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Post by cjeagle on Sept 5, 2015 15:10:48 GMT 8
YOUNG AND RESTLESS. Daisuke Sato, Amani Aguinaldo, and Luke Woodland, all 20 years young, are primed to be the future faces of Pinoy football Aside from world class talent, another weapon that the Philippine Azkals have on this side, thanks to this current roster, is an abundance of youth. In the team’s current 26-man roster, there are only three players on the other side of 30 years, namely Juani Guirado (36), Maldives hitman Jerry Lucena (34), and Paul Mulders (34). Nine members of the team are within the 26 to 29 year age range, and the rest belong to the 25 and below category. Heck, five guys on the team just got out of their teens. The average retiring age of a professional football player, barring any major injury, is 35 years old, meaning that a lot of these guys on the team have more or less ten years left. Simply put, some of the names on the Azkals’ current roster are primed to be the futures of Filipino football, and make no mistake about it, Filipino football is on the rise. For team captain Phil Younghusband, who, at just 28 years of age, is already considered as one of the elder statesmen of the team, being called up to the senior team and getting to train with the country’s best players are important experiences for a young footballer’s development. “We’ve got some players who are young, and who’ll gain from just being away with the team, having experience.” Younghusband also added that injecting youth to the lineup is a way of preparing for the future. “Coach is thinking about the future, thinking about the development of players as well as getting the right result in the games coming up, so I think it’s important that you get to bring in young players and have them get the experience. “ The Filipino-British striker began his national team duties at a young age as well, and has now grown into the team’s leader and leading scorer. “I started when I was 17-18 with the national team, and having that international experience, it’s priceless for the future. It’s good to have the youngsters in.” Coach Thomas Dooley has said that he sees Younghusband as the one to lead the Azkals for the coming years, and now they're surrounding their new captain with some young pieces to make sure that the Philippines stays as a force to reckon with in the future. sports.abs-cbn.com/football/news/2015/09/04/the-philippine-azkals-future-built-youth-4594
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Post by cjeagle on Mar 4, 2016 3:26:55 GMT 8
Loyola Meralco Sparks youngsters Jorrel Aristorenas and Kouichi Belgira have been selected to take part in a Philippine National Football Team training camp ahead of a busy year for the country’s senior side. Both players have impressed in four straight starts in the UFL Cup, and their performances have not gone unnoticed by Philippine head coach Thomas Dooley. Aristorenas, who just turned 22, has been a mainstay so far this season, given the responsibility of opening up opposition defenses from the center of midfield with his vision and quick feet. Playing with more confidence and freedom, the former Under-23 national is now one step closer to achieving the dream of every Filipino footballer – to represent the Philippines in senior competitions. “We had a really long pre-season where we were working very hard, so to be recognized is kind of like a nice little reward for all the hard work,” said Aristorenas. Belgira’s emergence has come as more of a shock to the nation’s footballing community. Only 19 years of age, the Filipino-Japanese teenager was an unknown entity before showing up to a trial for the Loyola Meralco Sparks. Since then, the wing back has been nothing but solid, needing no time to acclimatize to the likes of Ceres-La Salle and Global in the UFL. Armed with an unshakeable confidence in his own ability, an admirable work rate, and an impressive resolve on the big stage, Belgira could very well be the surprise package of the year. Together, the duo make an exciting prospect for both club and country, and provide more proof that ability and hard work will be recognized, no matter how young. onemeralcosports.com/loyola-sparks/sparks-youngsters-earn-national-team-recognition/Looks like Belgira is the next Sato, the latest Fil Japanese teenager to possibly make the national team.
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Post by cjeagle on Mar 4, 2016 11:15:45 GMT 8
Other youngsters invited to Azkals training camp:
Marco Casambre and Mark Winhoffer from Global FC
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2016 21:38:54 GMT 8
Warning: Azkals’ future is being built on youth??
The Azkals U19B just lost all games (bottom of the group) in the AFF U19 male championship, while the Azkals U19G withdrew from the AFF U19 female Championship.
It seems that locally home grown Filipino soccer players is NOT the answer for the Askals' future according to the PFF. Specially true now that Sepp Blatter is out of FIFA. One of the best accomplishment of Sepp, was the emphasis on soccer developing countries like the Philippines. He was known to be very very generous in providing FIFA funding money to such federation. FIFA funding money are now being highly scrutinize. PFF needs to be more self sufficient.
