A
year ago, the Dragon Boat team and the Azkals would have given an arm and a leg
to get five minutes’ worth of air time, or even 5 MB worth of social networking
space.
Now,
they don’t have to but along with it comes the ugly stuff.
I
don’t know who started it but I think I know why one poster started comparing
the achievements of both teams and the team composition.
He
or she or he/she doesn’t believe in the Azkals and thinks they are just a bunch
of overhyped sports personalities who are only good for snogging movie starlets
at the expense of other athletes who work hard for it.
Which
is a pity because like the Dragon Boat team, the Azkals also had to wade their
way through the shit of Philippine sports politics.
Like
the Dragon Boat team, the Azkals had to survive without any support from both
the PSC and the POC and even from their affiliated NSA. The football team
pre-2004 even had it worse. One former national team member told me once that
in a 2002 event, their equipment arrived after the tournament, when they got
home from abroad.
Like
the Dragon Boat team, the Azkals had enlisted personnel from the Armed Forces
who fight for the flag.
Like
the Dragon Boat team, the Azkals finally scored a breakthrough in 2010, and in
the process got into the nation’s consciousness. A nation embraced the Azkals
for scoring a first in the country’s football history just as this nation is
embracing the Dragon Boat team for its remarkable achievement in Florida
Both
teams’ success complements each other and it didn’t come—as the poster wanted
it to be—at the expense of each other.
And
besides, comparing the Azkals to the Dragon Boat team makes as much sense as
saying your neighborhood “lima-lima” legend is better than Lionel Messi because
he can score five points in a pick-up game or that your neighborhood volleyball
spiker is better than Roger Federer because he can slam it at will.
Comparing
the two squads, and pitting the two squads, I think deviates from what both
teams’ achievements had made obvious—that despite financial backing and support
from their NSA, they have done well. What more could they have achieved if they
had the support?
The
Azkals’ success helped led to the ouster of the then sitting president of the
Philippine Football Federation. The success of the Dragon Boat team has led to
questions on how its NSA was not recognized by the POC and how the POC and PSC
have erred but those questions have been overshadowed by this unwarranted
comparison. (So, who benefits from the comparison?)
Stop
comparing the two.
Instead,
support the two and the rest of the national squads—and there are many of
them—who are seeing action in competitions abroad under the media’s and social
network’s radar.
They
are all Filipinos and they all deserve our support.
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