Well now. After a couple million years, football has finally entrenched itself in the realm of public consumption sports in the Philippines, a category that has largely been monopolized by basketball. Now, I will not resort to any snide comments about basketball and its popularity, as I know how exciting it can be to watch and be part of the whole experience when one develops an affinity for the sport and/or for a team. When I was in high school, I cheered wildly from our couch every time Ginebra played, and more particularly when they played against Alaska. I still remember that wild shot that Bal David took waaaaaaaay past the half-court line that, if I remember right, won the game. In college, I again unpacked the vocal chords for Ateneo-La Salle UAAP matches. My senior year in college, we finally won the UAAP Championship. (Yay!)
Now I will not go so far as to say that I am in any way an expert in the sport of football (or soccer, if you prefer to call it that). First of all, I never played. Appreciation for the sport just kinda rubbed off on me by force of circumstance. In high school, I had friends who were on our varsity football team. My best guy friend then was a midfielder, and another close friend eventually became goalkeeper. An assortment of other friends also played for the La Salle Football Club. My favorite teacher and extemporaneous speech coach had been coaching the team for as long as anyone could remember.
Second, I was always more of a passive spectator than an active participant. I knew the general rules of the game, but I never really paid attention. I was familiar with the names of the teams, but I never really became passionately involved with any of them. In fact, I was in Eastwood with my then boyfriend and our friends' parents for the World Cup Final in 2002, but I have no recollection of who played, nor do I remember who won.
Law school drifted by in a blur of books and cases and an assortment of bad recitations, drunken stupors, and melodramatic episodes. I was vaguely aware that 2006 was a World Cup year because Woowie from the bar batch that year decided to defer taking the bar exams because he was to preoccupied with the World Cup.
And so another four years passed. I graduated, reviewed for, took and passed the bar, started working, moved jobs twice, and then 2010 came along, and on the prodding of friends who had been ogling football players for months, I began looking through their stables. Yes, I admit, my interest in football was rekindled by its, errrrrr, face value. The thing is, I guess no matter what one's reasons are for developing (or rekindling) an interest in or for the beautiful game, one will learn to love it for itself. (Although, I do have to admit that players like Cesc Fabregas, Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso do make watching infinitely more interesting.) By the World Cup finals, I had fallen in love with the game. I even read the FIFA Rules and all the team profiles, and enrolled in Spanish classes at the Instituto Cervantes in a bout of post-World Cup inspiration.
Now here I am, a full year later, still hooked on the sport, and still following La Liga and the EPL, although the Spanish League I have only been following online, since none of the locally available channels have seen it fit to cover the matches.
Thus you can imagine my excitement when the Philippine National Football Team began to gain attention from the local media after they won over Vietnam in the Suzuki Cup, and recently over Mongolia. Prior to the Suzuki Cup, I doubt that most people even knew we had a football team. Fast forward to 2011, the German league has granted the PFF funding and assigned us a new coach. FIFA is even giving us a grant to build an artificial pitch! Numerous websites dedicated to the Azkals have popped up, and the names of the players have become household names. Well, at least Etheridge and the Younghusbands.
Far be it for me to judge people who take an interest in the sport solely for the players. As my high school's football coach wrote, no matter what people's reasons are for developing a liking for the sport, if it will increase awareness, and lead to the betterment of the state of football in this country, I am all for it. At the moment, we are far from qualifying for the World Cup, or even winning a gold at the Southeast Asian Games, but who knows, maybe by the time the 2022 World Cup comes along, we might be able to qualify. So here's to hoping that this hype isn't shortlived, that the funds do not mysteriously disappear into thin air, and that the local talent get the attention and the funding that they so truly deserve.
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