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Courtesy: Philippine Daily Inquirer


Futsal ladies rescue drab football season

By Cedelf P. Tupas

WITH the much-hyped men’s team in the freezer, women held the fort for Philippine football in its centennial year.

In a year marked by more off-field incidents, the women’s team moved out of the shadows of their male counterparts by advancing to the second round of the AFC Asian Women’s Cup, after a successful sojourn to Hong Kong, where they won 4-3 on aggregate against the hosts.

The year ended in disappointment, though, with the nationals failing to land a medal in the Southeast Asian Games, despite officials talking up their chances so early into the tournament.

After blowing a one-goal lead deep into the second half to draw with Laos, 2-2, the Filipino lady booters were shown the door on goal difference after an 11-0 shellacking at the hands of Vietnam.

Underachieving men

The women’s team, which split its two-game friendly with Singapore in Manila in May, was left to fight in the SEA Games’ centerpiece sport because the underachieving men’s squad failed to make the grade in the criteria set by the local SEAG Task Force.

There were some feel-good stories in the Games, though, including the unheralded women’s futsal team, which came out of nowhere to bring home a bronze that shone like gold.

Shella Ninobla struck twice and Marigen Ariel added another as the Filipinos downed Malaysia, 3-1, in the battle for third.

The men’s futsal team, meanwhile, were shut out of victories in the Games as well as in the Asian Futsal Finals in Japan in May.

Missing its top striker Phil Younghusband and captain Aly Borromeo, the Philippine booters were eliminated early in the ASEAN Football Championships in Bangkok, following 0-4 losses to Malaysia and Thailand in January.

A scoreless standoff against heavily favored Myanmar proved to be a consolation of sorts for the team, whose coach, Aris Caslib, resigned after the tournament, saying he wanted to concentrate on the Under-23 team.

Relegated to world No. 179

The run of poor results relegated the Philippines to No. 179 in the FIFA rankings, eight rungs lower than its place last year.

The men’s team did not see action in the last 11 months of the year, also skipping the 2010 World Cup qualifying, which former Philippine Football Federation (PFF) president Johnny Romualdez said was “too costly and counterproductive.”

Instead, the PFF prioritized the construction of its three-storey building, called “House of Football,” in Pasig City. FIFA later granted $400,000 (P19.2 million) to the PFF to help it build the facility.

Controversy once again hounded the PFF, which was taken to court by the National Capital Region Football Association (NCRFA) over its move to break down the association. The PFF hit back as its board of governors suspended the NCRFA in September.

The suspension was lifted only after Jose Mari Martinez was elected as PFF president in a hotly contested election in November.

But a united front met International Football Federation president Joseph Blatter and Asian Football Confederation head Mohammad Bin Haman, who joined the PFF Centennial Celebration in Manila in December.

Biggest prize to NCR

On a year when many tournaments were shelved either due to lack of sponsors or budget constraints, the National Capital Region (NCR) grabbed the biggest prize -- the Men’s Open Centennial crown -- before a hostile crowd at the Panaad Park and Stadium in Bacolod City.

The NCR booters, led by Emelio Caligdong, unseated Negros Occidental with a 2-1 victory clinched by an Ian Araneta header in the second half.

Cebu stunned Iloilo, 1-0, to capture the Philippine Olympic Festival Under-15 finals, which turned out to be the only age-group national tournament conducted by the PFF during the year.

Another upset also marked the Philippine National University Games in October when the University of Santo Tomas overcame De La Salle University in a penalty shootout for the women’s crown at the Panaad.

The win formally ended the eight-year reign of the De La Salle University booters.

In contrast, University of St. La Salle fanned its title streak to four with a gripping 2-1 win over West Negros College.

Tragedy also struck football in October when former national player Dave Fegidero died in a motorcycle accident in Thailand. Fegidero, 29, was supposed to see action for the futsal team in the Southeast Asian Games.





Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com