Cebu Football

(This story came out in Sun.Star Cebu on July 30) THE Cebu Football Association took the first step towards unifying the factions among the referees with the Referee Refreshers Course and Field Training seminar at the Cebu City Sports Center. As the three-day workshop culminated yesterday, Philippine Football Federation Technical Director Daniel Estaniel and Referee Fitness Instructor Engr. Jaime Nicolau III commended the efforts of the CFA to bring together all local referees and update them with latest rules of the game.

The tournament that was launched to monstrous hype last year is going to be reformatted and is also looking for a new sponsor after Smart had repackaged its P80-million financial assistance to the Philippine Football Federation just a year after announcing it. In the reformatted tournament, 16 clubs will vie it out for the title and all UFL clubs will be involved and qualifiers from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, will also  get a chance to compete with the top clubs.

IT'S going to be a safe bet that the minute the Philippines steps into the field in the field in the suzuki Cup group stage in Thailand, a commentator, or the fans in the stands, will be thinking of the same thing--will the Azkals duplicate its 2010 success? And can the team handle the pressure to duplicate that?  Right now, coach Michael Weiss is helping ease the pressure a bit by telling fans to temper their expectations because the Azkals are no longer a surprise package.

IN A profile of editors for a journal on Cebu journalists, I wrote, as my three goals--1.) To write a sports column, 2.) meet Maria Sharapova and 3.) write about the country's first Olympic gold medal.  One goal, obviously, has been met, the other could be met next year in the Australian Open and the third, god I hope will be marked off, this year. Ever since I watched Roel Velasco lose in the semifinals in Barcelona, hereby settling for the automatic bronze medal, I thought winning the gold medal was just a matter of time.  Roel's younger brother did, actually, winning the final in the eyes of most observers but unfortunately, not according to the people that mattered--the judges, so Onyok came home with a bronze.

PHILIPPINE national men's team manager Dan Palami will be in Cebu this Friday to talk about building a championship team in the LH Leadership  Conference 2012 at the Oakridge Business Park. The LH Leadership Conference seminar, dubbed, "Be a Champion" will also have Dyan Castillejo and Paolo and Suzi Abrera.  Castillejo, the former tennis  player turned boxing commentator (thankfully not footie commentator) and sports journalist, will talk about The Heart of A champion while the Abrera couple will handle Raising Champions. Palami, the architect behind the 2010 Suzuki Cup team that made the semifinals and scored a historic upset of Vietnam, will handle Building a Championship  team.

THE Philippines finally took home the overall title in the Wekaf World Championships, and they did it in style, winning more than half of the competition’s gold medals last week at the CICC. In fact, if it was Philippines vs. Rest of the World, the local bets would have still won the title as they took 62 gold medals, while the rest of the field won 50. That’s how dominant the Pinoys were in the world championship and it is but fitting that we win it again since it has been declared our national martial art just recently.

THERE are so many masters and grandmasters in Eskrima these days that, if you just blink, the guy you’re talking to is suddenly a master in the Filipino martial art. This could mean, of course, that the sport is growing by leaps and bounds that a lot are already considered masters in their own right. Or, this could mean, too, that there are just darn too many masters that there’s no more distinction between a master and a true master.

A FEW months after Mari Martinez was ousted as the PFF president, I asked a few officials if they were going to pursue a case against the former president. Surprisingly, they said no, but their logic wasn't much of a surprise--the former president was suffering from an illness and was in-and-out of the hospital. And that, seemed to be the last of it.

WONDER kid Sandro Reyes is now in a journey of a lifetime after getting signed by FC Barcelona's academy and, as early as now, some are hyping him to be the next big thing in Philippine football. I just hope the kid, who is just 9, will be able to handle the pressure and get to enjoy this very rare opportunity.  I'm sure the scores of footie sites out there will be featuring regular Sandro Reyes updates once he joins the academy that has produced the likes of Lionel Messie and other world-class footballers.

