REVERSE ENGINEERING OR GRASSROOTS DEVELOPMENT?
THE WAY FORWARD FOR FILIPINAS FOOTBALL
by Andrew Lim
Like many, I was enthralled and overjoyed with the Filipinas’ performance in World Cup 2023. Euphoria’s subsided, and we ponder the next steps. A new coach with sterling credentials has been signed up. What’s the best way forward from here?
Obviously, the Football federation and Coach Stajcic used the plug and play option: get the components off the shelf, the best ones you can find under the FIFA rules, train hard and get max exposure abroad. It worked wonders, vaulting the team to its highest world ranking ever and the notable results in competition. But can we push it further? It’s reverse engineering, and it has its limitations.
First, consider the talent pool that Filipinas tapped into. Nearly all of them were Fil something and that should make it clear: it’s genetics, baby. Armed with football scholarships, these players reached a new level. Let’s be humble and frank: most of the “pure locals” were displaced simply because there were more athletic and experienced options. But take note: these Fil somethings opted to join Filipinas because their chances of making the national team in the respective half of their origins is not good. So this strategy of using Fil-somethings is limited at best. You will never get the best of the best.
The obvious alternative, then is to build a real grassroots program- but this takes generations and tons of continuous money, and if the Philippine experience is any guide, we are poor at long term planning and execution (just think Manila traffic). There’s the huge challenge of making the sport commercially viable like basketball. The private sector gets involved only if there’s some return on their investment. And if by some miracle, we manage to do this, we run into the genetic wall again- just like basketball, we are disadvantaged.
Or are we?
In that final Norway match where our limitations were cruelly exposed, our players looked like the young girls they were and the opponents appeared larger and mature.
But! The Japanese women’s football team poked a hole into my genetics argument and I was happily intrigued: none of them are higher than 5 feet 8 inches but they have managed to win one World Cup, get into the final the next time and in this latest edition managed to go far, even beating eventual champ Spain by 4-0.
Now the Japanese are Asian, but they are not the same genetic stock as us. They are closer to the Korean/Chinese while we are similar to Indonesian/Malaysian/Thai.
So how do they do it? Can we shamelessly copy their methods? What can we reverse engineer from their experience? Can sushi, wagyu and ramen take us to these levels?
I propose a deep dive into how they operate- the leagues in place, their nutrition intake, their training programs. One small source of optimism: remember, Japanese sports leagues are now increasingly taking in Filipino athletes as imports for volleyball and basketball. So that indicates how close we can get.
Image from Bing Search no infringement
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Re Fil-somethings, you are right. The Azkal men never had the likes of Austrian national team (and former Bayern München) player David Alaba in their lineup. David Alaba is Vienna-born, his mother is Filipina and his father is Nigerian.
They did have Stephan Shröck who was known as a bad boy in younger years but never came into the big name teams in Germany.
As for genetics, soccer isn’t that much about height but you do have to have the will to play it dirty at times. Makikipag-gitgitan talaga kayo kapag humahabol sa bola, at dapat handa kang makipag-bungguan sa forwards kung defender ka, madugo iyan madalas.
Sabi ng ama ko di puwede sa Pinoy ang soccer kasi sikoan pa lang sa basketball nagkakasuntukan na, baka magkapatayan lang. Truth is sa tisoy mas sikat ang soccer noon pa, mga tisoy sa Iloilo halimbawa, check out Paulino Alcantara, famous Barcelona player.
Americans lost in the World Cup 1994 because they played too fair compared to the Euros and the South Americans, even as Irish-American Jason Donovan played like a basketball player, very athletic style. But that doesn’t count in soccer as the rules of engagement there are far dirtier than basketball but of course tame compared to rugby. Among Asians the South Koreans were way ahead of the Japanese as they are more aggressive IMO. Filipino genetics isn’t the issue it is that we are probably too nice and too easily provoked at the same time.. though that is men’s football, which is a testosterone filled game. I have no idea at all of women’s soccer, which I don’t watch.. but you are right about long term training programs.. I mentioned that Bayern München tries to get the best young talents globally at a young age.. NO CHANCE for a Filipino training program to compete against that or other big teams machinery, unless the DOJ instructs the BI to make sure talents don’t take the next flight to Munich..😉
Irineo,
Heard of Alphonse Areola, a full blooded Filipino- a third option goalkeeper for the French national team that won the Cup in 2018? Was with Paris St Germain before.
