Another pride of Cebu

Kuwait has jumped seven positions higher in the FIFA World Rankings and is now number 95. This is based on the June 2011 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings, which you can check on www.fifa.com.

The Philippines, on the other hand, dropped three rungs lower from 159th to 162nd with a total of 108 points, just three points better and one ranking higher than Mongolia.

While the rankings may tell the disparity of the two teams in the standings, it doesn’t always mean that the higher-ranked team will not lose.

Tonight, we hope that would happen as the Philippine Azkals host Kuwait at the Rizal Memorial Stadium for the second leg of their World Cup Qualifier.

We need to win by a margin of four goals to advance to the next stage.

Whether that happens or not, sulk not, because the Azkals have already reached a point where were never had the chance to be in the past.

Go Azkals!

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The rainy weather gives us a lot of reason to sulk as many would rather stay home than go somewhere and get drenched or wade through the floodwaters.

There is, however, one reason to get the Cebu golf community very excited, the Aboitiz Invitational 2011, which will have a pro-am event on August 30 and a 72-hole tournament on August 31 to September 3.

This will be the richest event of the Pilipinas Golf Tour this year with a total of $65,000 at stake.

The champion will take home $11,000 and only the top 50 players after two rounds would advance to the last two days of the event. There will be a total of 126 players joining the tournament.

Aside from the top pros of the country like Frankie Miñoza and Juvic Pagunsan we also expect pros with the Asian Development Tour (ADT), who are from other parts of the world.

Frankie, reportedly, is nursing an injury, but shall hopefully be fit for the Aboitiz Invitational.

We will miss Angelo Que, who is scheduled to play in Switzerland, but there would also be the other local stars like Mars Pucay, Artemio Murakami, last year’s winner Jay Bayron, and Marvin Dumandan.

We’ve never had an event this big in Cebu and definitely this is a reason to feel like there is sunshine despite the rain.

What I am also looking forward to would be the changes at the Cebu Country Club, which would make the course tougher for the pros.

I’ll keep you posted on any update.

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MILESTONES: Happy birthday greetings go to Mary Grace Avila-Abad, Allan Torrevillas, Edeliz Lingaro, Julie Ann Reyes- Zoobi, Joy Siguenza, Josephine Cavada-Suson, Maya Streegan-Sarmago, and Menchu Domingo who are all turning a year older today.

Advance greetings go to Rick Gabuya, Joan Villahermosa-Gomez, Didit Fernandez, Mafie Nillas, Rhia de Pablo, and Rachel Aballe-Rogado, who will be celebrating tomorrow.

More power to all of you!