RP Football in Training

 Come mid-May, an elimination tournament for the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup will be held at Iloilo City and Barotac Nuevo town, also in Iloilo. To the uninformed, Barotac Nuevo is a football hotbed, perhaps the only town in the country where basketball takes a backseat.

The men’s football team, also known as “Askals”, have started their preparations for the Group 2 qualifiers which also includes Bhutan, Brunei and Tajikistan. The candidates are now at the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) National Training Center, still Barotac Nuevo under head coach Norman Fegidero Jr.

Aspiring for slots to the squad are former nationals Aly Borromeo, Emilio Caligdong, Ian Araneta, Peter Jaugan, Edmundo Mercado Jr, and Edward Sacapano. Also included in the training camp are goalkeeper Archie Bayquin, midfield strikers Arnie Pasinabo, Floriano Pasilan, Robert Canedo and Michael Casas, defenders Joel Ballo-allo, Joven Bedic, Alejandro Montelibano and Lemuel Unabia. If memory serves me right, Casas played for Carmen during the Graeme McKinnon era with MLSDF.

Going with the norm, Fil-foreigners are also on the aspirant’s list. Unless they break some parts of their anatomy during training, these imports will be on the team. The PFF is eyeing English Premiere League affiliated James Hall of Everton and reserve goalkeeper Neal Etheridge of Fulham. Both have Filipino mothers and from recent sources, they are currently processing their Philippine passports.

Phil and James Younghusband will be back. I suppose Phil has made arrangements with Chelsea FC with his stint here as he still is under contract with the London-based squad until May. Chris Greatwich, who captained the squad in the AFC in Bangkok confirmed his participation. Phil Younghusband and Greatwich combined for eight goals in Bacolod City during the Asian Qualifiers in 2006.

Foreign-based rightback Anton del Rosario will return for duty. We remember him with that magnificent 30-yard free kick in our 4-1 victory over Brunei that qualified the nationals to Bangkok.

The team will have a Visayan tour with stops in Bacolod, Dumaguete, San Carlos City and Cebu. The tour will promote the national team and the ACC tournament. The Cebu Football Association will surely put up a strong team to match up with nationals when the tour makes their Cebu pitstop.

Now that Mizuno and PFF has recently agreed to a 3-year, P9 million partnership deal, we hope that Philippine football will finally make some strides in bringing back whatever glory we have lost through years of passive programs.

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