Homeless World Cup Team finds a home in Gatorade

This appears in the Monday July 11, 2011 edition of the Business Mirror.

Homeless World Cup Team finds a home in Gatorade

by rick olivares

The world’s number one sports drink has for years sponsored the likes of Chelsea FC, footballers like Lionel Messi and Kaka, and several guys names Michael Jordan, Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard. On the home front, they support three-time UAAP champions the Ateneo Blue Eagles and the Azkals. After three years of just providing sports drinks to the Philippine Homeless World Cup Team, Gatorade is now providing equipment and the jerseys that the squad will wear when it competes in Paris, France this August.

Angel Motomal, Senior Product Manager for Gatorade said during a press conference for the team at the Plantation Bistro in Legazpi Village, Makati, “The Homeless World Cup Team is special because of who they are and what they stand for. They do not simply play for championships but for a far greater thing -- social issues such as poverty and homelessness. Powerful issues that have plagued our society and all other countries as well.”

The HWC team’s head coach Rudy del Rosario, who once played as striker for the Philippine Men’s Football National Team that during the 1991 Southeast Asian Games in Manila that pulled a stunning 1-nil upset over Malaysia thanked the team’s new sponsor and said that, “Football has the power to change the world. For the majority of our way, we may have been left unnoticed but, through our continuous efforts and the help of sponsors like Gatorade, we also hope that we will get the nod of the spectators, just like the credit and enthusiasm they give to the Azkals."

Group M's Account Director Michael Arcilla added, "The HWC team represents an aspiration.”

Summed up Motomal, “The Homeless World Cup Team has found a home with our family.”

This is the fourth year that the Philippines will participate in the annual Homeless World Cup. Last year, the Philippines won eight of their 11 matches beating the likes of Argentina and Germany in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where they won the Host Shield.

In tryouts conducted all over the country, del Rosario selected eight players to represent the Philippines are: Jeffrey Guelas from Leveriza, Manila; Jeffrey de Castro from Cainta, Rizal; Bert Anthony Sienes from Manila Boystown; Janrick Soriano and Michael Rojo both of whom are from Talisay City, Negros Occidental; Aljhonn Loui Matulac from Estancia, Iloilo; John Celiz from Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo; and Ricardo Padilla from Lingayen, Pangasinan.

Added del Rosario who is in his second year of coaching the HWC Team, "Height is a big factor but our talent and our quickness will be key factors why we'll have a fair chance of giving up a good fight." 

In last year's competition in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the HWC was ranked finished 25th among the 64 participating nations.

I was the first sportswriter to write about the HWC. Even back in 2008, the team, then headed by Ed Formoso and coached by Marlon Maro, asked me to come on board as Media Officer but I was unable because of scheduling conflicts. Last year, Rudy del Rosario and Bill Shaw once more asked me but I was still unable to do so. This year, I freed up a portion of a busy schedule to make time with them. Am helping them with their sponsors and their media. And of course, their jerseys and their jackets.