Bus rides & sing songs: A Journey with the Philippine National Men’s Football Team

This story appears in next week's issue of the Philippines Free Press

Bus rides & sing-songs: A Journey with the Philippine National Men’s Football Team

by rick olivares

It’s just a bus. But actually it is more than just a bus. It’s a reflection of Philippine life and culture.

The tour bus assigned to the Philippine National Men’s Football Team during the Final Rounds of 2010 Suzuki Cup in Hanoi, Vietnam from December 1-9 seats up to 48 people. There were 32 people in the party excluding the driver and the conductor so the bus wasn’t cramped.

Yet it does say a lot.

Occupying the first five rows are the Fil-foreigners (Phil and James Younghusband, Neil Etheridge, Jason de Jong, Rob Gier, Ray Jonsson, Chris Greatwich, Anton del Rosario, and Aly Borromeo and English head coach Simon McMenemy. Each has a row to himself.

In the back rows sit the rest of the team who are ironically the homegrown players who mostly come from the Armed Forces. The lone exceptions are Manileños Christopher Camcam, the reserve goalkeeper, David Basa the defensive back, and Fil-German Mark Drinkuth who is so new to the team that he’s been wide-eyed while soaking in his first international experience. They all sit side-by-side chatting, laughing, and singing in a sporting analogy of the close-knit family atmosphere of the Filipino.

You cannot say there are cliques within the team. All are Filipinos by blood but by upbringing, language, and culture they are oceans apart. Yet efforts are made to make everyone at ease with one another. The Fil-foreigners and the locals share rooms in hotels and tables during meals as mandated by team management in order for everyone to get to know one another better. Nine of the starting eleven are Fil-foreigners. The locals wish they were given a chance. They don’t mind and they only greatly do so when someone rubs it in. But on the bus, they sit in separate sections. It’s just the way it is. Nothing more nothing less.

The voices that carry once everyone is on board are a gaggle of British, American, Filipino, and Visayan accents. The banter at times is akin to a frathouse party.

In Vietnam for the Group B for the knockout stages of the most prestigious football competition in the Asean region, the Philippines is expected to be road kill for the opposing teams. The national team is called, the Azkals, after the street dog that is a staple of every barangay in the country. But in the international press, the team is described as “minnows” and “whipping dogs” and sometimes both used in the same sentence.

In the press conference that preceded game day, not one of the assembled 200-strong media bothered to ask McMenemy a question. All everyone wanted to know was how many goals Singapore and Vietnam would score en route to making the semifinals.

When picking up my press credentials at the media room, I was asked, “Do you honestly think that you’re going to win?”

I might have been new to doing live coverage for the national team yet I have certainly been aware of our standing and results but I knew that we didn’t come all the way to Vietnam to serve as other teams’ mere foils. “Of course,” I replied with a bit of disgust sugar-coated with a smile. “We’re going to advance.”

The mediamen inside the room laughed.

Inside the bus, once the Filipinos have settled down, the local players burst out into song led by longtime national keeper Eduard Sacapaño and midfielder Yanti Bersales. It’s that seminal patriotic song by folk singer Freddie Aguilar, “Bayan Ko” and as it builds in strength, the faces of the players now have that deadly serious look. Their game faces are finally on.

They now think of Singapore, Vietnam, and Myanmar. Long time tormentors who racked up goals to pad their personal statistics. Some of the players have been on the receiving end of those 13-1 and 10-0 beatings – Ian Araneta, Roel Gener, Peter Jaugan, Emelio “Chieffy” Caligdong, Borromeo, and del Rosario. But it hasn’t made them inured to them.

No one is masochistic enough to keep taking a punch to the face and more. “We’ve always believed that one day we’d rise up,” quipped Borromeo.

The time is now.

