Nash heart-broken in World Cup

Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash was contracted by CBS as a special correspondent to do video segments of the network’s coverage of the World Cup in South Africa but stayed on the job only for a week before returning to the US for the annual Showdown In Chinatown charity soccer game in New York City last June 23.

Soccer is close to Nash’s heart and so is South Africa where he was born. His father John, who is English, was a professional soccer player in South Africa. And Nash’s first birthday gift was a soccer ball.

Six months after Nash was born, his parents moved the family to Canada. Nash’s brother Martin became a Canadian national soccer player, eventually turning pro with a first division English club and now seeing action for the Vancouver Whitecaps, a future expansion team in Major League Soccer. His sister Joann was captain of the University of Victoria soccer team for three years. His mother Jean also excelled in sports although not in soccer but in netball, a variation of basketball that is popular in the Commonwealth.

As a youngster, Nash dabbled in hockey, soccer, lacrosse, T-ball and basketball. His boyhood dream was to follow in Wayne Gretzky’s footsteps. But at l3, Nash decided to concentrate on basketball. It was the start of an enduring love affair with the sport.

Despite his focus on basketball as a career, Nash never lost his interest in soccer. He has always been an avid soccer fan and cheers enthusiastically for the English club Tottenham where his father is from. At the 2002 World Cup, he back-packed with friends in a fun trip to watch the matches. And at the 2006 edition, he was also in the stands. So that bringing Nash over to South Africa for this year’s competition hardly took persuasion from CBS.

Nash initiated the Showdown In Chinatown, an eight-a-side exhibition, as an annual event in 2008 to raise funds for his personal Foundation whose primary mandate is to deliver education, health care and freedom from abuse to underprivileged children all over the world.

Nash’s social work was recognized by the University of Victoria last year as he received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the Canadian institution. The two-time NBA MVP earned a degree in sociology at Santa Clara University in California.

Not too many fans know that Nash’s wife Alejandra Amarilla is from Asuncion, Paraguay, and one of his Foundation’s projects was to mobilize resources to equip the country’s oldest hospital (known as the Hospital of the Poor) for an intensive-care post-operative pediatric cardiology ward. By the way, Nash and Ale are proud parents of twin daughters Lourdes (Lola) and Isabella (Bella), both 6.

Nash, who played basketball for Canada at the 2000 Olympics and carried the torch that lit the Olympic cauldron in Vancouver at the Winter Games this year, must have felt awful that Paraguay lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to Spain in the World Cup quarterfinals last weekend.

Paraguay hadn’t lost a single match until running into Spain. In the Group F preliminary round, Paraguay posted a 1-2-0 win-draw-loss record, beating Slovakia, 2-0 and tying Italy, 1-1, and New Zealand, 0-0. In the round of 16, Paraguay played Japan to a scoreless standoff then won, 5-3, in the penalty shootout to advance to the quarters.

Spain didn’t score until the 83rd minute to eliminate Paraguay. It was a bitter loss as Oscar Cardozo’s penalty kick was denied by Spain’s keeper Iker Castillas before David Villa booted in the clincher. Still, reaching the quarterfinals was Paraguay’s best finish ever in seven previous World Cups since its debut in 1930. Paraguay made it to the round of 16 in 1986, 1998 and 2002.

With Argentinian coach Gerardo Martino calling the shots, Paraguay qualified out of the South American group, beating Brazil and Argentina along the way.

Paraguay’s chances would’ve been enhanced in South Africa if only leading shotmaker Salvador Cabanas could suit up but the star striker, who plays in Mexico, was shot in the head last January and the bullet is still lodged in his brain. Cabanas now has short-term memory loss and doctors are unable to make a prognosis of a full recovery.

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The Filipino credited for getting former Crispa players together in the US is 49-year-old Jaime (Jimmy) Fojas, facilities manager at Zeachem, Inc. in Menlo Park, California. Fojas has been a Crispa fan since 1979 and even after migrating to the US 10 years later, stayed loyal to the Floros’ Men In Green.

It was Fojas who paved the way for The STAR interviews with former Crispa stars Billy Ray Bates and Abet Guidaben in New Jersey.

“Billy’s working on his passport at the moment and he’s in touch with Bobby Parks and I spoke with Norman Black and they both expressed their support once he gets to Manila,” said Fojas. “I will arrange that he gets a pre-paid phone just to use when he’s in Manila. I offered for him to stay in our home in San Pedro, Laguna. He would love to go back to Manila and hopes to do a lot of book signing appearances, clinics and coaching. I’m always in contact with Crispa and other PBA players based in the US. I’m getting some more information with ABS-CBN International in Redwood City to do a segment on Billy Ray before coming to Manila.