QUICK, answer this question: Here in Cebu, name me a sport where you can gather 2,400 players comprising 216 teams to sweat, run and score in 48 hours.
Basketball? Volleyball? Dancesport? Badminton? Takyan? These are popular games, yes, but nowhere can they gather 4,800 legs and 216 squads in one weekend.
It’s called Football.
If you’ve been reading the sports stories the past 16 months, you’d make the same conclusion as me: The No.1 sport in Cebu today is kicking.
Last Saturday, at the unholy hour of 6 in the morning, thousands of legs crammed the Cebu City Sports Center. Yes, at 6 a.m. on a Saturday. Players kicked, lunged forward, headed the ball, sprinted towards the white goal post. The goalies wore oversized gloves, they dove, scrambled to grab the rubber, extended their arms to cover the box and hurled themselves on the brown dirt grass. The parents? Ahh, the dads and moms. They numbered more than the players. So you do the math: 2,400 players plus hundreds of papas and mamas, hundreds of titos and titas, hundreds of lolos...
It’s called Football.
Back to the parents: They screamed, jumped when the ball kissed the net, gasped for air as six-year-olds kicked each other on the knees. The parents laughed, cried, and worse, cursed and yelled and threw words like “@$#%^&!” at the referees. You can’t blame the parents. Why? They want to win... more than the children. They’re more competitive. Here’s a question to all parents: Have you ever felt the urge, in the middle of that game, to run on-field and kick that ball (or that referee)? I can see the curves of your lips pointing upward and your heads nodding.
Last weekend for the Second Aboitiz National Football Festival, the Sports Center looked like a giant swimming pool littered with spiked shoes. There were two big fields for the 17-year-olds, four mid-size fields for the 12-year-olds, and two miniature rectangles for the six-year-olds. Six-year-olds? Playing football? Why not? I saw men older than 50 and girls younger than four.
That’s Football.
Why is Cebu crazy over this sport? When only two people are allowed to use their hands? Instead, why not play basketball where everybody can catch and shoot using our God-given hands? Why is Cebu crazy over a dangerous game: where injuries and children crying in pain are not unusual? Many get bruises on their thighs, blood on the knees. Sprained ankles? Aching backs? Swollen feet? All part of the game. Why?
Because football is the world’s most popular sport. It’s not elitist like golf or expensive like badminton or lacking in courts like tennis. It’s free. All you need is a ball, a pair of feet and fresh air. Football is watched by billions from Europe to Africa to North Korea to Sugbu. Didn’t we just watch the World Cup? Didn’t we see Zidane use his head to win? I mean... lose his head to lose the WC.
Football is tops in Cebu because of the schools. If you visit most schools today, sure, they own basketball courts. Who doesn’t have a 10-foot ring hanging on a cemented rectangle? But are there players? Sure. The 6-footers. Where are the others? Running on grass...
It’s called Football.
This game is simple. The rules? As the former US coach Phil Woosnam said, “The rules of soccer are simple, basically it is this: if it moves, kick it. If it doesn’t move, kick it until it does.”
Football is popular because of Jonathan “Maxi” Maximo, the president of the Cebu Football Association (CebuFA). With Maxi on centerfield and CebuFA teammates like Mark Bretherton, Jackie Lotzof, Neil Montesclaros, Dave Sharpe, Edward Chu, Eddie Buot and Mario Ugarte, the game is sprinting forward. Look at how many events we’ve seen: the Aboitiz Cup, the San Roque Football Festival, the Thirsty Cup, the Mizuno Football Festival, to name a few.
Also, lest I forget, this sport is No.1 because of one kangaroo who recently hopped back to Australia: Graeme Mackinnon. I love Graeme. He is probably the most passionate, intense and committed sportsman I’ve ever met. Because of Graeme (and with Michel Lhuillier’s help), names like Springdale and Carmen and MLSDF are names we read about in these back pages.
Last Saturday, I spoke to Anton Quisumbing. His 7-year-old son Franco joined, for the first time, a football game. Anton grinned, he pumped his arms to the sky, and called this sport “amazing” and “inexpensive” and “great for the kids.”
Anton’s right. Football is No.1. As the saying goes, “Some people say football is a matter of life or death, but it isn’t. It’s much more important than that.”
Courtesy of Sun Star Cebu
By John Pages
Matchpoint
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