Tough odds

The Philippine Azkals will face an acid test this weekend as they go up against world number 102 Kuwait in the second round of the World Cup Qualifiers.

The match is set this Saturday and on the 28th, it will be the turn of the Philippines to host the Kuwaitis.

If you don’t know yet, the Philippines is now ranked 159th in the world, which makes the opponents of the Azkals the odds on favorites.

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In preparation for this weekend’s match, the Azkals played against the under-23 team of Bahrain and lost both games.

The first one had 1-2 result and the second one ended 1-3.

In Germany, when the Azkals prepared for the match against Sri Lanka, the team also lost to a young team.

While these results may dampen our hopes for a positive result, we must keep on believing in our national team.

If we lose to Kuwait, then there’s no need to feel bad and sulk, but what if we win? That should give us a lot of reason to celebrate not just the victory in the match, but the fact that football will get a lot more boost in the Philippines.

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The very non-Filipino surnames of many players of the Azkals have also caught the attention of the Kuwaitis.

It’s not that they are complaining, but are just quite surprised that there are Filipinos with such family names.

Let’s take a look back at the much talked about rift between the local bred players and the Fil-foreign players.

While the team can’t help but look abroad for talent to fill up the slots in the national squad, the local officials should also make this a good reason to be serious in their development programs.

Also, we should weed out the organizations of those with selfish interests to protect as they are the ones, who would sometimes go to the extent of coming up with false accusations just to create chaos.

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Cebuano judokas hauled a total of three gold medals, one silver and two bronzes in the Green Archers Judo Championships at La Salle Greenhills last weekend.

Hazel Faye Laude of the University of Cebu bagged two gold medals by topping the junior category and the all-whitebelt competitions.

The third gold medal was won by another UC player named Carriaga.

These recent developments in Cebu judo makes me very happy because of the fact that the sport is very close to my heart having played in since I was 17 years old.

Congratulations to all of you and to my buddy Atty. Vicente E. Fernandez II, who is working hard to promote judo here.

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MILESTONES: Belated birthday greetings to my mistahs Lt. Col. Samuel Sagun and Marino Bautista as well as to Julie Go and Genevieve Capacio-Velasquez, who turned a year older last Monday.

The same goes to Mommy Ging-ging Villa, Chief Supt. Vicente Loot, Cav Ronald Manahan, Boyet Silab, Bobby Martinez, and my niece Corina Nicole Quiñones, who celebrated yesterday.

Today’s greetings go to VECO’s Ethel Taneo-Natera, Lt. Col. Neil Gomez of the Air Force, Doreen Dy, Allan Limas, and my nephew Toshio L. Osada, Jr.

More power to all of you! - THE FREEMAN