Private donations and financial support within the Philippines is needed, but unfortunately, the rich families in the Philippines are known to be very "kuripot". They will only give money if one of their relatives is included to be part of the team. In the Philippines we have the saying "Charity begins at home" and "stays at home". This also corrupts coaches and PFF officials, so talented soccer players from poor families will not have a chance. We all know that public government officials always start a sentence with "Ang lagay man".
So we have to continue to import soccer players from abroad (where they were trained as soccer players from a young age by organized, well-funded soccer development academies). More than likely they will come from rich families so as to be self sufficient, minimizing PFF expenses. They will only need a Philippine passport.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2016 23:17:15 GMT 8
In my last post I painted a sad picture on the future of Philippine homegrown soccer with our young Filipino youth. Specially those talented players from poor families who cannot afford the expenses of properly training their kids or even just properly bribing somebody to give their kids the chance to play.
Unfortunately this goes to the root of Filipino psychology. I was talking to my uncle who's 73 yrs.old, and he told me that Filipinos who survived the war, were so focused to recover, regaining some wealth to raise their families. This was when the saying "Charity begins at home and stays at home" takes root. Families became "kuripot". Also, greed and corruption also took root, even at the top of the government (i.e. Manong and Manang Marcos), so everybody seems to be doing it.
In the friendly against Bahrain, Coach Dooley and the players were urging the fans to see the game, hopefully 13,000. But only 1500-2000 attended, in Rizal Stadium Manila on a Friday night.
For Filipino soccer to move on, it needed the support during the game. The youth must be exposed to the "beautiful game", which, I believe, they are starting to enjoy playing.
To those rich families in Dasmariñas Village, Bonifacio City, Rockwell Center etc. If you are not interested to see the game (but would rather go to your cocktail parties) why not buy 100 tickets and give it to the poor kids in the neighborhood just across the street from your expensive condos. It is NOT amazing that they are NOT going to do this. Also true is that most of them are foreigners with no intention of helping the Filipinos, just sucking its wealth and taking advantage of the cheap labor.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2016 23:54:19 GMT 8
Continuing my post on Filipino Youth Soccer.
In the USA, there are hundreds of organized soccer development academies, all under the USA Soccer Federation. It is not FREE, other than the MLS academies, costing between 250-500 dollars per month. Why are the Americans doing this? To go to a reputable college after HS, without being smart enough to qualify (i.e. SAT grades, etc). And maybe get a college scholarship since college is very expensive.
Here in the Philippines, the path does not exist or not needed even for rich families, since it is easy to go to a good college if you got the money. The PFF is solely responsible as the only soccer development academy around. This needed plenty of extra money and lots of financial support, since they normally start at U14. PFF has to go abroad to find players with the necessary soccer training to be competitive. Unfortunately, European players have to consider the 14-16 hrs of 1-way flight time just to train and practice with the team. Or play for the UFL which is a BAD option for players wanting to improve their career in soccer.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 8:56:18 GMT 8
As shown by my posts, I fully support home grown Filipino youth soccer, and I fully believed that it is the future of Philippine soccer. Unfortunately, the task is relatively difficult since the infrastructure for such undertaking does not exist. In the USA there are hundreds of fully funded soccer development academies, plus hundreds of soccer playing colleges at D1, D2, D3 etc. Even with all of these organizations, USMNT is still importing foreign trained soccer players from abroad mostly Germany. Soccer being a team sport, it is not easy to gather players from all over and have them play as a team. Costa Rica, a very small country with much fewer potential soccer players, is doing much better than the USA. Why? Because in the USA, Football and basketball are the kings of sport. Football and basketball generates so much money that players and coaches are multimillionaires. In the Philippines, soccer cannot replace basketball as the most popular sport, even though the Filipino's physique is suited more to play soccer. Although basketball is played very competitively in the Philippines, we cannot be as competitive internationally. Maybe in Southeast Asia, but not as broadly accepted as in soccer. A Filipino cannot grow taller, stronger and faster than Lebron James. Even Stephen Curry is 6'3". I admire the Thailanders and Vietnamese in accepting soccer as the international game well suited for their physique or DNA. And they are well focused on it.
The PFF just signed agreements with two marketing companies, RSportz Inc. and MMC Sportz. Both companies believe that there is potential business in Philippine soccer, i.e. they both desire to make money. I personally believe that this will not help our youth, specially those from poor families.
