RP in World Cup?

I received a text message from my good friend Wellington ‘Willy’ Lim correcting one of the details that he sent me on the hole-in-one scored by Apolinar ‘Inar’ Suarez.

The other witness aside from Hernan Streegan was Sabas Suarez and not Felimon Suarez, Willy told me.

Thanks for the information partner and keep those good news from the golf clubs coming during the early hours of the day. Such text messages or calls surely beat the bad news that we, in my profession, often get.

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With barely a year to go before the World Cup of Football in South Africa, the powerhouse nations are now scrambling for slots into the world’s most popular single-event sports meet.

Five-time champion Brazil has made it along with Paraguay for South America and so has the United States and Mexico.

Argentina, which is coached by the legendary Diego Maradona, continues to struggle for form and there are many who seem to think that the team’s problem is that Maradona is not as good a coach as he was a player.

In Europe, England, probably the most popular European team in our country, has already booked a slot and I’m sure David Beckham, who is one of the sport’s poster boys would be aching to get one more shot at a World Cup title.

England has long had that lone star on its jersey, which, for the benefit of those who don’t know, means the nation has won the World Cup only once, and should be hoping to add one more next year.

In the Philippines, we talk about working hard to aim for a World Cup slot in 20 or more years, but we seem never to get too far.

It is good that we have all these competitions for the youth, but like in tennis and golf, we don’t have a very good program after the age group or junior ranks and this stalls our plans of making it bigger in the international level.

Maybe we’ll someday make it to the World Cup, but while I am hoping to see that happen, I have a feeling that this won’t happen in my lifetime.

This does not however mean I’d turn my back to football. I love the game and I look forward to the day when I can again play or at least watch my son play again.

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I remember the time when PBA teams coming to Cebu were almost off limits to the local sportswriters. 

I’m happy that those years have passed and we get to see more PBA teams.

On Monday, the Purefoods team will face the M. Lhuillier Jewelers at the Cebu Coliseum.

Is James Yap coming? I guess that’s the question that many fans are now asking.

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MILESTONES: We got another long list of greetings for this weekend.

Happy birthday greetings go to Noriviena Bersales-Philipps, Glynis ‘Ging’ Diano, Aristedes ‘Jong’ Merida, and to Cebu City SK Federation President Rengelle Pelayo.

Tomorrow’s greetings go to my former cameraman Ralston Norman ‘Al’ Rallon, Jimmy Lucero, Victoria Laurel Fernandez, Marites Borres and Jeralyn Cañares.

More power to all of you! – THE FREEMAN