The low down on Milo
Don Bosco won its second straight Milo crown.
A player from the runner-up team got the MOA.
Springdale won its first championship. They got the MOA.
This is my third post regarding this issue--don't bother checking all previous posts were deleted after a few minutes--so I decided on the barebones approach--just a simple statement of facts. (I am still planning to write about this in the paper.)
I can't express my opinion here, yet, but you can.
A player from the runner-up team got the MOA.
Springdale won its first championship. They got the MOA.
This is my third post regarding this issue--don't bother checking all previous posts were deleted after a few minutes--so I decided on the barebones approach--just a simple statement of facts. (I am still planning to write about this in the paper.)
I can't express my opinion here, yet, but you can.
Comments
1. the MVP or MOA, specially in small sided tournaments or festivals, should come from the champion team.
2. in small-sided tournament formats, the coaches of the participating teams should vote who the MVP is from the champion team.
3. in small-sided festival formats, the winning coach should be the one to choose who is the MVP of his champion team.
previous Milo Olympic MOA awards also had the same issues. almost always, the reason issued by those who awarded the MOA to a non-champion player is that the player was individually better than the others despite not being able to lift his team to the championship.
i completely disagree with this policy. football is a team game. a player's almost singular ability to carry his team to victory is reason enough for him/her to be awarded the MOA. be it an offensive player who scored the most goals or a defensive player who kept the slate clean, the MVP should come from the champion team.
take for example Springdale's Arriola. he didn't score the most goals nor did he anchor the team defense BUT he orchestrated Springdale's offensive and defensive plays that resulted in them winning the championship. that, for me, is how a player earns the MVP.
the football organizers decided that a player who scored 13 goals for the champion team is not worthy to be an MVP. they also decided that a midfielder who orchestrated 29 goals for his team doesn't deserve the award. they also decided that a defense that allowed only 3 goals in the entire tournament doesn't deserve MVP status.
the organizers screwed this one up. it wouldn't make them lesser men if they make it right before the MOA Awards night.
This only means the talent pool is getting smaller and smaller inspite of what we perceive to be the growing popularity of the sport the last few years in Cebu. On the other hand, you can observe during festivals, that there always seem to be a big number of players in the elementary and primary levels. So are we losing players to other sports as they get older?
Shouldn't this be an indication for CebuFA and the football community to come up with programs geared to keep the boys interested in playing soccer? Shouldn't we provide even more tournaments for the older years? Again a good example is the tournament drought for the 1992-born boys this year. After the Aboitiz Festival, there is probably no more tournament for this age group until next year much less a full-sided league-type for them. How about the 1990 group?
Something serious must be done in this area. The objective should be to at least maintain player population. I am sure that now, it is drastically dwindling. Who will compose the U23 Team Philippines in the future?
Football is a TEAM sport, and it involves a group effort from its players to make the team win. Among the players in the team, there is usually a player who contributed the most in bringing his team to the winners podium. He can be the striker who scored the most goals, or the midfielder who dictated the play with its pinpoint passing & control of the center, or the goalkeeper who made those crucial saves, etc, etc.
In other words, the MOA should be awarded to the player who belongs to the CHAMPION team - because they were the "most outstanding" in that tournament/event.
There might be some very good, excellent, superb INDIVIDUAL players in the other teams but in that particular tournament he somehow "failed" to help the team in its championship dream, thus as a player he was not OUTSTANDING.
In short, its a team effort. If your team does not win, you cant be the Most Outstanding Athlete.
What happenend to the recent 2006 Milo Olympics Football (Elementary) was somewhat disturbing. The MOA was awarded to the player belonging to the losing team. On what grounds? He and his team failed in its effort to bag the title. What makes the player the MOST OUTSTANDING in the tournament? Nothing personal, I dont even know the player, but he "failed" in its effort to win for the team - thus he cant be the most outstanding athlete.
Adding insult to injury is when people speculate the "link" between the Tournament Manager (TM) and the losing team. The TM is associated with that losing team...
Sad to say that the essence of "FAIR PLAY" was definitely not realized, considered, and achieved!!!!!!
Congratulations to both DBC and Springdale!
life
PFF and the FA's are supposed to fill in the gaps, that's why we have the age groups. unfortunately, we only have one tournament per year for them - and as you pointed out, the born 1992 doesnt even have one scheduled for them. between elementary and high school varsity squads, there are 3 age-groups that are dependent on PFF and FA tourneys. yes, we risk the loss of potential football players during this stage to other sports IF we don't keep them playing.
CebuFA should have visualize this, and prepared for it. the solution is very simple - just organize more games. you know what, i wouldn't even mind spending a few bucks as part of a registration fee just so that we can have more tournaments for these "in-between" age groups. of course, i expect CebuFA to do there jobs and look for sponsors but i have long accepted the fact that they are incapabale of this and they are too short-sighted to look long-term.
last year, the DBC U14 team played in the Aboitiz P15 division because there were no tournaments for them except the redribbon which was held on the latter part of the school year. i also remember when this senior batch of Springdale players played in the last Coke-Go-for-Goal eliminations when they were still P14 or U14. a couple of years back, a DBC P10 team played in the P12 division because they only had a festival to look forward to. it's the same for some City Central batches.
yes, CebuFA should seriously address this concern. i have been posting this issue several times already. i hope many more will catch on.