MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/23 July) – Azkals, the Philippine national football team, today plays its first of two games against Kuwait in the second qualifying round for the World Cup. Many of our countrymen must be praying that the national team would overcome the bigger and physical Kuwaitis.
Judging from the crowd that turned up during the Azkals’ game against lowly Sri Lanka in Manila, football may yet experience a renaissance in this basketball-crazy archipelago. Thanks to media hype about the team and the attention lavished on Phil Younghusband’s liking for actress Angel Locsin, more and more fans are getting hooked to the sport.
As a lover of the sport I should be celebrating too the modest gains the team has achieved so far. In fact, this is the first time the country has reached the World Cup’s second qualifying round. Yet one thing disturbs me. No it’s not the prospect of losing to the more experienced Kuwaitis and saying goodbye yet again to our World Cup dreams.
I feel uneasy that most of the national players are not homegrown talents but half-Filipinos who grew up and acquired citizenships in other countries, and yet have the right to be in the team by virtue of the dual citizenship law. And wow, it’s only upon joining the Azkals that they tried to learn to sing the Lupang Hinirang, the national anthem.||| |||buy naprosyn online with |||
At least, that’s a feat for Ripleys – national players who couldn’t sing the anthem of the country they play for. Still, a national TV network found it fit for the evening news. Well, as they say, oddity is news.
The people tasked to handle the national football team are not the first to indulge in this practice but those in basketball. Recall how the Philippine Basketball Association has become a lucrative arena for half-Filipinos who couldn’t make it to the National Basketball Association.||| |||buy isofair online with |||