Photo from Dita Alangkara/APIf they can’t win it with arms, they can do it with their feet.
That’s how Iraq, a war-torn country, conquered Asia. Or at least in football, in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. Their football team beat the highly favoured South Korean team on penalties in the semis. And now, they turned the tables against another favourite: Saudi Arabia. They won 1-0 courtesy of their captain.
It was a very emotional moment for a team who can’t even go home to celebrate. Someone can get killed even with the revelry.
If they have done it, why can’t we Filipinos? We did not even qualify for this event.
That’s how Iraq, a war-torn country, conquered Asia. Or at least in football, in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. Their football team beat the highly favoured South Korean team on penalties in the semis. And now, they turned the tables against another favourite: Saudi Arabia. They won 1-0 courtesy of their captain.
It was a very emotional moment for a team who can’t even go home to celebrate. Someone can get killed even with the revelry.
If they have done it, why can’t we Filipinos? We did not even qualify for this event.
On the other hand, I just learned today that we beat China 79-74 in the 24th FIBA-Asia Men's Basketball tournament. We were not really against their best team, but it's good to know that we bounced back after that opening day loss to Iran.
12 comments:
and we lost to Jordan and goodbye olympic dreams, for now at least.
:(
our olympic hopes dashed...
i think we should concentrate on the sports na meron tayong chance. life football and those contact sports.
I was hoping even that an ASEAN nation like Indonesia or Thailand could have done better...but they did show lots of improvements.
It's true, I hope too that as a nation, we could have this kind of inspiring victory in the world stage. But for now, with the Philippine team out of FIBA contention, we could only hope in the future.
I saw this i-witness documentary (or was it another show?) about how 'mismatched' Filipinos are when it comes to basketball. for one, we are not a race of tall people (except of course for some hybrids).
That's why, aside from boxing and billiards, football should be attractive for those who are height-constrained. unfortunately, we do not have enough space for young people to explore their chances in this sport.
i think we can be better at this more than basketball if only people gave it a chance.
my officemates always talk about the basketball. and in their opinion, the players really got high confidence when they beat china. dapat hindi pa rin.. coz friendly game lang yung sa china or something
I should really play for our national team and give justice and prestige to Phil. Football... Oops, did I say it out loud? hehehe
Have a nice weekend. :-)
I wonder why football is not popular in the Philippines. I think our physique is better suited for this than basketball.
cool, dito ko pa nalaman na natalo natin ang China, may maikukuwento na ako sa ofc bukas, hehe.
football kasi, kelangan laki ng field, eh, bansa natin, liit! hehe
major tom, it's difficult for us to compete in basketball. We might be kings in SEA, but not in Asia.
Given enough time, we can do so much in football.
brennan, politics can also ruin a sport.
paolo, yeah yeah, I agree.
Tin-tin, China sent a B-team. They already qualified for the olypmics so its not really a big deal for them.
Alvin, the first asian football superstar is a filipino. You could be the next one.
Toe, we should fare better in football. We got fil-brits in the youth team and they're well-trained.
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