Women's Football...

I've always been a soccer fan, but I've always liked watching men or boys kicking ball more than women or girls doing the same. I don't really know why. One of the reasons may be the fact that whenever I watch women or girls playing soccer, I'd always have "Why are they there playing and I'm not?" ringing in my head over and over again. Soccer is my favorite sport and I love everything about it. Unlike some other girls I know, I love soccer not because of all the cute and handsome soccer players the world has. That's definitely a plus factor, though. My love for soccer has its roots back in my grade school days. One of my brothers started playing soccer at the young age of 12, I was only 8 years old then. He'd practice with me and my other brother. So, although I never really played the sport seriously, I practically grew up with it. When I was younger, I never really understood how the game went. All I knew was that soccer was fun to play and fun to watch.

Last week, Bok and I got to watch the Philippine National Women's Football Team in action against the Vietnamese (in the SEA Games). We lost, but it was a lot of fun to be a part of the shouting and hooting audience at the Marikina Sports Center! And, it just felt great to be cheering for the country. Despite losing my temper a number of times due to some obvious errors the Pinays made, I really enjoyed the game. And, the Vietnamese were really good. :)

The next time the Team Philippines played, we were there to watch again. It was against the Burmese (Myanmar) this time. Sadly, we lost again. We lost all hope for a medal in Women's Football when we lost in that game. I didn't expect the Burmese to be that strong, really. They got the silver, by the way.

We stayed for the next game because the Vietnamese, who had become our favorite by then, were playing. They were up aginst the Indonesians. The Vietnamese killed the Indonesians, 8 to nil! 49 seconds into the game, the Vietnamese already had an opportunity for a shot on goal. From the start, it was obvious how the game would go, but we stayed on. It was a nice game to watch. Because Team Philippines lost, we really enjoyed seeing another team get slaughtered by a team that we were actually rooting for. It almost felt like we were vindicated. :)

I don't know when our football teams, both men's and women's, will be strong enough for that gold. I truly hope I'll still live to see that day. Or I hope to live to see the day Team Philippines will be a team to reckon with in the World Cup Qualifying at least. Is that too far? Well, there's nothing wrong with hoping, is there? :)

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Congratulations to the Philippine Delegation for winning Over-All Champion in the just concluded 23rd SEA Games! Mabuhay kayo! Go Philippines! :)


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The picture above is of the UP Women's Soccer Team. I sometimes watch them in practice.