My brother and me watched this game (Paris St. Germain vs. Bayern München in Munich Allianz Arena with 75K seating capacity, freezing in Dec. 2017) and Areola was goalkeeper.
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2021669–bayern-vs-paris/
Strange that my brother who is the real soccer afficionado in the family (Bayern München fan since his teens) didn’t tell me about Areola, because in Wikipedia it does indeed say that his parents are Filipino. David Alaba was still with Bayern München and in the line-up BTW.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Areola
I will ask my brother about Areola and for sure he knows about Alaba, as a true Bayern fan.
My brother chatted to me that he only found out Areola was Pinoy when France won the World Cup in 2018. Better than me who just noticed France had won and the Croatians in Munich were pretty down about that.
I wonder though if the issue is less about talent and more about how sport functionaries are in the Philippines. I recall – even if I am NOT a sports aficionado by any stretch – how it seems they made life hard for Lydia de Vega back in the days, or for Hidilyn Diaz recently.
Maybe, maybe – qualifier as this is just an hypothesis – it is big egos of certain people that stand in the way of Philippine success – even in the music industry where Filipino talent is clear BTW, and in national politics also. Yes these also exist elsewhere but excellence isn’t impeded.
Don’t forget Wesley So, who reached no. 2 in chess world rankings. Got pissed with how Phil sports managers treated him, so now he plays for the US.
or even pole vaulter Obiena
right, bigger ego of pinoy coaches controlling athletes, it’s those damn sponsorships and lucrative endorsements coaches want to reign in and have a slice in the pie. if athletes are under contract hard to breach, they can break the contract if head hunted and bought by a richer club, or sold to.
“But take note: these Fil somethings opted to join Filipinas because their chances of making the national team in the respective half of their origins is not good. So this strategy of using Fil-somethings is limited at best. You will never get the best of the best.”
opted to join? I think, they were asked to join. it’s an exclusive club, you have got to be sighted 1st, and having what they were looking for like maybe fitness, scoring ability, fantastic footwork, good team player, etc, then you’ll be contracted maybe for the one game only. though contract can be extended.
I don’t buy into that notion that Filipinos are not too aggressive to make it in soccer. That’s generalization without much evidence. Our basketballers are certainly not afraid of balyahan.
Having said that, then the old name of Filipinas- the Malditas is more appropriate ha ha ha but that’s confusing with Australia’s Matildas. And Malditas has a negative, salacious connotation.
Maybe one recruitment strategy is to look for playground bullies ha ha ha
Hmm.. Gilas versus Australia some years ago, going into full-blown fighting is exactly what shouldn’t happen on the soccer field..
One has to keep up a certain level of aggression but still keep it on the low below foul level.
But then again, Malaysia seems to have a good soccer team, and their culture isn’t too far. They too have the extremes of sensitivity and amok, which is a Malay word. But yes, all the theories, whether my father’s or mine or others, are just hyphotheses that need to be verified or tested.
The Philippine Coast Guard has recently BTW disproven the old notion that Pinoys are easily provoked hotheads, and have stood their ground and more going through Chinese attempts to block BRP Sierra Madre resupply.
Culture is not a constant, people can learn new attitudes and mindsets IF THEY WANT TO – and if the leadership supports it success can be lasting.
tama kayo, phil coast guards have been briefed priorly, and know the game. been playing the same game for a while now, without escalating further to firing live bullets!
good thing too, they filmed the encounter and the world was aghast when the film was shown. china really has to reign in their aggression! too trigger happy with water cannons.
sans water cannon at their disposal, the chinese basketball team pinadapa ng pinoy team, go gilas!
very aggressive ang china when armed to the teeth, that must be their culture, but when comes to skills and prowess, tulala sila, haha. maliban lang if their athletes use performing enhancing steroids.
