The Kings of Asian Football

Congratulations to Japan for winning the Asian Football Confederations Cup 2011 in Qatar! They won by the slimmest of margins 1-0, courtesy of substitute Tadanari Lee's goal in extra time.  Again, congratulations!

Teams I Cheered (International Football)

As you guys may know, I like, love football. So for this post, I am going to feature my favorite teams in the international scene. This are the countries I cheered in the World Cup.

My first team feature is the Netherlands, also known as Holland. They are affectionately named the Oranje! I have been a fan of this team since high school, during the 1998 World Cup in France. They placed third during that WC edition deploying what was the best Oranje team ever (Sorry, my opinion!). It had the venerable Edwin van de Saar, the de Boer brothers, Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars and of course, my idol, Dennis Bergkamp. The video below is the very video clip I saw over CNN that made me an Oranje fan.

The Dutch game is known as the clock work orange. They have an excellent defense, that if you slipped up on your offense, they'll do their efficient counterattack and score goals, as seen in the video above.

In the recent World Cup, I think I was only a handful of Filipino fans who cheered for Oranje through and through, and through, and thick or thin. They were against the mighty Brazilians in the quarterfinals, and were able to defeat them. They even managed to survive the 5 goal thriller against resilient Uruguay. But sad to say, they bowed to Spain in the finals via an Andres Iniesta goal extra time. Once again, they are the bride's maid.

 

 
Yup, I am cheering also for the Samurai Blue, Japan's national football team. I can say that this was not a hard choice for me since I am an otaku. I love like anything and everything with regards to Japan (except for the WWII thingy).The Japanese team is one of the dominant teams in Asia, along with South Korea and Saudi Arabia. But it's dominance in Asia seemed not to resonate in the world stage until in the recently concluded World Cup, where they came in second to the Netherlands in their group. Their campaign was cut short via a penalty shootout lost against Paraguay in the Round of 16.

I have every reason to cheer for this Asian power house. One of which is that they have a very cute team captain, Makoto Hasebe.

  i heart Makoto Hasebe.

But of course, how could I betray my roots! I also cheer for my own team, the Azkals!

Go Team Philippines!

Go Azkals!

Chris Tiu, co-captain of the Philippine National Basketball Team

 *Disclaimer: This blog entry was taken from my old Friendster blog written Oct. 10, 2007. This was the answer to Chris Tiu's question: What can we do to grow Pinoys interest and passion toward other sports besides basketball?

Hey Chris! Good question! I have been itching for this question for ages. Okay people tend to be more interested and passionate about basketball because we are so Americanized. We tend to look up at things from America and almost worship it. Since basketball is an American sport so we Filipinos tend to do stuffs we do on things "from America". Another reason is that we have an existing professional league here, and it has media mileage on free tv. A basketball player tend to be paid more than an average Pinoy who works 9-5. Having professional leagues from other sports may cause to stir the interest of fellow Filipinos to also appreciate them. Just like in the United States. Fact is that, the NBA is not the number one sport in America, it is actually the National Football League and Major League Baseball. And in Brazil where Soccer is King, the Brazilians also have volleyball and basketball leagues for both sexes. Come to think of it, in Brazil, they saw the potential of there countrymen in these sports. If only conglomerates and Pinoy corporations see that our countrymen has the potential. I remember we used to be the Kings and Queens of Baseball and Softball, and I am dreaming we could get back to that prestige if only these guys had the funding. And lastly, we had too much politics in ours sports, sometimes our athletes tend to gave up their hopes because of politics. These athletes have the potential in bringing home the bacon, just like what Manny Pacquiao does. He and some legends before him (like my kababayan, Flash Elorde) made the Pinoy love boxing, not just because he has the talent, skills, and all, but the backing of Politicians (Ahem, like Atienza!) and the businessmen (Ahem, San Miguel Beer!). If only these guys could do the same for other events.  In order for Pinoys to appreciate sports other than basketball (and boxing) we should be open minded that we have a potential in other sports, to the media comglomerate…have some soccer, baseball, rugby and others being broadcast on free tv, to the politicians…stop the politics and to for the rich guys, sponsor some pro-league from other sports.  I am going to end my angsty answer to your simple question with an information that, as of the moment I am looking forward for the next PBA season, while watching European football (Ahem, that’s soccer to you!).

I Got Game

I have been longing to write this kind of blog, a blog about sports as seen by a girl. I already have a personal blog, then a running blog, now this!

I am Ling2x Abella. I am a veterinarian by profession, but s sports freak by heart. I know various kinds of sports and even play them. I know how to swim, bike and run. I even played football or soccer when I was in high school. I only played two games, and that was on my freshman year, and I scored 1 goal, an OWN GOAL! I also played basketball back in college and was the captain of our college (College of Veterinary Medicine) twice. We never won the championships, but we always get in the final four. I was more a defensive player and a perimeter shooter at that. I only made ONE three pointer in my entire life, and I have a 50% free throw percentage.

Aside from those, I also did some pocket games of pool, a bit of chess, and some other random sports stuff you can think of.


Yeah, I can be cute, but I've got game!