Cebu Football

I’ve long wanted to write about the “Fil-foreigners” rather on the use of the term ever since I heard Chad Gould’s father’s remarks during Mari Martinez’s visit in the CebuFA elections. (Please check Jack Biantan, my former boss', column at Pinoysoccer.com for reference. To sum it up, the term Fil-foreigners, according to the senior Gould, is an insult, since these folks are 100 percent Filipinos. They got it wrong. The Fil-foreigner tag isn’t supposed to denote a Pinoy’s lineage, it simply serves to identify where that certain Pinoy learned the sport. Note that the “Fil-foreigner” is a term unique to Philippine football—owing perhaps to football’s global reach. In the PBA, they are identified as Fil-Ams, or Fil-Tsongan, or as others would have it, as Fil-Shams. These Pinoys learning of the sport--and training—is what makes them different. It’s not about lineage, or ancestry. Hence, the Fil-foreigner tag. By being named or tagged as a Fil-foreigner, they are supposed to save or t...

The SYKES 2008 Involve Football Tournament opened up with a BANG! The opening ceremony was graced by the presence of Cebu Football Association President Richard Montayre, who, thanked the players for their support in promoting the sport in the country and encourage them to join the upcoming CebuFA tournaments. Despite a yearlong hiatus, each team displayed the true meaning of "For the love of the game." Team RED and Team GREEN were both scoreless in 10 minutes into game 1. Mark Limpag had the first scoring opportunity for Team GREEN via penalty but Sherwin Ngujo was quick enough to deflect the kick and the followup. Romuel Balintag (MVP, 2006 Tournament) scored two goals for Team RED near the end of the first half. Team GREEN pushed for goals on the second half, attacking from both wings and the middle, prompting Balintag to help the defense. Team GREEN's efforts finally paid off when Juvelon Soria sneaked past Team RED's defense and found the back of the net. The gam...

From Sun.Star Cebu FIFTEEN teams have already signed up for the Men’s Open category of the upcoming three day football tournament—the University of the Philippines (UP) Centennial Cup on June 7 to 9 at the UP Cebu College football field. Set to compete in this competition commemorating the 100th year since the founding of UP in 1908 are House of Hope Football Club, the visiting Ormoc FC, the organizing club Uptown United FC, the home team UP Alumni FC, Lear FC, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Football Cup champion Tsuneishi FC, Talisay FC, People Support FC, Spectra FC, Xantos FC, Barili FC, Camputhaw FC, the First Uptown United Invitational Cup champion University of Southern Philippines Foundation Alumni FC and the Don Bosco Pipol FC. Donn Rabanes, the tournament director, said he is still waiting for word if one of the city’s top teams, the Don Bosco Alumni FC, which was one of the chosen few invited in the tournament, will send a team. This football extravaganza...

With the lack of tournaments in Cebu ( a weekend without football is a weekend wasted), we should be thankful for the groups, clubs and schools who organize their own football tournaments. However, one downside of this is the common complaints of people who say the organizers swing a certain way. Now, I generally do not pay attention to questions on referee’s bias, vis-à-vis the organizers, but saying “A tournament started by a DB affiliate is in favor of DB teams. All officials and tournament heads are biased to DB. They give high priority to DB teams and give low priority to other teams,” is quite something. Of course, here in Cebu, you can replace the initials “DB” with Queen City, SRFC, CebuFA directors,…etc..in the previous statement. Every referee is biased, based on which side of the fence you sit.  And as a little Ripley-believe-it-or-not, during the break between the eliminations and the semifinals of a national open, I spent a few hours enriching SMC with the referees, and th...

I was going to tackle the Phil Younghusband and Joyce Ramirez “scandal” (an upgrade-your-traffice-sort-of-post), when I got the chance to read the comments in the shoutbox. First, as to the interference, all I can say is, “Ablate Español?” Second, as to the concern of the teams that most of the referees in the Beach Soccer Open were from Don Bosco, all I can say is: “Duh!” The event was organized by the Don Bosco Alumni Football Club, where will they get their referees?  Slrap? Referees always make a judgment call, and for each call, half the players on the field will agree with it and the other half will think the referee should be skinned alive. Unless of course, there was blatant bias, say the water boy of Opposing team punches his fellow waterboy of Don Bosco affiliated team and the star striker (or keeper) of non-Don Bosco team gets red carded for drinking water, then we have a reason to cry foul. Otherwise, the participants should have raised the issue, knowing the organizer is a...

Check the first report regarding the Charlie Cojuangco Cup. (Yep that failed charlie by Charlie) http://pinoysoccer.com/philippine-football/fu-drubs-um-in-1st-coc-cup-bootfest-opener.html "Organizers, led by former 4th district Representative Carlos O. Cojuangco, held a press conference before Monday's CPU-USLS match at the Panaad media center, together with visiting Spanish coach Maur Rozen, match commissioner Leo Dayot and referees inspector Dennis Estaniel." Nothing about the press conference?  Usually, when things like this occur, it usually means that during the press conference, nothing substantial was said about the event.  Reporters usually say (What the hell am I going to write) if they attend a football press conference that turns into a critique about why the Philippines should adopt the Federal system. "He added that both UAAP titlist Far Eastern University and NCAA reigning champion San Beda College were also invited but failed to beat the deadline for c...

