Home coming

I went home, last Thursday to attend my friends' wedding -- to fulfill my promise that I would be there when they exchange vows.

In the process, I missed a lot of football action in Cebu, but so what?

My friends will only get married once, Cebu can host another regional, there's another women's open.

Still, when I got back, I thought, heck, I didn't miss much. Leading 2-0 at halftime and losing 2-4 after full time? Losing to Bacolod (was it) by five goals? Wheew!

I haven't seen any of the games and but I can surmise on the facts.

Cebu did their best. That is for sure.

There was no hometown factor.

The players -- who have practiced and sacrificed a lot for the tournament -- are their own biggest critics.

You can't blame the coach, I don't know about you, but the Cebu U17 coach is the best coach in Cebu as far as I am concerned.

But no matter how good a coach you are, there are some things that cannot be taught.

Things that a player learns by playing barefoot under the sun with opponents a generation older. Cebu football is learned in the school level, Barotac football is learned in the streets.

In this case, street education wins over school education, hands down.

Comments

Anonymous said…
correct ka dyan Mike about your comments about hos Barotac boys learn the game and that is why stamina of iloilo was way up there vs our boys.
6:14 AM
Anonymous said…
other things that a coach cannot teach, but a player must naturally have - pride, dedication, a fear of NOT losing, and a killer's instinct.

that's one disadvantage when football is school based and PFF schedules are not coordinated with school calendars.

if the tournament was played anytime between November to April, i bet our boys would be in tip-top football playing shape. this tournament was prepared and played during and right after summer vacation when many distractions (other than school) was going on.

however, that isn't justification enough for our performance. the other teams also has the same school year as ours. if they were physically and mentally fit, then we should have been also.

i don't blame the coach and the boys. perhaps it's just that we don't play enough eleven-a-side matches (here i go again) for us to fully prepare for such matches. playing full side regularly is a big factor when developing tactics, team familiarity and stamina. we didn't have that, the other teams did.

again, this is not primarily a wakeup call for the football community but to the CebuFA. ORGANIZE MORE ELEVEN A SIDE MATCHES FROM BOYS 12 UP. AND MAKE IT SEVERAL TOURNAMENTS PER BRACKET AND NOT JUST 1 PER YEAR.

i don't care how many seven a side festival crowns we have. our development will undoubtably be based on our performances on full side matches against the top teams of country.

i don't believe that we are very far back from iloilo and negros football. simply put, they were just better teams this year compared to us. i have witnessed many tournaments wherein we dominated and won over iloilo and negros based teams - from age groups to mens - and they were the ones commenting how great cebufootball is. we just need to have a decent enough football program to follow.
7:30 AM
Anonymous said…
corek ka dyan again ronaldo on the need for 11-a-side. Now CFA saw how their sons were routed by fit boys who regularly play in full-sided games. Anybody who has gone to Barotac and has seen their games/fields understand this.
11:49 AM
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