Fair Play: A tale of three losers
FOR 45 minutes, the United States threatened to turn the football world upside down.
The Americans, who are rarely taken seriously in the international scene, had five-time World Cup champion Brazil in trouble.
They were up 2-0 in the Confederations Cup finals.
A nifty touch off a cross had the US up, 1-0, in just 10 minutes while a counter attack by Landon Donovan—ignored in the Spanish Liga where Brazil’s best play—had the US ahead by two.
This, from the same team the Brazilians buried, 3-0, in the elimination round. The same team that was last in its group going into the final elimination round matches.
Then the second half happened.
The Brazilians showed why they are the best in the world and piled three goals in the second half—four if you count the one the referee didn’t see—to set things in order again.
Despite the loss, the US gained a lot in the Confed Cup, showing they can be at par with the world’s best players, and even beat them, in the case of their win over Spain.
NOT FPJ. Fernando “Poe” Lumacad may have taken up a moniker based on the country’s most celebrated action hero but, based on the figurative and literal bashing the
Pinoy fighter has received, he didn’t show any of FPJ’s on-screen toughness.
Lumacad lost to Jorge Arce Jr. in three rounds and he may have lost far more than just a chance to make it big time in boxing.
Bob Arum and his trainer called him a quitter. And in boxing, that’s a damning sentence.
Michael Marley, the celebrated boxing journalist who sometimes uses his acerbic tongue, quoted Arum, “I’m no fighter. But it looked to me like the Filpino kid just quit. That is so unusual for a Filipino fighter.”
The trainer also told Marley, “Fernando told us he heard the referee count to seven…We asked him through an interpreter why he did not get up then and resume fighting. Fernando just turned his head away. I agree with Arum because he is right. The kid did quit.”
I’m no expert, but the question for me is why the hell did Lumacad’s manager book him a fight against Arce in the first place?
Going into the Lumacad fight, Arce was 51-39-5 with 40 KOs. Lumacad only turned pro in 2006 and was 19-1 going into last Sunday’s fight.
Eleven of his wins were against guys who had more losses than victories, and it was his first time to fight abroad.
One writer said for those who are used to see Manny Pacquiao, or the other fight-till-everything-drops-Pinoys, Lumacad was a “paradigm shift.”
Yep, he could be right.
But you know what could also be a nice shift? Going after unscrupulous managers who lead their fighters to a massacre.
I wonder if Lumacad’s manager is the same guy who’s sending Pinoy fighters to get butchered in Australia.
SO DARLING. You have to hand it to Robin Soderling.
Watching him at the end of the match against a guy named Roger Federer, you wouldn’t know he just lost his 11th straight match to the Swiss.
He was all smiles.
Number 11 came after loss No. 10 in the French Open finals, when Soderling said he was looking forward to Wimbledon because, “After all, no guy can beat me 11 straight times.”
In an AP report, Soderling was asked after No. 11, since he couldn’t beat Roger in tennis, can he beat him in anything else?
“I think I will beat him in marathon easy,” he said. “I’m pretty good at marathon. I’m a strong guy. I think I’m stronger than him.”
Typical Roger, of course, wouldn’t just roll over and lose.
“I’ll stay behind him and pass him at the end.”
The Americans, who are rarely taken seriously in the international scene, had five-time World Cup champion Brazil in trouble.
They were up 2-0 in the Confederations Cup finals.
A nifty touch off a cross had the US up, 1-0, in just 10 minutes while a counter attack by Landon Donovan—ignored in the Spanish Liga where Brazil’s best play—had the US ahead by two.
This, from the same team the Brazilians buried, 3-0, in the elimination round. The same team that was last in its group going into the final elimination round matches.
Then the second half happened.
The Brazilians showed why they are the best in the world and piled three goals in the second half—four if you count the one the referee didn’t see—to set things in order again.
Despite the loss, the US gained a lot in the Confed Cup, showing they can be at par with the world’s best players, and even beat them, in the case of their win over Spain.
NOT FPJ. Fernando “Poe” Lumacad may have taken up a moniker based on the country’s most celebrated action hero but, based on the figurative and literal bashing the
Pinoy fighter has received, he didn’t show any of FPJ’s on-screen toughness.
Lumacad lost to Jorge Arce Jr. in three rounds and he may have lost far more than just a chance to make it big time in boxing.
Bob Arum and his trainer called him a quitter. And in boxing, that’s a damning sentence.
Michael Marley, the celebrated boxing journalist who sometimes uses his acerbic tongue, quoted Arum, “I’m no fighter. But it looked to me like the Filpino kid just quit. That is so unusual for a Filipino fighter.”
The trainer also told Marley, “Fernando told us he heard the referee count to seven…We asked him through an interpreter why he did not get up then and resume fighting. Fernando just turned his head away. I agree with Arum because he is right. The kid did quit.”
I’m no expert, but the question for me is why the hell did Lumacad’s manager book him a fight against Arce in the first place?
Going into the Lumacad fight, Arce was 51-39-5 with 40 KOs. Lumacad only turned pro in 2006 and was 19-1 going into last Sunday’s fight.
Eleven of his wins were against guys who had more losses than victories, and it was his first time to fight abroad.
One writer said for those who are used to see Manny Pacquiao, or the other fight-till-everything-drops-Pinoys, Lumacad was a “paradigm shift.”
Yep, he could be right.
But you know what could also be a nice shift? Going after unscrupulous managers who lead their fighters to a massacre.
I wonder if Lumacad’s manager is the same guy who’s sending Pinoy fighters to get butchered in Australia.
SO DARLING. You have to hand it to Robin Soderling.
Watching him at the end of the match against a guy named Roger Federer, you wouldn’t know he just lost his 11th straight match to the Swiss.
He was all smiles.
Number 11 came after loss No. 10 in the French Open finals, when Soderling said he was looking forward to Wimbledon because, “After all, no guy can beat me 11 straight times.”
In an AP report, Soderling was asked after No. 11, since he couldn’t beat Roger in tennis, can he beat him in anything else?
“I think I will beat him in marathon easy,” he said. “I’m pretty good at marathon. I’m a strong guy. I think I’m stronger than him.”
Typical Roger, of course, wouldn’t just roll over and lose.
“I’ll stay behind him and pass him at the end.”
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