Fair Play: The friendly that never happened

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?


And unfortunately for Rob Gier, that also means, his goal---which came in injury time and while the rest of the players were caught napping--didn't happen too. (But, let's not tell Romario that goals like this don't count).

But Fifa be damned, I think that game against Laos should be one of the games the Coach Michael Weiss and the rest of the team management should review, because not only was it not pretty, it showed the rest of our Southeast Asian rivals in the Suzuki Cup.

Use your pace and piss off Neil Etheridge.

If we ever get Neil for the Suzuki Cup, I hope he remembers what happened in that Laos game and  in that semifinal loss against Turkmenistan in the AFC Challenge Cup where he got red-carded because

I think, our Asean neighbors will.

It would be great if we have Roland Muller as backup for the Suzuki Cup, but if we don't?

Aside from the loss--which didn't happen, it was really disappointing how some the players conducted themselves in the game, especially Misagh Bahadoran and Neil.  Yes, you could say, it was a heated match that got into them, and if we all were in a similar situation we could have done the same.

But it's not just a match and they are no ordinary players.  They are members of the Philippine national team in a sport that is slowly gaining new followers.

As one long-time fan said it, his neighbor, a new follower, told him the morning after the match, "So, that's how footballers do it? They'd just pick a fight if they can't win?"

For years, Philippine football has been longing to have the attention of its country, and now that we enjoy it, let's not give them a negative image, shall we?  

Guys like Arnold Clavio and Eric Dimzon--people who, in the past, have tried very hard  to paint a negative picture of the Azkals--will be gloating if that happens.

RECRUITS. Columnist Quinito Henson lamented about how the Azkals have "shut the door" on an aspiring 18-year-old UK-born Pinoy footballer who wanted to try out for the Azkals. 

I think the days are gone when any footballer who has Filipino lineage can just call up the national team management for a trial and as of the moment, Dan Palami said he's got 63 other applicants from abroad.

What should they do?

Well, what do locals do if they want to get a spot in the national team?

Play well in the local leagues--NCAA, UAAP, Cesafi--or the the PFF organized tournaments, or the UFL and hope that a scout will notice them? Or, they could join the various tryouts for the U16s, U19s, U23s, that the PFF holds?

Because unless these applicants from abroad are playing in the top tier leagues, they deserve the same attention as our local applicants, don't you think?

If they don’t do that, any aspiring recruit from abroad could just cook up his credentials, claim to be a potential recruit for, say, the US national team, LA Liga or the premier league and get a trial with the team.

Oh wait, that happened, right?

(www.cebufootball.blogspot.com)