Cebu Football

Things are looking good for the Cebu teams in the POF with thier victories over the other favorites in the Visayas Eliminations. That is, until 3 p.m. today. July 26. Both teams, mentored by Mario Ceniza and Francis Ramirez, will face off with each other again, in a rematch of the Cebu Inter Club finals just a few months ago. I've been remissed in updating with the football scene and a cursory check at pinoysoccer.com and an insider's take on local developments makes me feel justified in leaving the scene. A hurriedly-patched together Philippine Premier League for Manila teams to be launched together with Sepp Blatter's visit?  Another resignation, and a threat of suits in the PFF?  A coup of sorts in San Roque? What gives?

We’ve all been caught in a traffic jam, once or twice a day, and wished why won’t anybody obey the rules of the road? Why can’t red mean stop once in awhile. We’ve all had our say, and sometimes, we took that just little bit of leeway to gain an inch, deny another motorist. Or sometimes, we cheered while the driver finally decided to beat the red light, or drive the opposite lane (I know I did). We’ve had our say. We’ve all been in this situation before. Once or twice a tournament, we curse the imbeciles of our FAs. They should do this, they should do that. Why are they doing that? We’ve had our say. Now is the time to “have our act.” It’s called The Project. Donate. Give. Act. Do. Whatever you can. It’s not simply about money. I don’t have any. You’ve got books, DVDs, used spikes, magazines—anything football. If you don’t have any of these, don’t fret. If you're good with computer skills, go check out all the Philippine football videos at youtube, edit it, put it in one DVD. ...

The Associated Press ran a story today, about Argentina solidifying its hold of the top spot of the Coca Cola World Rankings over Brazil. Then at the bottom part of the story, it mentioned, this month's biggest jumper is the Philippines, up 19 places to 170. To be honest, I looked a bit like a crazy dude to be raising his arms, like Rocky, in a quite newsroom, while whispering Yes!

Philippine football’s presence, in the internet, was pretty much as rare as football’s presence in Philippine media. Then Philfootball.info came along and gathered the fans.  The site was basically just a forum, a place where fans gather. The influence of that forum shall forever be felt with the name Azkals, as it was in that forum that the name was coined. Then Pinoysoccer.com came along.  The site gave and continues to give what Philfootball.info lacked, football news, columns, updates and of course—the forum. It can’t be denied that Philippine football is growing, the national team is finding success in the international arena, we are the whipping boys of Southeast Asia no more. Thanks to the Fil-foreigners.  Thanks to the fans, thank to THE fan. For it was THE fan, as the story goes, who “discovered” the Younghusbands of Chelsea, from of all things, a PC game. That fan alerted the PFF and the rest, as the cliché goes, is history. That fan and others like him, is what define Pinoy ...

THE San Roque Football Club Girls 17-team overcame some sloppy work in a penalty shootout to rule the 4th Gus Uriarte Memorial Football Festival in Bacolod City last weekend. Coached by Eleazer Toledo, the 12-girl team finished unscathed in the elimination round before facing San Carlos City in the semifinals. The team, bannered by Monica and Maritoni Trebol, Renee Songalia, Jackie Ting, Elsie Ann Juezan, Angeli Ruete, KC Catarenen, Shandra Gail Colina, Cheska Jane Toledo, Ayana Gaitera, Maricris Tira–do and Aleli Mejias, found itself trailing 1-0 in the first eight minutes. Ting equalized a few minutes after an impressive first touch allowed her to redirect Songalia’s cross to force the extension. After a scoreless extension, the match went to shootout and San Roque seemed headed to an early exit as Ruete’s brilliance between the posts was matched by futility by Songalia, Mari–toni and Juezan, who all missed their penalties. In the sudden-death shootout, Monica, who earned the MVP, co...

After a year’s absence, the Aboitiz Cup will be back, or so said the new CebuFA board. Good news is, the new board will retain the two divisions for the Men’s Open, while there will be new age groups for Girls Football. Now the question is, with the recent reshuffling of the teams in the Men’s Open, how will they determine which one gets to play in which division? Also, this year, the CebuFA will finally take on the registration of individuals for its database. But this P100 per head is sure going to raise a lot of questions (at least I will). I may be wrong but there could be at least, a thousand players (more if we consider all the individuals involved in football) in Cebu where does the money go? As to these database. I’m not such a big fan with how the CebuFA handled the data in their first tournament (Yes the Inter Club was officially a Queen City-organized event, but it still WAS a CebuFA event), will this new database be anything different? Will these be just scraps or pieces of...

