“The World Cup experience is more than just the game of soccer. It’s an event. And it will fly by faster than you think. It will end and you’ll be saying, ‘Wow, it’s over already?’ You have to remember to take it all in and enjoy it.” –Cobi Jones
Over the past couple weeks, a lot of Filipinos (not necessarily soccer fans) have been asking me, “Do we have a team in the World Cup?” Of course we don’t – we never had a chance!
The Philippine national football team are the Azkals (“street dogs”) and, while they regularly compete in international competitions, they could not play in the World Cup – with all due respect to the players and coaches, it also won’t happen in 2022, when the World Cup travels to Qatar.
The best the Azkals have accomplished was qualifying for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. In terms of hardware, they took second place to Palestine at the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup, a competition geared towards “emerging countries.”
The Philippines can’t even dominate their Southeast Asian Games and Asian Games rivals. Without the Filipino-European and Filipino-American players, we can barely beat Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
However, previously considered the region’s “whipping boy,” with the Azkals now under the management of Terry Butcher, the team will no longer be a pushover.
Even if we don’t qualify for the World Cup, football in the country has developed leaps and bounds.
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Even before Uruguay won the first World Cup in 1930, the Philippines was already playing at the international level in 1913. Yet, after 78 years, only seven countries, the “Elite Seven,” have won the World Cup; namely Brazil, Italy, Germany, Uruguay, Argentina, England, and France.
With the ongoing 2018 FIFA World Cup down to the semifinals, among France, England, Croatia, and Belgium, two have a chance of adding to the Elite Seven.
If Belgium beats France on July 10 and Croatia defeats England the following day, whoever wins would be the eighth country to capture the trophy.
If the opposite occurs, the winner will be taking home their second World Cup title./WDJ