Cebu Football

FORMER Philippine team head coach Simon McMenemy blasted a statement attributed to current head coach Hans Michael Weiss, saying it was "scandalous." In a story on GMA website , reporter Earl Victor Rosero wrote, " In an apparent reference to the Younghusband brothers, who were dropped from  the Azkals roster for the Peace Cup, Weiss said the Azkals of today are 'without prima donnas... people who think they already have achieved something in football .'"

(Thanks to Fracisco Villamor III for the fotos and video) SECONDS after the final whistle in the Philippines 3-1 win over Chinese Taipei in the Peace Cup, we pointed to the singer of the Marshal Irish Pub and, on cue, he delivered on his assigned piece.  And like a bunch of crazy fans, we started singing at the top of our voice, with not a care if we were in tune or not, "We are the champions, my friends!" Crazy enough, three Germans approached us and asked, "What did you guys win?"  When he got the answer, he said, "I hope Stephen Schrock plays next time"....grabbed our mini Philippine flag, and joined us in another rendition of our favorite Queen song for that night.

THREE goals from three different players plus a late game heroics by gutsy Ed Sacapaño lifted the Philippines to a 3-1 win over Chinese Taipei in the Philippine Peace Cup at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and its first ever football title in 99 years. The last time the Philippines won a title was in 1913, when it beat China in the Far Eastern Games. China and the Philippines were the only participants in that tournament.

Group A (Global, Pasargad, Navy, General Trias, Team Socceroo) This one is an easy group and with most of Global players seeing action for the Azkals, the Global vs. Pasargad match on opening day may determine who finishes first in the group, and it could be Pasargad, that is if the club  has sustained its form during the final half of the season.  I really have no idea who or what General Trias is, so they could be the suprise of the group. I see Pasargad finishing first, Global second.

LAST night's 5-0 rout of Macau was just the latest in a string of home victories for the Philippine national team, a streak that started in 2006 when we beat East Timor, 7-0, in the second game of the AFF Championship qualifiers in Bacolod. Sixteen games--11 wins, three draws and two losses.  Not bad, isn't it? Not bad at all. (I'm only counting the international matches and those three losses against clubs like LA Galaxy, Icheon City and CF Madrid aren't included)

I KNEW we were going to beat Guam the other night and it was just a question of by how many goals. And winning by one is just as good as winning by three. And after all the brouhaha over Phil and James Younghusband missing the team, it was nice to watch a game again, while meeting the economic demands, of course, of the bar tender.  It was nice too, to make fun of the team, after taking ourselves seriously the past few days, and Ian Araneta,  Chieffy Caligdong, Misagh Bahadoran and Denis Wolf played their part by coming up with bricks in the first half.

I first heard of the contract the Philippine national team management wanted with its players, and I have to admit, it's kinda weird because I think the Philippines is the only country that have its national team members under contract. And it’s this contract that apparently has resulted to the Younghusband issue. The brothers didn't sign the contract, but instead, had a counteroffer of their own for the PFF, an offer, which Ebong Joson has diplomatically described as loaded with "economic and non-economic demands."

I'VE learned in my few years as journalist that you only get an official statement when the barnyard dung hits the ceiling.  So, I was pretty surprised when I read a statement from the PFF regarding the lineup for the former Paulino Alcantara Cup. Let me backtrack a bit.  Because of sore eyes, I've been absent the past few days and have been bored to death. So the other day, I bought a Capt. Jack Sparrow Star Craft installer and spent the better part of six hours playing.  When I paused for a while, I checked Facebook, and read the PFF statement posted by Craig Burrows (how come I didn't get a copy, Craig?)  

IF you're a fan of college basketball in Cebu, then you'd better go to the Cebu Coliseum tomorrow for Game 1 of t he finals series between Southwestern University and the University of the Visayas. These two teams have been at each other's throats for the past four decades--or even longer--and last year, their semifinal meeting ended with four UV players getting suspended for the rest of the season and their team manager Samsam Gullas apologizing to their fans for their woeful behavior.

THE Philippine national women's team, also known as the Malditas, closed out their campaign in the AFF Women's Championship with a morale-boosting 7-2 win over Singapore, after losing to Myanmar (3-0) and Vietnam (4-2). Though the Philippines, ranked 85th in the world and 19th in Asia, finished third for the second straight edition, it was an improvement on its 2011 campaign, when it finished tied with Malaysia with one point but got third on goal difference. In 2009, it was a different story, as the team lost all three games and conceded 30 goals.

FOOTBALL referees, because of the nature of their job, need protection from the CFA, and incidents of violence in the past shouldn't be ignored by the new CFA board. It wasn't near the same level of violence reported a couple of years ago--when a center referee—was punched, but that case involving Archie Reyes and Lito Ramos is an unfortunate one that deserves a probe.  Reyes was the assistant referee for the next game, while Lito, a match assessor who supervises Reyes, was there as a fan and supporter of UC, coached by his brother.

BANTAY lang gyud ni si Dan ," Cebu Football Association's Raffy Musni told me the other night. " Mu-anhi'g Cebu, mag-dala pa gyud ug trabaho !" He was joking, of course, and but not about the work the members of the CFA board have to do to make sure the Singapore vs. Philippines friendly, which is now officially on Nov. 15, will be as successful as possible.

A COUPLE of days after the 2-1 loss to Laos, it was announced that Fifa has invalidated the match because the hosts failed to get Fifa-accredited referees for the game. So in the eyes of Fifa, that game never happened. Strange, isn't it?