I’ve long wanted to write about the “Fil-foreigners” rather on the use of the term ever since I heard Chad Gould’s father’s remarks during Mari Martinez’s visit in the CebuFA elections. (Please check Jack Biantan, my former boss', column at Pinoysoccer.com for reference. To sum it up, the term Fil-foreigners, according to the senior Gould, is an insult, since these folks are 100 percent Filipinos. They got it wrong. The Fil-foreigner tag isn’t supposed to denote a Pinoy’s lineage, it simply serves to identify where that certain Pinoy learned the sport. Note that the “Fil-foreigner” is a term unique to Philippine football—owing perhaps to football’s global reach. In the PBA, they are identified as Fil-Ams, or Fil-Tsongan, or as others would have it, as Fil-Shams. These Pinoys learning of the sport--and training—is what makes them different. It’s not about lineage, or ancestry. Hence, the Fil-foreigner tag. By being named or tagged as a Fil-foreigner, they are supposed to save or t...

The SYKES 2008 Involve Football Tournament opened up with a BANG! The opening ceremony was graced by the presence of Cebu Football Association President Richard Montayre, who, thanked the players for their support in promoting the sport in the country and encourage them to join the upcoming CebuFA tournaments. Despite a yearlong hiatus, each team displayed the true meaning of "For the love of the game." Team RED and Team GREEN were both scoreless in 10 minutes into game 1. Mark Limpag had the first scoring opportunity for Team GREEN via penalty but Sherwin Ngujo was quick enough to deflect the kick and the followup. Romuel Balintag (MVP, 2006 Tournament) scored two goals for Team RED near the end of the first half. Team GREEN pushed for goals on the second half, attacking from both wings and the middle, prompting Balintag to help the defense. Team GREEN's efforts finally paid off when Juvelon Soria sneaked past Team RED's defense and found the back of the net. The gam...

From Sun.Star Cebu FIFTEEN teams have already signed up for the Men’s Open category of the upcoming three day football tournament—the University of the Philippines (UP) Centennial Cup on June 7 to 9 at the UP Cebu College football field. Set to compete in this competition commemorating the 100th year since the founding of UP in 1908 are House of Hope Football Club, the visiting Ormoc FC, the organizing club Uptown United FC, the home team UP Alumni FC, Lear FC, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Football Cup champion Tsuneishi FC, Talisay FC, People Support FC, Spectra FC, Xantos FC, Barili FC, Camputhaw FC, the First Uptown United Invitational Cup champion University of Southern Philippines Foundation Alumni FC and the Don Bosco Pipol FC. Donn Rabanes, the tournament director, said he is still waiting for word if one of the city’s top teams, the Don Bosco Alumni FC, which was one of the chosen few invited in the tournament, will send a team. This football extravaganza...

With the lack of tournaments in Cebu ( a weekend without football is a weekend wasted), we should be thankful for the groups, clubs and schools who organize their own football tournaments. However, one downside of this is the common complaints of people who say the organizers swing a certain way. Now, I generally do not pay attention to questions on referee’s bias, vis-à-vis the organizers, but saying “A tournament started by a DB affiliate is in favor of DB teams. All officials and tournament heads are biased to DB. They give high priority to DB teams and give low priority to other teams,” is quite something. Of course, here in Cebu, you can replace the initials “DB” with Queen City, SRFC, CebuFA directors,…etc..in the previous statement. Every referee is biased, based on which side of the fence you sit.  And as a little Ripley-believe-it-or-not, during the break between the eliminations and the semifinals of a national open, I spent a few hours enriching SMC with the referees, and th...

I was going to tackle the Phil Younghusband and Joyce Ramirez “scandal” (an upgrade-your-traffice-sort-of-post), when I got the chance to read the comments in the shoutbox. First, as to the interference, all I can say is, “Ablate Español?” Second, as to the concern of the teams that most of the referees in the Beach Soccer Open were from Don Bosco, all I can say is: “Duh!” The event was organized by the Don Bosco Alumni Football Club, where will they get their referees?  Slrap? Referees always make a judgment call, and for each call, half the players on the field will agree with it and the other half will think the referee should be skinned alive. Unless of course, there was blatant bias, say the water boy of Opposing team punches his fellow waterboy of Don Bosco affiliated team and the star striker (or keeper) of non-Don Bosco team gets red carded for drinking water, then we have a reason to cry foul. Otherwise, the participants should have raised the issue, knowing the organizer is a...

Check the first report regarding the Charlie Cojuangco Cup. (Yep that failed charlie by Charlie) http://pinoysoccer.com/philippine-football/fu-drubs-um-in-1st-coc-cup-bootfest-opener.html "Organizers, led by former 4th district Representative Carlos O. Cojuangco, held a press conference before Monday's CPU-USLS match at the Panaad media center, together with visiting Spanish coach Maur Rozen, match commissioner Leo Dayot and referees inspector Dennis Estaniel." Nothing about the press conference?  Usually, when things like this occur, it usually means that during the press conference, nothing substantial was said about the event.  Reporters usually say (What the hell am I going to write) if they attend a football press conference that turns into a critique about why the Philippines should adopt the Federal system. "He added that both UAAP titlist Far Eastern University and NCAA reigning champion San Beda College were also invited but failed to beat the deadline for c...