(This is the draft of my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu on July 16) ME, I’d quit my job and spend the rest of my life stalking Maria Sharapova. That would be interesting. But what if you have your P80 million and you have to spend it for football. What would you do?

(This is the draft of my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu on July 14) SO we'll be taking on Vietnam again in the Suzuki Cup but before going to Thailand for Southeast Asia's marquee tournament, the Philippines will be on a worldwide preparation. A camp and a series of friendlies in the US in August, another tournament in India, friendlies in September, a tournament in October in Bacolod, a camp in November and a friendly in Cebu.  And of course, there’s the UFL, too.

(This is the draft of my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu on July 12) WITH at least 18 players in the squad on scholarship, a Cesafi member school spends at least P540,000 for its football team (At the very modest estimate of P30,000-worth of scholarship per player). If you include the allowances and equipment for the players, that tidy sum increases a lot. And when you only have a four-game season, that investment seems to be too high a price for a four-game season (six if you make the finals) isn't it?

SINCE we are on pot no. 3, by the time whoever does the draw get to the third pot, the first two teams will be known and we'll either be wishing that we get our name picked if there's an "easy" group in the first two draws. The draw is pretty much straight forward, Thailand and Malaysia (Pot 1) will be separated, so too will Vietnam and Indonesia in Pot 2 and the  Philippines and Singapore in Pot 3 and the two qualifiers in pot 4.

(This story by Cheska Geli appears on Sun.Star Cebu on July 9) QUEEN City United has named its newly recruited seven players who will join the squad for the United Football League and other tournaments. Initially, six players were shortlisted after the three-day open tryouts last week but they added one player. The seven players were Cebu-based Nigerian Samson Olaniyi, Filipino-American player Daniel Gonzales, who used to play for the Philippine Navy, Rodney Gandionco, Richard Cañedo, Jigs Aghobasan, Joseph Rodriguez and Sigfried Atorado from San Carlos City.

(This is the draft of my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu on July 9) WHILE ABS CBN wasn't looking, Aksyon TV, that upstart station that is slowly gaining grounds on the big two, scored a major deal,  getting the TV rights for the Philippines for the 2012 Suzuki Cup later this year. "The leaders were asleep at the wheel," GMA's Jessica Soho told Cebu reporters in 2004 in explaining how 24 Oras did what then seemed impossible, catch up with TV Patrol in the ratings war. "That's why nahabol namin."

(This is the draft of my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu on July 6) LIKE Josphat Kiptanui, I don't like the move by some local organizers in banning the foreign runners from getting a chance to win prizes in local events. It's a mighty step backward, and one that sends the wrong signals. Back when running was in its infancy, some organizers, in an effort to highlight their event, would brag to reporters, "Our event is not ordinary because we have Kenyans joining.  They will be flying in from Manila just to join our run."

(This is the draft of my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu on July 5) PLAYING for nothing but their wounded pride, the PHL U22 guys acquitted themselves well, going down hard against Chinese Taipei, 2-1, in their final game in the AFC U22 qualifiers in Myanmar. It was the team’s most respectable result, having lost Myanmar (5-1), Malaysia (3-1), Vietnam (9-0), and South Korea (10-).

(This report came out in Sun.Star Cebu on July 3) THE new board of the Cebu Football Association (CFA) plans to start the 15th Aboitiz Football Cup earlier than last year and is looking at having it this September. The body is set to submit the proposal and budget to Aboitiz Equity Ventures this week once it will be approved by CFA president Ricky Dakay, and the CFA and Aboitiz will meet to decide on the opening date of the longest running football tournament in the city. Aboitiz Football Cup serves as CFA’s selection for teams that will represent Cebu in Philippine Football Federation-organized national and regional competitions.

HAVE you ever done everything to purse your dream? Of course you have, but have you, really? Have you really undergone that trial, where your will was tested?