Upset

One of the many words in English where you can change the location of the accent, and it would still mean the same. By now, everybody who has even the slightest interest in Philippine sports has heard of the Philippines’ upset over football powerhouse Vietnam in the AFF Suzuki Cup. Our team beat the Vietnamese in their own stadium, silencing the home fans with a 2-0 win! The win has upset the Vietnamese coach, so much as to label the type of football that our team played as “poor and ugly”. Well, that’s what happens during upsets, you have an upset coach!

I’ll be the first to admit that our team, known as the Azkals, may not have World Cup flair, yet. They’re still a long way to becoming a powerhouse team in the region such as Vietnam. But the team has shown that they certainly can become one. Our team played incredible defense, which the Vietnamese coach just could not accept. How many times have you heard the saying “the best offense is a good defense” or something to that matter? And the score was 2-0, hello? The team did have offense! This was not a 0-0 or 1-0 fluke of a game, but a convincing two goals to none! The Vietnamese coach can wallow in his sorrow for all I care!

The team is currently in the semifinal leg of the tournament, having recently drawn with Myanmar. Sadly, the Azkals will once again have to play away from the country, since we apparently do not have a football stadium that meets international standards, or at least maintained in acceptable standards! We lost the opportunity to cheer and support our team against Indonesia.

Perhaps it’s about time we take another close, hard look at Philippine football. With all due respect to basketball being the favorite sport of Filipinos, if Asian countries like Japan and South Korea can compete in the World Cup, then we most certainly can! Basketball is most certainly a tall man’s game. You don’t need height in football. It is time the government steps in and throws its full support to the development of a really good football program. One that trains players to international competition caliber. The Azkals already have shown that it can be done. For now, I would really like to see the team reach the finals, which will be quite a feat for a team known to be the cellar dwellers of Asian football!