The FIFA investigation which took down Sepp Blatter, all involved Sports Media Marketing Companies convicted in corruption, money laundering, bribery, etc. Make your own conclusion. RSportz Inc Register members to organization and events, collect payments from members Organize leagues & tournaments Automatic Scheduling & Live Scoring
MMC Sportz Advertising and communications agency Media Evaluations & Media Monitoring Event Marketing & Management, with Sponsorship Sales & Promotions
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 21:21:09 GMT 8
Summarizing my last post, let's think about this
Costa Rica is much much smaller than the Philippines, i.e Population Costa Rica 4.87 millions Philippines 98.39 millions ... We could develop 20x more potential soccer players from our youth.
Manila is much much bigger, richer and progressive than San Jose. The Los Ticos have the same physique, athletic built as the Pinoys. Costa Rica have shown to be much much better in soccer than the USA, hands down. Costa Rica is the most successful national football team in the history of Central America, with eight championships: 1991, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013 and 2014. The players were home grown.
So... We could do it, with our youth if ONLY we have the focus without the corruption. "Ang lagay man" is always the problem.
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Post by delver on Oct 18, 2016 10:05:06 GMT 8
We must democratize football. It is up to the adults to promote football to the youth. There is nothing on local television that encourages kids to take up football aside from product commercials featuring kids playing football.
Yes, we do lack infrastructures/pitches but what hurts us more is the lack of passion off the pitch. People can always play futsal in basketball courts or in empty spaces but most kids interested in playing the sport have no one to play with. As long as we have basketball crazed P.E. teachers and adults it is going to be hard to promote the sport in schools.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2016 20:59:34 GMT 8
Yes, Delver. I have seen a video of a poor African boy making a soccer ball out of discarded plastic shopping bags, just to play soccer in a muddy street. Just 1v1, two boys is good enough. Such passion. It is a lot easier and cheaper to play soccer than basketball. In basketball you'll need a real ball (i.e. the ball needs to bounce on a solid court), and a hoop installed up about 10 feet or less.
I wish our young Pinoys would do this. Again, home grown Filipino youth, not the imports.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2016 21:46:05 GMT 8
Fellow Pinoys, would you all agree with me that the most important discussion thread in this website is the "Future of the Azkals with our home grown youth". We are so hang up, (including Palami and Company) in talking about those foreign half Filipinos, and totally missing the importance of motivating our youth to succeed in what they can do with their intelligence, skill and physique. Remember, the soccer super stars of Brazil, Argentina, and Africa all came from very poor families. Soccer is the only international game that would give our financially disadvantaged youth the future they are dreaming of and be able to achieve it. PFF sign agreements with sports media companies to do: www.philstar.com/sports/2016/10/15/1633862/pff-launches-online-registration-football-stakeholders"The Philippine Football Federation, through the help of foreign partners, launched the online registration system for their players and stakeholders. These include professional, amateur and grassroots players, coaches, referees, fans and supporters." So "amateur and grassroots players" and "donors and supporters" will be all in the same database. The question is how are they going to use this database. Of course, players from poor families will not have relatives listed as supporters and donors. This could be the same old "Ang lagay man" problem all over again.. CJEagle what can you say about this?
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Post by cjeagle on Oct 20, 2016 0:11:18 GMT 8
Fellow Pinoys, would you all agree with me that the most important discussion thread in this website is the "Future of the Azkals with our home grown youth". We are so hang up, (including Palami and Company) in talking about those foreign half Filipinos, and totally missing the importance of motivating our youth to succeed in what they can do with their intelligence, skill and physique. Remember, the soccer super stars of Brazil, Argentina, and Africa all came from very poor families. Soccer is the only international game that would give our financially disadvantaged youth the future they are dreaming of and be able to achieve it. PFF sign agreements with sports media companies to do: www.philstar.com/sports/2016/10/15/1633862/pff-launches-online-registration-football-stakeholders"The Philippine Football Federation, through the help of foreign partners, launched the online registration system for their players and stakeholders. These include professional, amateur and grassroots players, coaches, referees, fans and supporters." So "amateur and grassroots players" and "donors and supporters" will be all in the same database. The question is how are they going to use this database. Of course, players from poor families will not have relatives listed as supporters and donors. This could be the same old "Ang lagay man" problem all over again.. CJEagle what can you say about this? Actually most Filipinos are lucky the PFF does not make you pay to get registered like they do in other countries. The other countries use the fee to help fund their programs. The PFF recognizes that many Filipinos cannot even afford the registration fee and does not want to discourage players from registering and becoming involved especially since football is not very popular among the Filipino youth at this time. You have to remember that those other countries you mentioned have football as their number one sport, so player participation, active and engaged football fanbases, sponsorship, tv broadcasts and funding from ticket sales all help promote football, which is unfortunately not the case in the Philippines as you can see when you see all the empty seats during Azkal and UFL games. So make sure to thank(instead of criticizing) the sponsors, owners and supporters who are willing to invest in football, who are in many cases diehard fans and former players themselves, who are at this time not really making a profit but are willing to invest their time and money to support the game that they love. If you really want to help, do your part as well to help promote the sport(and this pertains to everyone here), not only by playing but by attending football games(both national and professional games) and invite as many of your non football playing friends to join you. Who knows, they might end up liking the sport and becoming football fans, players, owners and supporters themselves one day.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2016 0:55:11 GMT 8
I have been a solid evangelist of Filipino football, but all of my non football friends keep saying "I cannot be interested in Azkal's football since the team is primary composed of foreign players with a Philippine passport, and an American coach. Even the UFL teams have foreign players and coaches. We have nobody to relate to, and they are not us. It is like watching a friendly between two visiting foreign teams in a Philippine stadium."