Paki reverse engineer nga itong si Fiona at Babalu para malaman kung bakit ganun ang pagka gahaman sa pera ng bayan.
maawa ka naman, micha. she is babalina, not babalu, see how young she is compared to sis in law, the 1st lady? not a wrinkle in her face, babalina really is made of wax, much like the father, so nicely preserved and waxy, haha. sayang, nabaon ang dad.
babalina looks very frustrated and rollling her yes. sayang, her eyes did not get stuck, haha. mayhap, she really feels bad for her beshie, inday sara, and feeling the heat. if only she can spare beshie . . . well, her strategic sitting next to hontiveros did not intimidate hontiveros at all!
babalina’s seat must be full of surots! hindi siya mapapakali and so animated.
She knows there’s a camera rolling and she looks directly at it every time she rolls her stupid eyes, maybe to ingratiate herself to the Davao mafia. Doon sa Congress si Sandro Dragon Fruit naman ang nag maniobra ng pambabastos kay Rep. Castro on the same budget hearing ni Fiona.
i-reverse engineering si inday? that would really be hard. inday has already opened 12? satellite offices (troll farms?) adjunct to her office and doing her bidding, and employ more than 400 security guards (her own private army?).
busy yata si inday. charged the cost of tree planting to confidential fund. a class planting trees in the school yard the cost is nearly negligible. maliban lang kung the whole sambayan of schools in the whole eastern seaboard allegedly did the tree planting and traveling in private jets to get to their destination! even that would rarely cause a dent in her 150million confidential fund. and she did not even have the evidential pic of the tree planting done.
ay, takut ako na baka next time she picks her nose, she’ll charge it to confidential fund! haha.
incidentally, all other govt agencies also want their own allocation of intelligence and confidential funds!
https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/09/02/news/national/poll-gives-sara-highest-rating-among-govt-execs/1908173
naturally, sara has highest approval rating among govt officials. naturally again, compared to other govt officials, she is the only one with halos mag-i-i-sang dosenang satellite offices all over the country, doing god knows what. and again, as she is the only one, me think, to have been so lucky to be endowed with 400plus strong security guards, plus the all encompassing power and reach of her humongous confidentiality and intel funds, her approval rating is not such big mystery! really.
Ever heard of Oculum before? Isn’t that a fly by night operator? But granting proximate accuracy of results, it’s either reflective of both political cynicism and pragmatism among voters or, they’ve been too vulnerable to propaganda and manipulation.
propaganda and manipulation, she is starting early. the powers that be.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/09/06/2294246/palace-confidential-funds-sent-ovp-were-used-build-new-satellite-offices
ahem, we dont only have devastating storm surges, we also now have surges of sara’s satellite offices. sara is on the way yata to defeat the number of bong go’s malasakit centers opened throughout the country!
what’s inside her satellite offices that warrants the presence of 400plus security guards? aha! can’t be state of the art vote counting machines being prepared for next halalan? haha.
a vice president without border, nanghihimasok na sa ibang agencies and making it her own. quasi dilg, quasi nbi, quasi doj, quasi, quasi, quasi.
Weightlifting Tennis Gymnastics
We had recent success and near successes here. Ride ob the momentum.
Our homegrown youth have a history on winning the Gothia cup. What happens when they get older is the question.
Karl, thanks for informing us about this Cup. As my interest in soccer is fairly new, I wasn’t aware of this. I think where we have the gap is after this age group Cup- we don’t have strong programs for college level and beyond.
Welcome. And we do need strong programs for college ecen High school.
Some pitches or football fields are now parking lots.
talent scouts were supposed to be spectators at gothia cup, sussing up and coming players. those with potential, their parents are contracted early and the players transported to dorms for intensive training both in football and academia.
remember the 13 thai teenage soccer players trapped in the cave? their captain, dom, was ‘grudgingly’ given soccer scholarship in england maybe bec of the publicity, plus the holds no prisoner intercession of the thai soccer board. it was said dom struggled to keep the scholarship. his football was okay, but he could not speak english and his academic grades started to suffer. he became withdrawn and apparently took his own life.