Aside from the Filipinos’ hotel room, the bus is their only refuge. From the inside and while lost in their thoughts and iPods, they can see the Vietnamese stare at them. Like fish inside an aquarium. There is some curiosity. Perhaps, they say, “Who are these players who deign that they can snatch the crown away from mighty Vietnam?”

But the Filipinos know that they have a good team. Bolstered by the acquisition of Fil-foreigners’ Jonsson and Gier who have solidified the once porous backline as well as the maturity of other veterans, they emerged from the qualifiers in Laos unbeaten. And thus, qualified for the quarterfinals for only the second time in the biennial tournament.

The fact that they battled Singapore with its plethora of naturalized Europeans to a near standstill is incredible. The Filipinos have taken the fight to their longtime nemesis. At the half, there is a sense that the Azkals have gained confidence from holding off Singapore’s goal scoring machine Aleksandar Duric, Mustafic Fahruddin, and Noh Alam Shah.

But Duric drilled in a volley from close range after a failed clearance at the 64^th minute to put the Lions on top 1-nil. The Philippines isn’t like without their chances. Phil Younghusband and Ian Araneta come tantalizingly close, but no cigar.

With the game nearing full time, McMenemy sent an additional attacker to the fray upfront in del Rosario. After all, they’re one down and another Singapore goal won’t hurt them any more than Duric’s score. What they need to do is score. And as they have done on two previous occasions, they score deep into injury time via Greatwich’s volley off a James Youghusband cross mere moments before the final whistle. The Philippines have earned a point from the draw and Singapore gnashes its teeth.

Inside the bus, the glee is etched on everyone’s face. They know they should have gotten a win but poor finishing did them in. There’s going to be a little more merrymaking in the hotel tonight but tempered with the notion that just two days away they face Vietnam.

When the team makes its way back to My Dinh National Stadium two days later, crowds of Vietnamese wave flags along the streets. “Welcome to our House,” they seem to say. For the Filipinos, it was the same routine – the jocularity, the singing Bayan Ko, and then the stony as they put their game faces on. However, against Vietnam, there is an uneasy quiet. The managed a point against Singapore but Caligdong went out with a knee injury. Gier himself battled a fever. And mere hours before the match with the home team, Phil Younghusband fell prey to something disagreeable with his stomach. He was up all night and weakened by retching out everything he had eaten in the past 24 hours.

Come kick off, Gier and Younghusband suited up while Caligdong remained on the bench with his knee unable to bend.

Four hours later and after perhaps the biggest upset in Asean football history where the Philippines demolished the defending Suzuki Cup champs 2-0, the atmosphere inside the bus was raucous. “It’s like winning a championship considering where we’ve come from,” quipped Greatwich who once more scored this time through a magnificent header that fooled the Vietnam keeper. “Only it’s not quite.”

The flag waving was over and the streets leading to and from My DInh were lined up with shell-shocked locals. “What just happened?” their faces seemed to ask.

A day later in Nam Dinh City southeast of Hanoi, most Vietnamese congratulated the team on the streets, in the hotel, or in the stadium during practice. However, a few followed the team on board bicycles to vent their anger in halting English. A couple even dared some members of the coaching staff to a fight.

The bus ride to Nam Dinh Stadium is blissfully short. After all, it’s a block or two away from the hotel. The air if different now. Four points (three full points from the win against Vietnam plus one point from the draw with Singapore) and now their confidence has skyrocketed. Inside the bus, they sing, the laugh, they joke. Kick off couldn’t come any sooner. The Azkals want it done and over with.

After the Philippines drew with Myanmar in a scoreless match the team erupted in joyous celebration. Why not? They had made the semifinals for the first time in the country’s history. But the celebration was tempered by the fact that country was disallowed from hosting it’s home game due to not having any playable fields based on FIFA/AFF criteria. “We’ve got 30 minutes to pack your bags and take a shower,” said McMenemy to the team as they arrived back at the hotel in Nam Dinh.

“Hurry back on the bus, guys,” added Etheridge with some urgency. “Let’s go home.”