Azkals Palami

With the Azkals vs. Singapore game only 11 days away, we couldn’t help but notice the way Azkals team manager Dan Stephen Palami has been running the national team program of the Philippines with the goal of creating headway in the region. When Cebu goes all out to host the “Face Off in Cebu City: Azkals vs. Singapore,” we’ll get a good glimpse of how far the team has progressed ever since those dark days when our national team couldn’t get past first base in all its international games. We can also track the progress of the Azkals by indirectly comparing them to the Smart Gilas program for basketball. Learning from both programs is certainly a healthy way of strengthening both endeavors.

In the Azkals, you’ll see a team that is now considered a serious threat to the traditional powerhouses of Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. For the first time, the Azkals are actually considered as shoo-ins to make it to the semifinals of the AFF Suzuki Cup, the most prestigious tournament of the Southeast Asia (SEA) region. When the Azkals scored a breakthrough and made it to the semis of the Suzuki Cup in 2010, the region’s football fans were in awe. Here was a team that had to go through a qualifier before making it to the main tournament. It was like having an unseeded player make it all the way to the semis of the Wimbledon. But how did they get there? How did the Azkals suddenly become so popular?

It all starts at the top. Like basketball, football found a generous and devoted backer in Dan Palami. In this basketball-mad country where hundreds (maybe thousands) of businessmen and sportsmen support basketball teams both small and big, Palami dared to stand up and take care of football. Dan found his niche and stuck to it. Sure, football is nowhere near the achievements of basketball, but that makes it even more impressive. The Azkals aren’t even the top dog in the SEA region where our basketball team is unbeatable. At the Asian level, basketball is anywhere between a #4 and #6 in the rankings while the Azkals are nowhere in sight of the top 10. But that didn’t stop Dan from believing. Here he is running the show with faith and a desire to make the team excel.  This reminds us of how Manny V. Pangilinan of “MVP” has also stepped up for basketball, albeit for a different goal. Basketball is now targeting to become among the top two countries in Asia and even dreams of making it to the Olympics. That’s like asking the Azkals to make it all the way to the World Cup. But Palami isn’t taken aback. In fact, he’s driven by it and is going at it one step at a time. The SEA is a logical target and the Suzuki Cup is the benchmark. If the Azkals can win the Suzuki Cup, this will trigger a major leap in the level of football in the country.

Like basketball which relies on Fil-Ams, football has its own share of Fil-foreigners. We use the term foreigners as they are players with Pinoy lineage but coming from different countries. We have the Fil-Brits like the Younghusband brothers Phil and James, easily the most popular of the Azkals. Another popular Fil-Brit is Neil Etheridge, a goalkeeper for Fulham (on loan to a minor team) in the English Premier League. Then you have those from Spain, the U.S., Belgium, Germany, Iran and Italy. The Azkals are a virtual cross-section of the football world. And then you have the best of the local-bred Pinoy football players who have humbly accepted the entry of their brothers from abroad. So far, the formula has worked. The Fil-foreigners bring in a higher level of play which hopes to rub off on the local players. The same is true for the basketball Fil-Ams who have also decided to make the Philippines as their base, playing in the PBA, PBA D-League or the collegiate leagues. Some of football’s Fil-foreigners who can’t make it to the big leagues in Europe have also decided to play football in the United Football League (UFL) which in return has grown by leaps and bounds ever since the sudden rise of the Azkals. We see a situation where the quality of play has been elevated to the point that the UFL has now attracted big time sponsors and financial backers. It also has TV coverage, something unheard of before for the sport. And it isn’t any coincidence that MVP’s AKTV is behind football on TV. Smart has even gone out to support Philippine football through its Smart Interclub National Championships, a tournament that pits the best teams from across the country against each other. None of this would have happened if not for the people who believed, and went out and did it; and they’re still at it.

The sport of football is finally venturing into a territory that it has never been to before. Thanks to a certain guy named Palami, (in Bisaya, it literally means make it taste yummy), football is getting yummier and tastier.

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Time-out: Tickets are very much available for the international friendly between the Azkals and Singapore on November 15, 2012. You can buy tickets at SM Tickets nationwide. For those in Cebu, just go to Imax at SM City Cebu or the SM Cinemas in SM City Consolacion.

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