BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Get to know the Matao (or the Guam Men's Football National Team)



Get to know the Matao
By Jill Espiritu

Guam's team is known as the "Matao". Matao, in the local language Chamorro, refers to the highest class of indigenous people in ancient Chamorro society. The island's top warriors, chiefs, fishermen, and later, iron workers were generally from the Matao. Matao was chosen for the Guam men's national team because it suggests strength, pride, nobility, and leadership, a few ideals and values representative of the team.

The team is fairly young, although a good mix of players who have international playing experience. Many of the team members also have played or currently play for U.S. colleges.

Gary White, Guam's new head coach, started working with the team in February this year. White, or the "Gaffer" as the team calls him, originally is from England, and has coached the national teams in the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas. In the Bahamas, he helped the team move up 55 places in FIFA rankings.

The team is preparing for the upcoming East Asian Football Championships. The preliminary round is in Guam July 17 - 23. Guam won in 2009, and some of the team members from then also are on this team going to the Philippines.

Guam's national teams have started wearing Diadora gear through a partnership with the brand's American distributor. Two of the Matao, Jason Cunliffe and Ian Mariano, are featured on the www.diadorasoccer.com Web site under Pro Players. The URLs are:


Ian Mariano is 1/4 Filipino. If I'm not mistaken, other players with some Filipino blood include Christian Schweizer (also one of the youngest players at 17), Ian Adamos, and Randy Espinosa. Former national team captain, Dominic Gadia, who now is an assistant coach for the Matao, is Filipino.

None of the Matao are professional soccer players with the exception of Jonahan Romero, who plays for Kaya FC in the Philippines. The others are either students or have full-time jobs. After the June 12 match against the Azkals, the Matao will play training matches with Global FC and the Stallions - Division I teams in the UFL.

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Super thanks, Jill, for coming through with this! Good luck to the Matao.

1 comment:

  1. "Matao was chosen for the Guam men's national team because it suggests strength, pride, nobility, and leadership, a few ideals and values representative of the team."

    hah! yet here we are with frickin street dogs for the men and malditas or should i say bitches for the women. ya... very nationalistic and something to be very proud of isn't it? lol

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