Thanks again for the lowdown.
If you’re interested in a first person account of how the training camp of Filipinas went:
https://www.espn.ph/football/story/_/id/38277541/philippines-2023-womens-world-cup-diary-reina-bonta
It was brutal, but meritocratic and egalitarian. Unfortunately, that meant nearly all of the locals had to be cut from the team.
Thanks for this and this blog installment, Andrew.
thanks for the link po. it’s tough and cutthroat playing professional football. my aussie friends told me, the moment the aussie women’s football team was made up, the team was immediately put in a bubble with absolutely no communication from outside world, no instagram, no facebook, no nothing. they live and breathe football only and practice, practice, practice, for the duration of the cup.
the spanish team nga, their captain was not told her father died. she was only told after the final. as well, the spanish team was not allowed to sleep with doors closed. their coach insist doors be open so he can see who is smoking and doing drugs! after spain won the womens world cup, their coach was asked to resign for misogyny.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makati_F.C.
“The Makati Football Club (MFC) was founded in 1976 by former Real Madrid player Tomas Lozano.[1][2][3] The club has been sending numerous youth teams to the Gothia Cup in Sweden since 1983. MFC has sent both boys’ and girls’ sides.[3][4] MFC’s best finish in the tournament was in 1985, where its boys under-11 team won their age-group’s tournament. Other podium finishes were third place for the boy’s under-12 in 1986, and another third place finish for the boy’s under-12 in 2016[5]”
https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/24/23/makati-fc-teams-reach-podium-in-gothia-world-youth-cup
After almost 40 years, a team from
Makati FC entered the finals.
https://sports.inquirer.net/520441/away-from-world-cup-spotlight-the-future-of-ph-football-takes-form
keep playing football, kiddos and hone your skills. there are football clubs out there looking to hire elite football players.
Poor math, the iast one was the year 2016 so it was only 7 years not more than 40.
My bad.
https://tiebreakertimes.com.ph/tbt/perth-glory-signs-another-filipina-in-quezada/280967
in case people are wondering what happened to filipinas women’s football team, some of them have been recently hired by other clubs like the australian perth glory fc.
Thanks for that.
Germany is the team to beat in FIBA @irineo
https://www.rappler.com/sports/fiba/world-cup-semifinals-updates-united-states-germany-september-8-2023/
it’s a european showdown between germany and serbia for the cup. whereas team USA will fight canada for 3rd place.
Correct kb.
no asian team, no african team, no middle eastern team in the top four. it’s just europe and north america dominating.
Basketball myth busted: White men can’ t jump
List of foot ball clubs in the PH
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_football_clubs_in_the_Philippines
Politics Killing Sports
https://www.philstar.com/sports/2019/04/11/1909124/politics-killing-sports
Again on politics in sports
https://www.philstar.com/sports/2022/01/29/2157068/philippines-sports-back-partisan-politics
I’m just happy that gilas beat china, politics or not. hava nagela, hava nagela, lol! though some senators like bato dela rosa et all wore t-shirts with west phil sea on the front, to encourage gilas kuno, and gilas won!
sad, china did not do the same, their ambassador did not wear ‘nihaw’ t-shirts.
truth be told, I’m glad the senators dress up for the moment. though they were quiet in the past and not so supportive of our arbitral win vs china. pero bago na ang ihip ng hangin ngayon. I hope the same senators will be more supportive from now and turn a new leaf. seen the evil of their ways yata.
the senators were not that gracious previously, but they can be gracious now. be more positive and wean themselves from china’s clutches.
Nailed it again.
The world is evolving.
Kerry on dream teams.
https://www.philstar.com/sports/2023/09/10/2295144/kerr-isnt-1992-anymore
dream team cannot rest on their laurels and should not become complacent or let their guards down. they are not sports gods and beatable after all.
Yes.
Short musical break: Jaya and KZ Tandingan perform “Feeling Good”..
More on our youth.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/24/23/makati-fc-teams-reach-podium-in-gothia-world-youth-cup
https://sports.inquirer.net/520441/away-from-world-cup-spotlight-the-future-of-ph-football-takes-form