I'll jump the gun. PFF president Mari Martinez has abandoned his plan to change the moniker Azkals, but upon reading the story of how the team got its name, he said, "That guy again!" when he got to the bottom part. To quote Alain at pinoysoccer.com, "And from what I've heard, Martinez is still fuming about the April fools joke." Coach Norman won't be back at the team, tired as he is with all the interference.  The PFF will finally put its own website, (I'm curious what news will be in that site.)  For a change, the Pinoys will travel to England to train with the Fil-Brits and as to the brouhaha about Phil Younghusband's failed signing with the LA Galaxy, well with David Beckham getting the lion share of the payroll, someone else is bound to get the ant's share--no, the parasite of the ant's share--of the payroll. 287 dollars a week to play football? And oh, the pinoysoccer.com community share the same idea with the PFF president with reg...

PFF president Mari Martinez isn't happy with the name and has ordered the PFF marketing director to look for a new name.  Martinez further reasons and out and tells Jack Biantan that he hasn't read anything about "Azkals" in the papers. Ok, so we have a president who doesn't like the name, does that mean we will have a new name as every four years? That Martinez haven't read anything about Azkals in the papers shows that our president isn't truly aware of football in the whole country, perhaps he only bothers to read the newspaper space which the PFF has managed to buy. A lot of discussion went with that name, which was adopted as early as 2005, during the SEA Games, where was Martinez then? Musing about the failed Prama Cup? Judging with how the PFF will handle this, I don't give a barnyard dung whatever new name they come up for the Philippine national team, not even if they managed to plaster it in the national papers, (newspace for sale). One thing...

Courtesy of Sun.Star Cebu (again) by UP Mass Comm Intern Eva Marie Gamboa THE Don Bosco Pinoysoccer.com team didn’t think they had a big chance of winning the 8th National Inter-Club Football Tournament since compared to the other teams who practiced everyday, they only got to practice “once in a blue moon” and with three or more members absent. The one-week tournament was so far the biggest event organized by the Cebu Football Association (CFA) and was attended by teams from outside Cebu and was graced by the presence of the Philippine national team. During the Scoop forum with Bobby Inoferio, Don Bosco Pinoysoccer.com shared the challenges the squad faced. “The players had no commitment (with the team) because some of them are working,” said Warloo Sabella, one of the team members. The members of the team were selected from different schools and clubs, but they were able to project a certain “chemistry” on the field. “The team is already a selection in itself,” said Br. Jose Ma. Aber...

Courtesy of Sun.Star Cebu by Edri K. Aznar THIS summer, the heat of the shores of Moalboal will turn up a notch as 35 teams will battle it out in the 2nd Beach Football Open at Basdako, Moalboal tomorrow. The defending champions in both the Men’s and Women’s Opens, the San Roque Football Club, will send three teams, two for the Men’s category and one for the Ladies division. Joining them in the Men’s category are three teams from XP Moalboal, two teams from San Roque Royal United, University of the Philippines Foundation Alumni, Monger Inc., St. John Bosco United, two squads from FC Inter Cebu, CSAT-FC, two groups from Queen City United, two teams from Danao FC, Barili FC, two squads from Don Bosco Lawaan, Crazy Horse, Don Bosco Alumni Youth, Maitland Smith, Cravings and Kapuge (both from San Carlos City). In the Women’s Open it will be a battle between the Lasalle Alumni from Bacolod, Mobelhaus, Don Bosco Women’s, Queen City United, Bangan (University of the Philippines Alumni), CSAT ...

I’ve heard that the media center for the Asian Challenge Cup only had one PC on it. Phew. It isn’t surprising since it was also the case during the Asean Football Federation Qualifiers, hosted by Bacolod City in 2006. Good thing our office provided us with a laptop then, but the problem was our bulky laptop didn’t have any wi fi, I had to wait for the guy in charge of that lone PC to get finished so I can send my report. (This is me, pretending to be busy at the AFF Qualifers. Note the photo in the lap top) I remember, after the second game of the Philippines in the AFF Qualifiers, the guy with the PC (I think he wrote for the AFF Website) left his unit to interview somebody, and I went and commandeered his PC, wrote and submitted my report in under five minutes. Back to that one-pc media center. Amazing isn’t it? All this time, football doesn’t get any publicity in the papers and for the biggest tournament this year, this is what we get? And here’s a quote from one of the PFF’s new ...

A colleague of mine informed me that the company (or was it franchise) involved with Havianias is holding a "free kick" tournament this Saturday at IT park.  They are reportedly planning to bring in a Brazilian keeper, and if you can beat the keeper, you get a reward. I told my colleague to tell the organizer to put up a wide screen and show the RP team's final match against Bhutan, which will be aired live this Saturday on Solar Sports. I just hope they take up and listen to the offer.

Everybody, go to the official home of the Men's and Women's national teams: www.philippinefootball.org.  It's run by Pinoysoccer.com and got loads of features. Click away.

Thanks to the idiots running Skycable, the biggest Sham on Air no longer has Solar Sports.  Of course, Solar Sports will be airing the three AFC Challenge Cup games.  Anybody here who has solar sports or has any idea where we can catch the games live? Please?