They also say that all the TV glorifications, newspaper articles, etc. are about these mestizos. What can I say?
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Post by cjeagle on Oct 20, 2016 1:44:55 GMT 8
I have been a solid evangelist of Filipino football, but all of my non football friends keep saying "I cannot be interested in Azkal's football since the team is primary composed of foreign players with a Philippine passport, and an American coach. Even the UFL teams have foreign players and coaches. We have nobody to relate to, and they are not us. It is like watching a friendly between two visiting foreign teams in a Philippine stadium." They also say that all the TV glorifications, newspaper articles, etc. are about these mestizos. What can I say? I doubt you are a real Filipino football supporter or fan, especially with all the excuses you are making. You probably don't attend UFL games(I heard that fans numbers in the low hundreds most of the time). Before the UFL and Azkal's came along, the only fans in the stands during games, were the player's friends and relatives. There were no media coverage, no tv broadcasts except for the occasional public service telecasts during multi sport games, no advertising, and marketing campaigns and non existent national youth team programs. Football is football. In most other countries football fans flock to stadiums to watch good teams play regardless of their origin. The better the quality of teams playing the more fans watch the games. This is especially true here in the US where visiting European professional clubs attract more fans than MLS teams. Your statements indicate to me that you are not really a football fan. Heck the first local football players in the Philippines back in the time of Alcantara or earlier, many of whom were mestizos themselves, were introduced to the sport by watching visiting British and other foreign expatriates and military service personnel play. This eventually led to thriving Filipino leagues in the early part of the 20th century with football fans(numbering up to 40,000) outnumbering basketball fans during the Far Eastern Games hosted in Manila. As I have detailed in the Legends forum on those games, football and track and field were the glamor sports of that era. We were a power in Asian football back then and many of our best players were mestizos including Paulino Alcantara, just like today. Heck our best basketball players like Caloy Loyzaga and Robert Jaworski are of mixed heritage themselves, yet most Filipinos have no problem idolizing them do we? The difference back then is that people didn't try to differentiate between mestizos or purebred brown Asian natives. They were just Filipinos, playing and fighting for the honor of the Philippines. If you define a Filipino just by the color of their skin and cannot relate to anyone otherwise, then you are a racist and no different than those white skinheads in Europe who jeer at black players and make monkey noises during games and could just as easily do that to you.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2016 2:01:30 GMT 8
Amazing for a moderator to attack the messenger and not the message. The message is worth a discussion not a ridicule.
"Football is football. In most other countries football fans flock to stadiums to watch good teams play regardless of their origin. The better the quality of teams playing the more fans watch the games. This is especially true here in the US where visiting European professional clubs attract more fans than MLS teams." What is your point here? Typical catch22, are you going to watch NBA Sacramento vs Philadephia, or Lebron vs Curry?
In the earlier part of the 20th century, we are still influenced by our Spanish heritage, i.e. football. The Americans changed it to basketball, even baseball. As usual the Filipinos simply adapted to the American culture, speak english instead of spanish, etc. Again what is your point?
Caloy Loyzaga and Robert Jaworski were both born here. Caloy (Manila) went to San Beda and Jaworski (Baguio) went to UE. Filipinos who went to the same school could relate to them, maybe even be their classmates.
My aim in this discussion thread is to establish a constructive, healthy discussion on how, as Filipinos, can we motivate our youth in playing and enjoying the game of football. Also put emphasis on those talented players from poor families so that they can be given a chance and be included in the training system. Not just the kids of rich families, with financial resources to influence the PFF.
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