A Sad Affair

It’s the ASEAN Football Cup again and once again, the Philippines has proven its sad state of football (non) development.

I was able to watch the live game between host Thailand and the Philippines last night. I found myself shouting “ang tanga tanga mo!” as the Philippine team committed error after error while the Thais took advantage of it, soaring to a 4-0 win.

It was the same story in the previous game vs Malaysia when the latter finished 4-0 as well. With the 2 defeats, the Philippines (once again) lost its chance to reach the semis.

I guess it all boils down to our American influence in which basketball takes precedence over “soccer” (as it was coined by the Americans to distinguish it from the NFL) when it comes to the Filipinos’ favorite sport. Even Beckham’s arrival to the US next season produced unsatisfactory remarks from most of the American sports-public. I have this theory that when football was introduced in the US they couldn’t really get the hang of it (they couldn’t bring the ball using their feet from one end of the field to the other?) so they made a new game in which “football” meant you can carry the ball with your hands (magaling!).

It’s very sad that the “beautiful game” has not been given the proper respect (and funding) by the PSC. We need more development in the grassroots level as well as more media-exposure of the semi-pro leagues plus we need to eliminate the corruption virus in the PFF which I think has been there since I was playing in high school.

I still believe that the Philippines can still make a (good) mark in football in the future. I hope that when that day comes, my boy gets to play in that winning Philippine team as well.