I'll jump the gun. PFF president Mari Martinez has abandoned his plan to change the moniker Azkals, but upon reading the story of how the team got its name, he said, "That guy again!" when he got to the bottom part. To quote Alain at pinoysoccer.com, "And from what I've heard, Martinez is still fuming about the April fools joke." Coach Norman won't be back at the team, tired as he is with all the interference.  The PFF will finally put its own website, (I'm curious what news will be in that site.)  For a change, the Pinoys will travel to England to train with the Fil-Brits and as to the brouhaha about Phil Younghusband's failed signing with the LA Galaxy, well with David Beckham getting the lion share of the payroll, someone else is bound to get the ant's share--no, the parasite of the ant's share--of the payroll. 287 dollars a week to play football? And oh, the pinoysoccer.com community share the same idea with the PFF president with reg...

PFF president Mari Martinez isn't happy with the name and has ordered the PFF marketing director to look for a new name.  Martinez further reasons and out and tells Jack Biantan that he hasn't read anything about "Azkals" in the papers. Ok, so we have a president who doesn't like the name, does that mean we will have a new name as every four years? That Martinez haven't read anything about Azkals in the papers shows that our president isn't truly aware of football in the whole country, perhaps he only bothers to read the newspaper space which the PFF has managed to buy. A lot of discussion went with that name, which was adopted as early as 2005, during the SEA Games, where was Martinez then? Musing about the failed Prama Cup? Judging with how the PFF will handle this, I don't give a barnyard dung whatever new name they come up for the Philippine national team, not even if they managed to plaster it in the national papers, (newspace for sale). One thing...

Courtesy of Sun.Star Cebu (again) by UP Mass Comm Intern Eva Marie Gamboa THE Don Bosco Pinoysoccer.com team didn’t think they had a big chance of winning the 8th National Inter-Club Football Tournament since compared to the other teams who practiced everyday, they only got to practice “once in a blue moon” and with three or more members absent. The one-week tournament was so far the biggest event organized by the Cebu Football Association (CFA) and was attended by teams from outside Cebu and was graced by the presence of the Philippine national team. During the Scoop forum with Bobby Inoferio, Don Bosco Pinoysoccer.com shared the challenges the squad faced. “The players had no commitment (with the team) because some of them are working,” said Warloo Sabella, one of the team members. The members of the team were selected from different schools and clubs, but they were able to project a certain “chemistry” on the field. “The team is already a selection in itself,” said Br. Jose Ma. Aber...

Courtesy of Sun.Star Cebu by Edri K. Aznar THIS summer, the heat of the shores of Moalboal will turn up a notch as 35 teams will battle it out in the 2nd Beach Football Open at Basdako, Moalboal tomorrow. The defending champions in both the Men’s and Women’s Opens, the San Roque Football Club, will send three teams, two for the Men’s category and one for the Ladies division. Joining them in the Men’s category are three teams from XP Moalboal, two teams from San Roque Royal United, University of the Philippines Foundation Alumni, Monger Inc., St. John Bosco United, two squads from FC Inter Cebu, CSAT-FC, two groups from Queen City United, two teams from Danao FC, Barili FC, two squads from Don Bosco Lawaan, Crazy Horse, Don Bosco Alumni Youth, Maitland Smith, Cravings and Kapuge (both from San Carlos City). In the Women’s Open it will be a battle between the Lasalle Alumni from Bacolod, Mobelhaus, Don Bosco Women’s, Queen City United, Bangan (University of the Philippines Alumni), CSAT ...

I’ve heard that the media center for the Asian Challenge Cup only had one PC on it. Phew. It isn’t surprising since it was also the case during the Asean Football Federation Qualifiers, hosted by Bacolod City in 2006. Good thing our office provided us with a laptop then, but the problem was our bulky laptop didn’t have any wi fi, I had to wait for the guy in charge of that lone PC to get finished so I can send my report. (This is me, pretending to be busy at the AFF Qualifers. Note the photo in the lap top) I remember, after the second game of the Philippines in the AFF Qualifiers, the guy with the PC (I think he wrote for the AFF Website) left his unit to interview somebody, and I went and commandeered his PC, wrote and submitted my report in under five minutes. Back to that one-pc media center. Amazing isn’t it? All this time, football doesn’t get any publicity in the papers and for the biggest tournament this year, this is what we get? And here’s a quote from one of the PFF’s new ...

