Go Azkals!E

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Tonight the Philippine National Football team, affectionately known as the Azkals, will be playing against the football team of Mongolia at the Panaad Sports Stadium as part of the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup. This game is unique for at least three reasons: it is one of the few home games of the Azkals, this is a game where our Azkals are not coming in as underdogs, and finally because among the few qualified football fields in the country, Bacolod City’s Panaad Stadium got to be the chosen venue.

Having seen them around town since last week, it becomes easy to imagine how a “home” advantage could have helped the Azkals during their improbable Cinderella run which saw them at the semi-finals of the ASEAN Football Federation Suzuki Cup last December. If the Panaad Stadium or any other venue in the Philippines had been ready then, they wouldn’t have had to face the hostile Indonesian crowds in what was supposed to be a home game and a supportive crowd could have prevented one of their losses to Indonesia then. Here in Bacolod, the Azkals are being treated like heroes, with crowds of adoring fans following them around in and even beyond practice sessions. Come game time later tonight, they will most likely be playing before a sea of white-clad Filipinos who will be wildly cheering for them and praying for a victory against team Mongolia. That should be a breath of fresh air for a team that is almost always playing in hostile territory because it comes from a country where football has been underappreciated for so long.

Let us go all out in our support of the Azkals in their game  tonight in the hope that they win their match against Mongolia because after all everything they had gone through, they deserve this moment in the sun.  The Azkals were named such because for the longest time they were like stray dogs without a home and they had to prove to the nation that with determination, resourcefulness, a single minded dedication to a dream, and despite politics and internal conflict by sports executives, Filipinos can still excel in an international arena.

We can build on this groundswell of support for the Azkals to promote football as a viable alternative to the national obsession and disappointment that is basketball and also take advantage of it to give all the other sports, athletes, and national teams in this country the chance to control their destinies and rewrite their stories the way the Azkals have successfully done so far.*