Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, England, Italy, West Germany (Germany), and France.

Brazil has won the title the most times at 5 and this year, the Brazilians are again the favorites to win the title.

The teams that could figure prominently are England (most especially if Wayne Rooney would be fit to play), Argentina, Spain, France, and Ivory Coast.

It is really hard to say this early, who will win the trophy considering how upsets have been a regular feature of this quadrennial tournament, which will run until July 10.

I had the chance to get a feel of the ball that they would be using for the World Cup during last Sunday's tournament. The resident football authority in our family was definitely correct when he warned me that the ball was going to be tough for goalies like me to handle, but would be very friendly to the strikers.

Well, he saw the feature on the Adidas ball on TV and told me much about it.

This could mean more goals scored in the World Cup and a lot more attention to the strikers.

While most of us know stars like England's David Beckham and Brazil's Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, two of the stars to watch are England striker Peter Crouch, who stands 6 feet, 7 inches tall and Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast.

Watch out also for Argentina's teen sensation Lionel Messi, who will be turning 19 years old during the World Cup.

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The Cebu City Marriott Hotel is one of the few establishments where you can watch the World Cup games live.

I heard that they even are willing to set up viewing parties in their function rooms. This surely sounds interesting.