Thirsty for football

You thirsty for football? Plain football that is and not the type that involves conflicts and politics. Am I thirsty for football? I sure am and have always been, but I must make a disclosure that this has nothing to do with the politics of the game. We just happen to love the game.

The next two weekends will be an excellent gauge on how thirsty Cebu Football is. With the staging of the ninth edition of the Thirsty Football Cup, the University of San Carlos (USC) Talamban Campus and San Roque football fields will be two big fiestas taking place under the umbrella of what can be considered as the biggest gathering of football teams in one tournament in Cebu, or maybe even the Vismin. I can still remember when the first runs of the Thirsty Football Cup were held at the old Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu football field inside the Cebu Business Park. Every age group would gather only a handful of teams. And these teams came from the familiar traditional schools or clubs which comprised Cebu Football. Each group was just a copy and paste job of each other. But we all had fun, didn’t we? Fast forward to today, we can now say that although a football festival wasn’t exactly a new idea back then, Thirsty has set the standards and bar for how to stage one. It has grown to become just that: a big fiesta celebrating the sport of football. When you’ve grown to bring in over three hundred teams in 14 age groups, then you’ve got to be doing something right.

But what exactly is a football festival? It’s a one to two-day tournament that features a whole day of games and declares a champion at the end of the day. Games are shorter, fields are smaller and players play what are called “small-sided” games. Instead of a full football field that runs around 100 meters long and 50 meters wide, the fields or “pitches” at festivals are much smaller. The smallest field for the Under 6 and 8 year olds are approximately 1/8 of a full-size football field. Playing teams have five on each side with substitutions allowed anytime during the game. These are called “flying substitutions.” The older age groups play seven-a-side games in fields that are around ¼ of a full size field. The fun part of it all is that a football field will have as many as six to eight different pitches with games being played simultaneously all day long. Games start as early as 7:30 in the morning and the last game will be played around 5:30 pm. When the Thirsty Football Cup festival was held at the Cebu City Sports Complex (past years), games would run until midnight, thanks to the bright lights. A sidelight is that tents, food, drinks (including smuggled beer) and families are aplenty. It’s like a big fiesta of eating and drinking interrupted by short football games. When your team is losing, you prefer the food and drinks. When your team wins, the drinks taste so much better (instead of bitter). 

Football festivals should not be confused with the regular 11-a-side game that we see on ESPN and Star Sports: UEFA, Primera Liga, English Premier League, Bundesliga and even the country’s UFL (on AKTV). The full game is still the real game that counts most and is the barometer for determining who’s who in the football world.

But what does matter is that the small sided games that are common in football festivals are the training grounds and crucial preparatory stages for the real game. When one starts playing football, he doesn’t play 11-a-side football right away. Practice drills and routines for team passing (and teamwork) are limited to four to seven players who share the ball and pass this to one another. They obviously do this in smaller areas within the football field, and at times these turn into mini games in practice. This is essentially the same drill or game that is now seen in football festivals. What started out as simple ball drills actually graduated to become competitive games at what we now know as football festivals. Another crucial element about small sided games is that this is also the platform of play for the regular game. Remember that scoring a goal in an 11-a-side football game comes when a team has full control of a ball possession. Many times, this can start from one’s own back field or its goal area. As the team moves up the field to get closer to the other team’s goal, the players pass the ball to one another until they get a clear shot at the goal. But not all 11 players touch the ball each time, right? The ball is passed and weaved around four to seven players from one side to the other and moving slowly towards an opposing goal. This system of passing of the ball is what we see in small sided games. In the case of a full field, there are more passes and a longer distance to traverse. In festival games, you don’t have as many passes since the field is smaller.

So you still thirsty for football? For the best festival, it’s got to be Thirsty.

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Time-out: Happy birthday to my brother Henry Navarro. >>> You can reach me at [email protected]