A colleague of mine informed me that the company (or was it franchise) involved with Havianias is holding a "free kick" tournament this Saturday at IT park.  They are reportedly planning to bring in a Brazilian keeper, and if you can beat the keeper, you get a reward. I told my colleague to tell the organizer to put up a wide screen and show the RP team's final match against Bhutan, which will be aired live this Saturday on Solar Sports. I just hope they take up and listen to the offer.

Everybody, go to the official home of the Men's and Women's national teams: www.philippinefootball.org.  It's run by Pinoysoccer.com and got loads of features. Click away.

Thanks to the idiots running Skycable, the biggest Sham on Air no longer has Solar Sports.  Of course, Solar Sports will be airing the three AFC Challenge Cup games.  Anybody here who has solar sports or has any idea where we can catch the games live? Please?

Browsing through my favorite website—Pinoysoccer.com—I learned about the controversy surrounding the Cebu All-Stars selection. Though I’ve read a few posts from the chat box about how the Cebu All-Stars were DB or Pinoysoccer.com All-Stars, I didn’t pay much attention. I mean, it’s an All-Star lineup, and like all All-Star teams, they do not represent the best, what they represent is who the coach (or whoever chooses the lineup) thinks are the best. I was surprised with a few names that got included in the All-Star lineup,  but then again, I was also surprised with how the team performed. Glenn Ramos coached the team, and if he had the major role in choosing the players, he may have made his choice based on his experience as a coach, player and observer.  Players he trust who can deliver, players he know can give a little bit more were on the team.  So it isn’t a surprise that a few members of the team are former players he coached. Put in another head coach, and we would have a differ...

IT’S a boring Friday morning, and I have a couple of hours to waste before the C. Lhuillier Tennis Open at Baseline, so I might as well address some issues raised in the chat box, my favorite source of amusement. Here’s news for you folks.  I’m no longer the football reporter for Sun.Star, go figure that out. Reporters can’t cover all games. The Inter Club had four divisions, in three venues. All played simultaneously. Do the math. They have other beats and responsibilities, not just football. Instead of riling against what you perceived is inadequate coverage of the football scene, why don’t you cry out against the absent coverage? Ey? And the correct way to do it? Here’s how. (And this is also the correct way to have your “missing certificates” investigated) Write a letter to the editor, with your full name and address, and address the issue, or better yet, call a press conference.  That way, you put a face and a name behind the accusation.  Think Cris Saavedra, Jun Lozada (minus the...

Here are the last batch of Palaro pictures. The team, led by members of Paref Springdale, with reinforcements from a few other schools, got a silver medal, the first podium finish by a Cebu team in the Palaro secondary football since Glenn Ramos' squad won it all in 2000. All fotos courtesy of Dr. JP. Click on more. ( I have to post the pictures after "more" para dili matabunan ang template)

Here are the first batch of Palaro Pictures, courtesy of Dr. JP. Click on more

There seems to be a glitch, so I'm uploading the first batch of Palaro pictures. There are around 42 more pictures coming. Here's the first six. All pics, courtesy of Dr. JP.

Paref-Springdale may have won the U12 title against MSLDF Canduman in the 8th Cebu Interclub Football Cup at San Roque, but the champion were just lucky enough to hold on to their lead. While Ijo Clarito scored the lone goal of the match, getting past most of the Canduman defense, it was the little guys from Canduman who created most chances, attacking through that little No. 12. Canduman got some a couple of shots late in the game, but both were cleared off by Clarito, who had scrambled to cover his out-of-placed keeper. Just years ago, Canduman was getting battered in festivals, now they are in the finals and not to long from now, they’d be one of the elite teams.

The organizers of the Cebu Interclub Invitational Tournament decided to transfer the venue to the finals to San Roque because the USC field--add a cow and a plank--looked more like a rice paddy than a football field. Despite the sudden transfer, the club didn't have any problems--owing to its strong logistical support.  Also during the semifinals, things were done more smoothly.  No more istambays in the teams' benches. Also, in the U15 finals, two (was it three) parent/doctors were able to help the injured Abellana striker, while the Eruf ambulance, though a bit late, arrived to ferry the poor boy to the hospital.  Ricky Dakay said they will shoulder the expenses. Early results: U12 final, Springdale beats Canduman, 1-0 U15: ANS beats Springdale, 2-0 and queen city wins women's crown, 1-0

The organizers of the Cebu Interclub gets a C in my book with how they are running the tournament.  I hope the future CebuFA tournaments under the new administration won't follow the Interclub example. In the first day of the 38-above competition, one team was asking for the credentials of the other team, and for the heck of it, the coach of that team asked for the credential of one player of the other team because his player got questioned. Things like these are supposed to be handled during the screening. Or did they have one?  One funny thing, one player,  whose qualifications got questioned, turned out to be qualified, he showed an SSS ID, and the birth year was indicated, 1970.  So he is qualified.  The problem was, according to one of those sitting on the table, that player also played last year, in the 38-above division. For every game, coaches also have to fill out the players list and check their starters, almost after the game has started.  Where were the players' lin...