Fifa dropped by Cebu
Fifa officials are here in Cebu.
Guess what happened.
Guess what happened.
The failed U23 experiment
THE only positive thing that we can take in that loss against Timor Leste was that the U23 squad looked good in blue. And Ebong, too. The Blue-Haired fanatic whose voice we all heard on TV was fantastic. The team? The result? To be perfectly blunt it was a scrappy game from a scrappy team that seemed to treat the SEAG as a vacation, or a chance to gain more Twitter followers. (Yey, I can tweet the team apology first!) Going into the match, almost every fan who paid attention knew that we needed to win. Unfortunately, it seemed the players were operating on a different mindset.
Comments
Strikers- Liu and Sharpe. Midfields- Veloso,Tecson, Cases, Miguel Arriola, Chiu. Defense-T.J. Mateo, Jerryl Enriquez(Camp Lapulapu),James Mendoza, Almira,the 2 from Don Bosco-you probably know them and their positions-one is midfield i think and one is defense but am not sure. One from Abellana-midfield also. Paolo Pascual keeper.
impressive lineup. i noticed paolo is the only keeper. is red miguel unavailable or is he qualified ? hope Sharpe's and Paolo's injuries this summer has fully healed.
i won't discuss possible tactics coz i'm pretty sure ceniza has everything covered. he has several players that can play 2-3 positions effectively. just one word of caution - the opponents are well known for antagonizing opposing players. i hope our boys can keep their cool if pikunon sila sa kontra. we don't need a "zidane" incident.
as a matter of policy, i hope that the PFF will allow an 18-man lineup for tournaments that will have teams playing 90 minute games everyday. a 15-man lineup for shortened games may be acceptable but one runs the high risk of injury when there is a full game everyday.
an 18-man team will also allow the coach to bring more of his own team (in this case the starting 11 of Springdale). it will give him the luxury of fielding his solid team when the need arises. like what i've always suggested - bring in the champion team and not a team of champions.
too bad i will be out of town this weekend. going to ayala and watching the matches would have been a great way to get out of this post-world cup depression.
c'mon CebuFA, is this your version of the PFF ladies U19 "clerical error" ?
were the rest of the CebuFA board members informed of the meeting ? did they know but didn't think it was that important ? they didn't care ? did the CebuFA at least inform the other stakeholders of cebufootball.
only two showed up ? and what did CebuFA presented during that 3 hour meeting - a non-existent development plan ?
we cannot just depend on one main sponsor and the PFF qualifying tournaments and view it as a program.
since many coaches will definitely be at ayala to watch the games then let's use the occasion to talk. no fancy agenda or expectation, just an open forum or caucus to discuss what the hell is wrong with us.
football talk with FIFA from Maximo and Lotzof ? seriously, would people expect something serious ? if coaches and school reps were there, then even if everything was off the record, i would not lose sleep over it - its football people talking with football guys. but maximo and lotzof talking football infront of FIFA representatives ?
what did they present, festivals and tournaments organized by others and claimed by them ?
mike, how "off the record" is it ? can't you give us a hint ?
you know what you are the third person to say that to me. before i got here, i got a call that _____________, then when i got here, another person, who doesnt know about the first person said the same thing, and now you said _______________.
after that vince and i got to talk about the pff and its image in cebu, i said it was mostly negative since the pff is rarely heard of in cebu and 7 (or was it 6) out of 10, the report is negative.
to be honest, it's not easy to ask questions that will inevitably be regarded as posting negatives and making personal attacks, but i'm pretty sure many will agree that it needs to be asked. if somebody will ask the same questions, i wouldn't be doing it myself.
cebu is an ideal place for football. not only because of the home-grown youths interested in the sport but also because of the adult players from other provinces that are here to work or earn a living. being an economic and educational hub makes it ideal for any sport.
spreading positive news about cebufootball would be great, but it so happens that our problems overshadows our achievements. and i am a person who does not believe in laurel sitting and ego-stroking, that is why i concentrate on what is wrong with us rather than what went right.
FIFA came to talk football with but question is - was cebufootball properly presented to them. nothing personal against maximo, lotzof and the rest of the board (i know some will find that hard to believe), but if they really love the game, then we should have had a football program a long time ago. i don't give a damn about the previous administration (although i know some of them personally). what i give a damn about is the present one. the past admin ain't tasked to lead us - the incumbents are.
this FIFA in cebu incident really shook me up. for them to come here and for us to have only 2 representatives meeting with them shows a lack of passion for the sport. mudd from the other forum made quite a comment - perhaps the CebuFA didn't want the FIFA guys to talk with those who really understands cebufootball - and as of this moment i am bound to agree with him.
some will say - this is just a game so don't take it seriously. but beyond the field, the game (as in any other sport) can teach us about being fair, being focused, and being dedicated - not just to a sport but also in the way we live our lives. this for me is the real tragedy in cebufootball. our kids and the football community sees unfairness, a lack of leadership and direction, and a lack of dedication.
i know we are asking a lot from our football leaders but they are our leaders - like it or not, we need to follow them as far as official policies are concerned. however, we still don't have official policies. that's the root of every complaint i and others have made.
maximo enjoys having the majority of the CebuFA board on his side. check the record of the last election - Springdale and CIS nominees got almost the same number of votes. that for me means that they got in as a bloc - then they should work as a bloc. thus when the majority bloc of the board fails, the leader of that bloc should bear the brunt of the blame. take away buot, montesclaros and ugarte and you still have the numbers in maximo, lotzof, sharpe, chui, veloso and bretherton working for and with you.
even without the other three independent board members, the majority bloc can still function - if they know how to get things done. and there is the center of my arguement - they haven't got the job done.
i'll tell you this - blaming people for a situation affecting an entire community ain't exactly my idea of being productive - but it seems pretty obvious that the majority bloc led by maximo is part of our problem. individually, maximo and lotzof has done their part, i see both of them regularly at the games. but the rest of the board i haven't noticed. sure they are there for the games of their kids, but not before and after. my idea of a CebuFA member is that of one dedicated enough to watch even the most lopsided and boring of matches, and not one who only watches the games of his kid.
maximo is the president - that i recognize - but as president he needs to convince his boardmates (especially his allies) that they all need to act and not just make him do all the work. early in their term, announcements from several individuals proclaimed that the new board members are dedicated to improve cebufootball. i have to ask, where is that dedication now.
but if the members does not make such a move because they feel they are doing a good job then we cannot do anything about. we'll just have to wait and hope that the next elections will provide us with better leaders.