I SAW an interesting post on Facebook the other day, and it couldn't be more true for someone whose dalliance with running has been very inconsistent.  The post said, "the distance between dreams and reality is called Discipline." Now that's very true!

I READ the comments section in Bob Guerrero's Passionate Fan entry, "Cut the boys some slack," in Yahoo, and damn, until now, some Pinoys still think the players in the Philippine national men's team are not Filipinos? This from a country that hero-worshipped Jessica Sanchez a few months ago? The two main points--1.) The players don't speak Tagalog. Well, Phil Younghusband does and if speaking Tagalog defines what a Filipino is then we've isolated, say, 80 percent of the country? I don't speak Tagalog, and if I happen to visit Manila it's English here and there and alcohol-laced Tagalog. I know a few folks who, when spoken to in Tagalog, use English or insist on talking Cebuano, they're not Pinoys, too? 2.) They can't sing the Lupang Hinirang. Here's a test for you. On your own, sing the national anthem and let's see if you can finish it.  I can't.  It's a strange thing, we can't remember the lyrics on our own, but...

1.) One coach once told me that goalkeepers are either crazy or gay, and it's safe to say Neil's not gay. A few months after getting red-carded for an off-ball incident in the Challenge Cup, there he was again, rushing in (by the way, damn, he was fast!) after an incident involving Stephen Shrock.  He got collared by three Laos players and had that "what-was-I-thinking-look" and if I was the ref, I would have given him a straight red, for being "pa-papel." But seriously, we need a good back-up keeper because the Laos game, and that semifinal loss in the Challenge Cup, shows that it's easy to get Neil off his rockers. 2.) Misagh should stop hamming it up.  I don't know about you, but I blame Misagh Bahadoran for the first near fracas.  There are a lot of ways to roll after getting tackled, certainly spending a few extra seconds on top of a defender isn't the best one. Yes, you could say, Misagh was just too spirited, playing for the flag, ...

IT was just a friendly, but damn, that win against Singapore is one of my favorite Philippine football matches, just next to that win against Vietnam in Suzuki Cup 2010 and against Palestine for third place in the AFC Challenge Cup. We beat Singapore, 2-0, in Singapore! Not only did we get two goals off them, something we haven’t done in 40 years, the Philippines, especially Stephen Schrock, made the three-time Asean champion  look amateurish. In their home court mind you.

I was really excited for the Paulino Alcantara Cup because of two things--one, in a tournament against Guam, Macau and Chinese Tapie, the Philippines have a more than even chance of winning the tournament, and two, it was the Paulino Alcantara Cup. Who is Paulino Alcantara?  He was a football legend before anybody had any idea what a football legend was, a Filipino born to a Spanish father and a Filipina mother in Iloilo, who played for the Philippine and Spanish national teams and made a name for himself in Barcelona. Yep, that Barcelona.

WHEN it comes to some of the strangest moves in Philippine football, Graeme Mackinnon, the former Cebu-based Australian who has earned a place in the the Cebu Sports Hall of Fame has seen and heard it all. But even the move of the PFF Disciplinary Committee floored him.  The committee, which was investigating the sexual harassment complaint by Christy Ramos against Lexton Moy and Angel Guirado threw out the complaint but, nevertheless, suspended Moy, Guirado Dennis Wolf and James Younghusband for breakdown of discipline for a game. Out for two games for failure of leadership were coaches Michael Weiss and Dan Palami, while Edzel Bracamonte got one game.

W L D P GD GF GA UC 1 - 1 4 +2 4 2 USJR 1 - 1 4 +2 2 0 USPF - - 1 1 -2 1 3 UV - - 1 1 0 1 1 USC - 1 - 0 0 0 2 THE University of San Jose-Recoletos showed it's still one of the favorites for the Cesafi crown after blanking defending  champion University of San Carlos, 2-0, in the second round last Sunday at the Cebu City Sports Center. In the second game, former champion University of Cebu banked on three goals in the final 15 minutes to beat the University  of Southern Philippines Foundation, 3-1. USJ-R, which won the first four titles in Cesafi and UC, the 2010 winner, now have 4 points but UC leads having scored two more  goals. USPF, a former finalist, has one point on a draw and a loss, while UV, which drew a bye yesterday also has one point after its  opening day draw with UC. USC is last after losing its debut but since the five-team Cesafi has a semifinal round, the title holders are still in the ...

(This is the draft of my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu on Sept. 3) I REALLY don't know why Cristy Ramos is blasting the PFF Disciplinary Committee's decision on her sexual harassment complaint against Lexton Moy and Angel Aldeguer because even if the committee threw out her complaint, she won. "Sexual harassment," as we were instructed to say in our talks with students during women's month in college,"is not about sex, but  power. Who had power over whom?"

DEFENDING champion University of San Carlos will take on former champion University of San Jose-Recoletos in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. college football tournament at the Cebu City Sports Center at 1 p.m. on Sept. 2 USJ-R, which won the first four crowns of the league, had a scoreless draw against the University of Southern Philippines Foundation last Aug. 19. In the second game, the University of Cebu, which drew the University of the Visayas, 1-1, last Aug. 19, will take on USPF.

So the PFF Disciplinary Committee threw out the sexual harrasment case against Lexton Moy and Angel Guirado, but has suspended the two, along with six others who were not the subject in the complaint? Hmmmm.