Friday, July 29, 2011
In the middle of the field of play
Friday, July 29, 2011 | 
Posted by
zilljanmark
Posted by
zilljanmark
In
2006, I was working for Solar Sports as Marketing Manager when the
Philippine Football Federation came up to us to cover the home matches
of the Philippine Men’s Football National Team for the ASEAN Football
Championship.
The
PFF sent three representatives – Joaqui Preysler, Ernie Nierras, and Ed
Formoso. They had shopped it around to the major networks and hardly
received an audience. There were a couple of Ateneo football guys at
Solar Sports at that time and we needed no convincing. The collective
response was: “let’s get this done.”
That
was the first time that the Younghusband brothers suited up for the
seniors squad and there was some excitement brewing about them coming
over from England to play for the Philippines.
We covered them for that tournament as well as for the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup Qualifiers in Iloilo.
I
remember that in 2006, after returning from Panaad, Bacolod, a press
conference was held at the Mizuno head office at the Magallanes Village
commercial center in Makati. I was the only sports journalist present
for the press con. The rest were all lifestyle and fashion writers. Why
they were there I have no idea. Of course, I lugged along a television
crew from Solar Sports to cover he event.
Previously,
I would also tow our camera crews to cover UAAP football. We would show
highlights of the tournament. We even cut a few commercials featuring
the Ateneo and La Salle football teams talking about the 2006 World Cup.
I’m never going to forget that presscon if only for the questions posed to the team.
“What Filipino words do you know?”
“Have you tried balut?”
“Why don’t you play basketball?
And here’s where it gets worse…
“What is your favorite color?”
I
was appalled but I understood. Football just wasn’t something the
public generally cared to read or watch on television save for the die
hards.
I
began a friendship with many of the players that lasts to this day and
that helped in writing about them. However, I also began to write about
the alleged corruption within the Philippine Football Federation. Little
did I know that I would soon be banned not only from the PFF premises
but from also covering the national team.
The
coaches and players were instructed to seek permission from federation
officials before I or any other media man could talk to them.
It
became difficult to cover them with little or no access. Eventually,
the coaches who followed – Aris Caslib and Norman Fegidero Jr. would
talk to me but much of what was bandied about was mostly off the record.
I’d spent huge phone bills calling Coach Nonoy in Bacolod and had to
wait for Coach Aris to finish his training in San Beda before we’d get
to chat.
That
changed in late 2010 when the PFF lifted the ban and allowed me to
re-join a vastly different team. Dan Palami was the team manager now and
Simon McMenemy was the head coach. It wasn’t too long ago when I was
chatting with Desmond Bulpin in Ateneo where the team would practice.
But it came at a time when I was offering to get Gatorade to sponsor the
team (this was right before the Suzuki Cup).
I
recall that almost as soon as I joined GroupM, the international media
agency that does the local promotions and activations for Gatorade, I
began to push for the national team. It took months before they approved
it and they did when I staked my job for the team.
Looking back, it seems prophetic now. I did say that this team was ready to take off. “Just you wait and see,” I said.
If that were the lotto I’d be in the Bahamas right now.
At
that time before we set off for Vietnam, we held the team’s first ever
press conference at the PFF headquarters. We came up with their first
ever press kit. I got about 12 media colleagues to attend. Save for TV5
none of the other television channels attended. Some said they would go
but never did.
Funny how after Vietnam all of them came running without further notice.
When
we arrived in Vietnam, the team was still virtually under the radar. In
the press conference that preceded the games, not one of the assembled
200 media asked any questions about the Philippines. The coaches of
Singapore and Vietnam even discussed about how many goals they would
score against the Philippines. They were that bold and brazen.
We all know how things turned out in those 10 days in Vietnam.
I’ve
covered many athletes and many sports teams not just here in the
Philippines but also abroad. Following the Philippine Men’s Football
National Team is like following a live version of Sylvester Stallone’s
fictional boxer, Rocky Balboa. It’s like, “Who knew, right?”
Right
there and then, I got the feeling that I was in the midst of something
special. The time was when the team would go to a match and on the way
to the venue, they’d be talking about taking their lumps and going home.
At that particular time in Vietnam, I wondered if the guys thought I
was insane as I kept telling them that we were going to shock the world.
I mean plane tickets had been bought for return flights (back to England and wherever).
My
confidence wasn’t misplaced. I thought that watching the team come
together in the past year and how some were reaching their peak, they
had finally become a team.
They are never going to win because of an individual. They will advance because of team play. That team had put aside whatever differences they had at that time whether it be cultural or skills. They
hung out together not just on the dining table but also outside the
pitch. No longer were the Fil-foreigners bunked together with the locals
in another. They mixed around, had fun, trained, and played together.
Inside
the dugout during the halftime break against Vietnam, the team sat
quietly as we had hung on to a precious 1-nil lead. The boys were
sweating despite the cold weather. Not a word was said. McMenemy paced
for a few minutes trying to collect his thoughts. And then he spoke. “We
can do this,” he said. “We’re holding them. They’re desperate now and
that means they are vulnerable to mistakes.”
I
forget now everything else that transpired as the entire team began to
talk and pump up one another. Dan Palami stood by the door and patted
the players on their shoulders as they filed out. “We can do this!” he
thundered.
In the 79th minute, Phil Younghusband added to Chris Greatwich’s 39th
minute goal to put the match beyond reach. The first goal had silenced
the capacity crowd at My Dinh. The second sent the crowds towards the
exit.
The bedlam inside the locker room was raw and raucous. It was as if a championship had been won.
If
the team was disregarded before. Not anymore. As soon as we arrived at
the Sheraton in Hanoi where we were billeted, the staff graciously
applauded. At the hotel lobby where the teams hung out (because of the
free internet), they now began to mingle and exchange stories.
As
Kuwait prepared for the Philippines in the second leg of the Asian
Qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, they scouted the Philippines in Sri
Lanka, Manila, and Bahrain. They even watched the first practice of the
team at Taha Field in Kuwait.
All
of a sudden everyone is taking the Philippine team seriously. And quite
honestly, I have never seen a Filipino team followed like this. Of
course, there’s Manny Pacquiao but this one is different if only for the
teenybopper set as well as the legions of women. In Kuwait, I went fan
watching.
I
would watch them – kids, men, women, and mothers – on how they reacted
when the team arrived and I came away fascinated. I corroborated my
theory with longtime sports broadcast journalist Chino Trinidad who also
was in amazement.
The
fact that expatriate Filipinos turned the Mohammed Al-Hamad Stadium
into a virtual homefield for the Azkals says something. Only 4,000
tickets were allotted to the Filipino community but our kababayans found
a way (the black market notwithstanding).
Having
covered this team for a while now, and having seen many of the ups and
downs, one thing is for sure. Football in the Philippines is here to
stay. And covering the Azkals, as they are now fondly called, will no
longer be dreary.
As
the team was mobbed while at the Avenues Mall in Kuwait City to buy
football gear, midfielder James Younghusband smiled and said to me, “I
think it’s great that there are all these fans now. Oh, we love it for
sure. They were there before but not like this. This is something you do
not take for granted. I am going to cherish for a long time.”
So will I.
source: Ricky Olivares
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