Cebu Football

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 30 edition) IN 2007, when I covered the Palarong Pambansa for the first and last time, I saw a bunch of elementary football players barely having even the strengh to even cry after a tough finals loss. They were playing their fifth game in three days, because the tournament manager’s only concern was the schedule, not the players’ welfare. I thought those days are gone and DepEd has finally taken steps to ensure players’ health aren’t compromised in the Palaro.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 29 edition) THE Palarong Pambansa will officially start on May 4--moved a day later to give way to the Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather fight--but kids are already in the venue as early as two weeks before the start. Doing what? The Department of Education only knows. Some delegations who arrive early cram some practice time, some make do with tours. Some teams arrive a bit late, but still days before the opening, as they opt to practice at home rather than compete with other delegations for limited venues in the Palaro.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 20 edition) WHEN news of the construction of the Philippine Sports Stadium by Iglesia Ni Cristo broke online, football fans got giddy at the idea of finally having a proper stadium that’s not older than Sepp Blatter. And of course, the inevitable question was asked---when will the Philippine national team play there?

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 17 edition) SO the draw for the Fifa World Cup 2018 qualifiers for Asia is out and it hasn’t been that kind to the Philippines. We got Uzbekistan, Bahrain and North Korea, the top teams in Pots 2 and 4, and Yemen. The best scenario would have been getting the bottom teams in Pots 1, 2, 4 and 5 but wishing for a lucky break in a football draw is a futile exercise and besides, if we truly want to be taken as a serious football nation, facing the top teams in Asia is inevitable. So, Uzbekistan, Bahrain and North Korea it is--teams that we’ve lost to in the previous years, in tournaments and in friendlies.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 15 edition) SUMMER is a time when sports action picks up and organizers of various tournaments turn to the government for support. For some, like those in football, badminton, tennis, swimming and the other less-popular sports, the private sector is who they turn to for tournaments, so kids can have events to join. Not so with basketball. That's why teams in the Cebu City Mayor's Cup are lucky the Cebu City Sports Commission rolled out the red carpet for them. But, it turns out, three team owners don't know how lucky they are and are acting like a bunch of sore losers who'd bite the hand the feeds them.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 14 edition) LOST in the drama regarding the University of the Visayas’ walkout against USC in Medellin is the nonchalant way some treat walkouts in basketball—that they are normal and unavoidable. And that, I think, is the reason for the problem itself. Here’s a newsflash for those who think that way—walkouts are NOT normal. Basketball coaches get away with it because of the absence of a governing body here that oversees the sport; if you walkout on Ricky, you can get away with it when you play in Mike’s tournament next.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 10 edition) WHEN Javier Patino first came to town, football fans drooled at the options this Filipino-Spaniard offered on the offensive end for the Azkals. For years, Phil Younghusband had been a lonely presence on attack for the Philippines, and the first partnership of the two had Phil hitting a hat trick, while Patino scored twice. And not a few football fans thought, “Surely, with such a potent threat up front, glory in the beautiful game would be ours.” That was before.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 9 edition) BEFORE the generation of the Azkals, there was one sure way to get to the national senior team--learn your football in either Iloilo or Bacolod. These two football hotbeds virtually had a monopoly of the national team, and depending on who you are asking, are the football capital of the Philippines. Barotac Nuevo of Iloilo has been the traditional football hotbed, and is home to majority of the national team players before 2004, when we started scouring for Pinoys abroad. Sometimes, being someone from that place readily gives you that mantra of football invincibility.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 7 edition) WHILE talking with some parents about their preparation for the Palarong Pambansa, one dropped the all important question—are you ready for the fight? He wasn’t talking, of course, of the coming battle against the top teams in the country in the biggest sporting meet for students. He was talking about what most of us would be talking about come Palaro time--Manny Pacquaio vs. Floyd Mayweather. You see, the May 2 fight on Saturday night in the US, will be on Sunday morning, Philippine time, coinciding with the opening parade of the Palarong Pambansa. Which makes you wonder, will this year’s Palarong Pambansa open to a packed stadium or to an empty one with crickets in the background?

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 2 edition) AS an awardee of the Sportswriters Association of Cebu-San Miguel Beer Cebu Sports Awards, the young Joaquin Buyco was just one of the many standouts of Cebu sports in the previous year. A member of the Don Bosco Technological Center football team, he got two awards last Saturday, one for being a member of the gold medalist futsal team of Cebu City and for earning the Most Outstanding Athlete award in the Milo Little Olympics national finals last October.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 5 edition) AFTER the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association meet comes the much dreaded time for coaches, dreaded because it’s a time when they know that sometimes, athletic skills don’t matter. What is this moment? It’s that time when champion coaches receive recommendations from the Department of Education as to which player to absorb in his team for the Palarong Pambansa.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's April 1 edition) THE Philippine Azkals profile and reach will reach new highs and shrieks after team management revealed it has signed up former One Direction member Zayn Malik for the World Cup qualifiers. Malik traces his Filipino lineage to having been born in a hospital ran by Filipinos in Bradford and has long dreamed of becoming an international football player. It was during the lead-up to One Direction's tour to the Philippines that he finally got the chance. "Zayn Malik always wanted to be a football player, and he finally got the chance. When he learned about the Philippine tour, he also learned about the Azkals and he seized the opportunity,” said Malik's official spokesperson April Folle.