Azkals

Have you heard of the Azkals? Did you see them play in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup last week? Does the name Ali Borromeo ring a bell? Or that of Phil Younghusband, Rob Gier, Chippy Caligdong or Ian Araneta? If your answer to these is “no,” I’m not at all surprised. Here we go again with Philippine Football 101. Was this even taught in your PE classes in high school or college?

Sad but true. Football is nowhere near the awareness and popularity levels of the B’s of sports: basketball, boxing and billiards here in the Philippines. To a certain extent, even bowling and badminton are more popular. If you do a popularity survey among Filipinos on their favorite sport as a fan or spectator, I don’t think you’ll see football in the top three answers and maybe not even in the top five.

But it’s time to bring football back to everyone’s minds again. After all, the Philippines just made the semifinals of the Suzuki Cup (did you know that this used to be called the Tiger Cup?) last week and will now face Indonesia in a two-game semifinal clash. After being labeled as the whipping boys of Southeast Asia, here we are in the top four along with defending champion Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. We’re even on top of Singapore and Thailand. Practically nobody expected the “Azkals” to make it this far. The team had to go through a qualifier tournament where it faced off among the lowest ranked teams of Southeast Asia. We made it along with Laos and had to play another three games in the elimination round or classification phase of the Suzuki Cup. A 2-0 upset win over host Vietnam, a 1-1 tie with Singapore and a scoreless draw with Myanmar pushed the team to the #2 spot in Group B behind Vietnam.

This may not be the World Cup or Asia’s biggest tournament, but this already has Philippine football fans excited. Making the semis of the Suzuki Cup is something that happens only in a Pinoy football player’s dream. Believe it or not. But this dream came true and here we are in an unfamiliar territory. But this comes with bad news. The format of the Suzuki Cup semifinals calls for a home and away format with each team hosting a game each and the aggregate score is the basis for the final score. But since the AFF declared that the Philippines doesn’t have a venue that matches the standards of international play, we can’t play our home game in the country. I’ll leave this issue for another, lengthier discussion as it’s a totally different story altogether.

The show must go on as we give credit to national team manager Dan Palami, national coach Simon Macmenemy and his band of gung-ho players. We’ll have to also clarify that the team hasn’t received support from the Philippine Football Federation (PFF), football’s mother org. What a shame! (deserves another story again).

The team is composed of a mix of Fil-foreigners and local Pinoys who were put together international tournaments. Among the mainstays and more recognized players in the football community are team captain and local football icon Ali Borromeo, Fil-Brit brothers Phil and James Younghusband, Ian Araneta, Chippy Caligdong and Anton del Rosario. The others include other Fil-Brits or Fil foreigners like Rob Gier, Jason De Jong, Chris Greatwich, Ray Jonsson, Mark Drinkuth and goalkeeper Neil Etheridge. The local Azkals are Jerry Barbaso, Yanti Barsales, David Mark Basa, Christopher Camcam, Mark Ferrer, Roel Gener, Peter Jaugan, Nestor Margarse, Reymark Palmes, Kristopher Relucio, and Eduard Sacapaño. Macmenemy’s coaching staff is composed of Edwin Cabalida, Edzel Bracamonte, Rolando Piñero, Walfred Javier, Josef Malinay and media officer Rick Olivares. I purposely listed all the names as this may be the first and last time you’ll hear about them. But I hope it won’t be the case.

The recruits from overseas play for different ballclubs in England, Holland, Iceland and the United States. They have Pinoy blood in them through a parent or a lolo/lola. That’s one advantage of having so many Pinoys all over the world. No, they’re not English Premier League players, but their talent level is at par with the best of Southeast Asia. If they were legitimate Premiere League players, they wouldn’t be able to make it here at this time of the year. Getting them to play for the national team, though, wasn’t that easy, especially when compared to basketball. Basketball has the PBA where Fil-Ams can earn a living playing basketball and also get a chance to play for the national team. Philippine football doesn’t have this luxury. These recruits are better off staying in Europe where they get to play football regularly. For the local football players, they have to make do with the “commercial” league that’s based in Manila. Some play for the Philippine Air Force (PAF) while others play for private clubs. More ironically, they play more for fun and the love of the game as they can’t earn a living playing football.

So step aside basketball and boxing (for now). It’s time to recognize the Azkals.

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Time-out: Happy birthday to our neighbor (in Freeman and hometown) Bobby Motus! >>> You can reach me at [email protected].