Azkals vs. Sri Lanka: 4-0

By: sally on Monday, July 04, 2011

Share it Please

Tweet

Yesterday, Krissie, Steven and I were at the Rizal Stadium to watch the game of Philippine Azkals. It was my first time to watch them play, and it was also my first time to see the football field. Yes, I've only been to the basketball court of Rizal because of UAAP and NCAA (once). We were seat at the green bleacher, costing P206 per ticket. Unfortunately, we are in the second row so our view is really not that good (Though we have a good view of our goalkeeper in action *wink*). We thought that even if we seated on one side, the seats are still elevated. Too bad it isn't. Anyway, we still had fun with our first experience watching a football game.

The entire venue was field with the colors of our flag, but since blue is the Azkals color, it felt like I was watching an ADMU game. There were those people that had their face painted, some with the word AZKALS, the others even had their entire face covered with blue, red and white paint. I was hoping to have face paint like what the kids in Bona kid commercial have. Too bad we didn't have the time to buy materials anymore. Maybe in the next game, we'll try to do it. We heard yesterday that the next opponent of the Azkals is Kuwait scheduled July 28. I hope we come prepared this time!

With regards to the game itself, the Azkals did a good job. They were able to score 4 goals, and I was impressed with how they were able to steal the ball from the opponent. The last time I watched a football game was during college, when I watched my batchmates play during LSAL, and that was 6 years ago. Throughout the game I only did 3 things: cheer when the team scores, feel bad when a player gets a yellow card, and worry when a player stumbles. I don't know much about the rules so I told my friends I'll try to read some before watching Azkals' next game.

By the way, before yesterday's game, I only knew two players of Azkals, and they were non other than the Younghusband brothers James and Phil. I find Phil cute, and yes it comes with his British accent. But thanks to Krissie, I got to know other members as well such as Chiffy, Angel, Neil and of course, my new favorite: Aly Borromeo. I saw his billboard along EDSA one time and I got curious what he looks like in person. I didn't even get his name, since I only remember reading Azkals team captain from the billboard. Anyway I'm still more interested with Phil that time so I did not search about Aly online. Anyway, he wears jersey #11 (same as Mike Cortez haha!) and he was around my age. Neil, the goalkeeper is a cutie too, it's just that he's 6 years younger lol. Chiffy was the one I shook hands with since he went to our side and said thanks to the fans. The team members also circled the entire field to wave to us.

The only downside for me during the game was our location. In our side, it was difficult to see what was happening on the other side, since the field is big. So whenever there were some happenings on the other end, we would always react late, and just jump and cheer along with the others even if we did not really see what happened exactly. But at least now we know where the good seats are. And we'll do our best to buy those next time.

Did I mention that it rained the entire first half? There was even a joke that Krissie heard at the back about Sri Lankans weakening because they are not used to rain (and all their players are dark skinned so we call them anak-araw, thus not liking the rain :p ). My mother allowed me to bring one of the raincoats at home, so Krissie and I were able to share, thus getting wet only from waist below. As for Steven, he got soaked big time(Sorry Steven maikli si raincoat :(  ). Anyway, getting soaked was still worth it since the score was 4-0.

Congratulations again to Team Azkals for winning yesterday. We'll be supporting you again when you play against Kuwait. *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* Pilipinas!