Azkals and the English accent

The Azkals are undoubtedly the new toast of Philippine sports. We’re not even talking about a stint in the World Cup. We’re not even sure of beating Kuwait earlier today. But like them or not, the Azkals have already set the tone for becoming one of the country’s biggest over-achievers in sports history. With the right mix of hard work, determination and a crafty approach at managing the Philippine team, the country has now reached a record-breaking second round in the World Cup qualifying stage for Asia. While this may not be a championship, the feat has pushed football to its highest acceptance levels among Pinoy sports fans worldwide, and has now stepped up to compete with billiards and boxing with basketball next in sight. So win or lose this morning and in the next round, we already have so much to be grateful for with the Azkals.

But the more interesting thing to take note of is its impact on local football. What does all this Azkals fever mean for the country’s football program? Will the country finally move on and be a force even if only here in Southeast Asia? Here we are praising the Azkals to the heavens but ironically, we still haven’t been crowned as the kings of the Southeast, have we? I’d really like to see what steps are going to be taken by the new management of the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) to grab bragging rights in the region.

For starters, the tapping of Fil-Europeans and Fil-Ams is already a given. It has worked wonders for the national team, both from a technical and a PR level. Not only are the Fil-foreigners better than our local heroes. They’re also good-looking and make excellent ambassadors of the sport. We now see Phil Younghusband posing topless with Angel Locsin in a billboard. With their English accents coming as a welcome break from the usual American accents that we hear in basketball, it sure looks like showbiz is a certain part-time career for some (or all)? The core group of Azkals have already done a TV commercial together with no less than Neil Etheridge, Aly Borromeo and Anton del Rosario taking part. Football fans are now welcoming the not so usual names such as Giraldo, Schrock, Ott, De Jong, and Gier. No slam dunking Seigle’s, Pennisi’s or Williams here, are there?

The next interesting thing is how we intend to develop a continuity program for the national team. Do we now start working on identifying the top teen-aged Fil-foreigners in Europe? You can bet that there are more Pinoys out there. After all, isn’t the Pinoy everywhere? Or do we develop a strong grassroots program for the youth that will make us at par with those Fil-foreigners? But are we capable of putting up such a program? One can’t become as good as those Fil-foreigners with the state of our football program in the country. Our local prospects are better off going to Europe rather than staying in the country where their growth in terms of football talent and skills will be limited by the lack of competition, training and over-all exposure.

If one looks at our local football community, we already have a considerable amount of activities. This weekend alone, we have the Treadtel Cup. Also being played is the Mandaue Football League being organized in San Roque. San Roque also hosts a San Roque Cup Festival every August. Coming up in late August is the CESAFI football tournament for college and high school teams. The Aboitiz Cup kicks off in September and will last until around February. Somewhere in between, the Sinulog and Thirsty Festivals will be played as one-weekend tournaments. From the looks of it, that’s already a fully-loaded calendar of activities. The same is also being duplicated in other major cities like Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao and Manila. But with all these, why can’t we still produce a world-class from our very own? Why can’t a Cebuano football player make it big in Europe? Meanwhile, all those still unknown Fil-foreigners are quietly training with European football clubs from England to Germany to Spain. They probably don’t even know that they’re eligible to play for a future Azkals team. But they’ll get better, stronger and faster, and will be even better than the Younghusbands, Schrock’s and De Jong’s of today.

So what to do indeed? We can continue to grow our local feeds and hope that one day, they’ll be at par with the Fil-foreigners. But for now, we have to face the fact that the imported “breed” is still much better.

So welcome the Azkals, thanks to the English, German and Spanish accents.

oOo

Time-out: Join the St. Ignatius Run on Saturday, July 30 at the Sacred heart School-Ateneo de Cebu campus in Canduman. >>> You can reach me at [email protected].