Sports: Azkals qualifying stage for AFC done, World Cup qualifiers next

The country is still ecstatic with the win that our Philippine football team achieved during the AFC qualifying match with Bangladesh 3-0, following draws against Palestine and Myanmar to advance to the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup’s main tournament next year. With the AFC main tournament scheduled for next year, the Azkals have this year to hone and improve their skills further. We might as well mark in our sporting calendar their next games this coming June 29 and July 3 against a yet to be confirmed opponents as they kick off their World Cup qualifying bid. This will definitely be a step up in the competition as these matches will determine who would advance to the second round of the World Cup qualifying matches. Also playing on the first round of qualifying and possible opponents are Laos, Myanmar, Chinese-Taipei, Macau, Timor Leste, Palestine, Pakistan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Malaysia.

The level of competition of the next matches that the team will be participating are a step higher compared to what they have already experienced during the AFC qualifying tournament so hopefully the Azkals team would springboard from all of their recent successes and continue on giving the Philippines something to cheer about. Though I would like to make an appeal to all *new* football fans especially Azkals fans to make sure that we rally behind our team no matter what the results are. We might not even make it past the first round. Hopefully, we would continuously support our Azkals team even if the results are not on their side.

Sports: AZKALS on the rise

AZKAL fever is reaching its peak and football is starting to gain its much needed break in this basketball frenzy country of ours. With the recent showing of the AZKALS last year in the Suzuki Cup, the support has already trickled in, different individuals from the private sectors are giving out their support to make sure that football gains its momentum and hopefully elevate the level of play of the players. Let us just pray that politics will not ruin the current momentum that they are gaining since this will definitely hamper the progress of the team and also the sport in general. It's time that our government switch their focus on the type of sports that needs to be prioritized, other than boxing we can definitely benefit from playing football as this does not require someone to be a 7 footer in order to be a player, height is not a requirement when you play football unlike basketball. Heck, we might have an even higher chance of getting gold medal in the asian games here rather than basketball.

With the continued rise of support of the filipino public for the Azkals, I am hoping that one of these days, they would be able to capture the Asian Cup Title and hopefully represent the country in the FIFA world cup... That would be awesome! But as a start, hopefully they don't get too excited and let the fame get into their head and continue working hard and stepping up through the challenge.

Football together with boxing is a sport where Filipinos can excel. We have lots of good and natural born players, they just need an avenue wherein they can show it. Hopefully our government realizes this and develops a grass root program aimed towards discovering new talents from different parts of the country.

The AZKALS will be hosting Mongolia in an AFC qualifying match this February 9, 2011 at the Panaad Stadium in Bacolod. If you want to watch them play, it will be broadcasted live on Studio 23 at 6:30PM.