Wanted: Barangay Azkals — A look at the home crowd at Rizal MemorialCourtesy: InterAKTV website
It was my first time to watch an Azkals game live, and it was by accident. We were asked by a co-parent from my daughter’s school if she would be interested to be one of the marchers for the pre-game ritual of the Azkals game versus Indonesia.
As parents of the Marchers, we were given complimentary tickets to the upper white bleacher section of the stadium.
Marchers in this case were the small kids in orange jerseys that accompanied the Azkals and their counterparts to the football field for the pre-game ritual of presenting the country colors and the singing of the national anthems of the respective teams.
Make no mistake about it: I have loved watching this beautiful game since my high school days. But schedules, the reported exorbitant ticket prices, and other distractions have kept us from watching the Azkals’ game in the stadium.
The great divideOnce we got to the stadium, we immediately began screaming our hearts out, cheering for the Azkals, jeering the Indonesian player for their dives — especially their goalkeeper, because of his bad acting skills. But only a few of us, led by the Kaholeros, who were “into” the game the whole time.
The lethargic performance from Pinoy fans would have gone unnoticed if not for the glaring difference between the “away” crowd — lively, animated, boisterous Indonesian fans — and the “home” crowd.
One game in the stadium will not a conclusion make, but several thoughts came rushing through. From the moment we entered the stadium, I was already struck with the reality of the physical divide between the VIPs, invited guests with event IDs and the moneyed spectators that filled the grandstand on one hand; and the regular football habitués and the masa that were in the bleacher side of the stadium.
The result, it seems, is the presence of two distinct home crowds: the first, from the much tamer and prim section of the grandstand; and the second, from the more agitated bleacher section.
This added to the seeming “silence” of the home crowd. There were, of course, moments of frenzy when the Younghusbands scored equalizers twice, and when team captain and crowd darling Chiefy Caligdong got into the red card list with his entanglement with Indonesian forward Irfan Bachdim.
Maybe perhaps because this is Manila and not the Panaad Stadium, the hotbed of Philippine football, but I’ll leave this to those who have been to both venues.
Chanting in (dis)unisonTo their credit, the Kaholeros did their share of chants throughout the match. Unfortunately, it never reverberated to the home crowd. The Kaholeros were also in the same upper white bleacher area but the chants simply did not get through to us.
I was hoping that some members of the Kaholeros would have gone out of their way to teach the whole bleachers section of the chants. They never did.
I thought most of us did not feel like we owned the chant. I am sure there are other reasons; perhaps it is because we are still in the process of embracing football in our collective consciousness.
We appreciate football as individuals, but not quite yet as a nation that loves football. Baka nagkakahiyaan pa kaya kanya kanya muna.So we ended up having our own small chants, though they were few and far in between. The people from the blue bleacher area had their own version, and so did those from the grandstand area.
But while it was a relatively silent home crowd, there was never a dull moment. With our Pinoy brand of humor and being natural jesters, how could it be unexciting?
Barangay Azkals, anyone?Everyone was expecting Neil Etheridge to start as the Azkals goalkeeper. But when he did not, people started asking who No. 47 — Filipino-German Roland Mueller — was.
A security personnel, in jest, replied: “Si Mark Caguioa yan.”
The Barangay Ginebra superstar, of course, famously wears No. 47 for the PBA’s crowd darlings.
During a lull in the scuffle that led to three red cards, a number of people were heard shouting the immoral phrases that were only heard during heated basketball games of yesteryears — “Suntukan na lang!” “Huwag palabasin yan!” “Matalo, manalo, bugbog kayo!”
Clearly, the passion and enthusiasm for football from among those that were at the stadium is as intense as any Barangay Ginebra fanatic.
For someone who has been ridiculed in previous years for staying in the wee hours of the weekends just to watch football games, this is a very happy and welcome development — though I’m still hoping for a better home crowd atmosphere the next time around.
www.interaksyon.com/interaktv/wanted-barangay-azkals-a-look-at-the-home-crowd-at-rizal-memorial