Football fans in a basketball-crazy PH
Here’s a fact. You have on your Facebook three or four friends who post fervently in the middle of the night their wildest cheers and their sadness over the results of a sporting event that is foreign to us, the World Cup of football.
You wonder what kind of sport is this. Why did they choose this over what many love more, basketball and boxing? What is so exciting about scoring only one or two goals in 80 minutes, compared with the tons of dunks and treys in basketball, or the whopping punches and knockouts in boxing?
Sometimes you may even wonder, are they boring people, or are we just disconnected from a sporting event adored by around one billion people?
I asked two friends who are football fans why they got hooked to this. It is interesting how they loved this sport.
Margherita Carreon, a working mom, began loving football when she had a crush on British player David Beckham. She then played this sport since high school, but had to stop for health reasons. The love for football continues
UP Mindanao professor Rommel Real remembered an incident in their father’s tailoring shop wherein he was asked to research for designs for a football uniform. As he did his research, he began following the sport and liked what he saw.
The common question they get is, what makes football exciting despite the low scoring. “You don’t watch a game for the number of goals but on the way the teams play, how they work together towards scoring,” Rommel said.
“It’s the build-up, the passing and how valuable each goal is,” says Margheirta.
It’s very much like basketball, or like the way the Warriors or the Spurs play. A good score is made by movement and precise passing.
The teamwork explains why players cheer like crazy when a goal is scored. It’s an intense celebration, says Rommel. There’s a dazzle when a pass is made perfectly, and the ball wheezes and curves over the outstretched hands of defenders and into the goal. And listening to the crowd makes you crazy.
Rommel says football should be an advantage for Pinoys over basketball. Height doesn’t matter there. It is also a sport that every race or class can play.
Because football here doesn’t get good coverage, (“livestreaming sucks,” says Marge), the games’ devotees here still love watching it. The live coverage from the venue, Russia, was shown here around 2 to 4 a.m. They have to excuse themselves to the neighbors when they cheer wildly. “Neighbors cheer wildly for the NBA, now, it’s our turn,” says another fan, Migz Hernandez.
Margherita believes football has potential, and she hopes the government would support the Philippine Football League and other leagues that support the sport.
“It’s a sport loved by almost everyone around the world. It can unite nations. It even caused a ceasefire in Africa before,” Margherita said. In the recent Gilas Pilipinas-Australia Boomers snafu, my friends consoled the losing teams. It’s the love of the game, as they say, and unity for the world.--SunStar Davao