CEBU, Philippines — A fortnight before, this column chronicles top stories for Philippine sports during the year about to end. The biggest story was written by a group of women who barged into the never before – the World Cup of women’s football. The nation thought that was good enough, especially when they absorbed the expected 0-2 loss in their first match against Switzerland.
But as they always say, the ball is round, just as the crystal ball of those hoping against hope is. And voila, the Malditas went for broke with a nothing-to-lose resolve in their second match. They stunned New Zealand with that one herstoric goal by Sarina Bolden – the first goal and the first match won by the Philippines in the quadrennial games. They not only stunned the higher ranked host country, they shocked themselves more, the country and the world peopled with Filipinos who had to leave their country for a better life. One reason why heritage players dominated the team, with only about four are Philippine-born.
But their inaugural campaign ended in a lopsided 0-6 drubbing by Norway. Regardless, history had been written, by a group of women who pierced the impenetrable veil. Watch parties partied more the world over, courtesy of the not-so Filipinas who introduced the country they hardly know to the world, except that it’s the place of origin of one of their parents.
Just as the other equally big story was written by a team of heritage and naturalized men who recaptured the regional basketball gold from a host inter-country er, country of naturalized players. Again, the nation thought that was good enough, it already gave up its dream of reclaiming the continental gold it last won six decades ago. How can the Philippines reclaim basketball supremacy against Japan, Korea, Iran and China? It could not even defend its territory against the country of more than a billion people, how can it reclaim what it ceded. The game. Whether it is easier to defend than to reclaim is best left to history though. Of sports.
But then the unthinkable happened. Gilas came back from nowhere to beat host country China in the semis. Again, the nation thought that was better than good. Or gold. The imag
e of stunned Chinese players in their own home court was a sight to behold, and to be told, over and over again. Even what Yao Ming said was music to the ears of the most musically-inclined people in the world. How Gilas rose from the dead must be due to the trademark resilience of the Filipinos. No, that has been preyed on by vultures not only in the august halls. And no, not everyone on the team is Filipino.
In fact, the hero is naturalized. Justin Brownlee failed the drug test, in one rare instance when positive is negative. From hero to almost zero. But it did not infect the entire team, so the gold stays with the Philippines, courtesy of a team largely composed of larger men born and raised elsewhere.