Four Uncomfortable Truths for Azkals fans
We pay far too much attention to FIFA Rankings, and it hurts us. So the Philippines drops to 130th in the FIFA Rankings, down three from our all-time high of 127. We are no longer the best-ranked team in ASEAN. That honor can now be claimed by Vietnan, at 125.
Dust off the seppuku knives! Everyone grab a jarful of sleeping pills! Anyone have a piece of rope? There's no reason to go on living!!!
Please.
The FIFA World Ranking system is just one of many barometers on how well a team is doing. It has been tweaked a few times ever since it began in 1993.
At the moment this is the formula to get the ranking points from a match: 100 x (Result points x match status x opposition strength x regional strength). I won't go into the gobbledegook of the sub-formulas of each component.
But at the end of the day, the rankings aren't as meaningful as many casual fans think it is. Last year we climbed up the rankings twice even after losing at home to Chinese Taipei and then drawing on the road at India. Both opponents were ranked lower than us.
There have been plenty of strangeness with rankings in the past. The USA was once ranked as high as fourth, a number even the players themselves never believed.
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Yes, our rise from the 166 in 2011 to 127 in 2013 is terrific. But is this the be-all and end-all of our Football existence? Of course not. And I believe that us putting too much weight on the rankings hurts us.
We trotted out a full-strength lineup in the friendly against India that included older players like Ray Jonsson, Rob Gier, Jerry Lucena, and Juani Guirado. It seemed like we so desperately wanted to chase the ranking points like they were candy in a kiddie-party piñata. Instead we should have sent a younger team to Siliguri to get experience. That is a big reason why we have friendlies. Of course we want to win, but we also need these matches to blood youngsters and prepare for the future.
It's like we mortgaged tomorrow for cheap thrills today. I didn't like it, and I am glad Thomas Dooley is not following that playbook, since he gave several players new caps in the last set of friendlies. Of course winning is vital in getting the sponsorships and momentum that is needed going forward. But so is planning ahead.
Of far more importance to the squad than ranking points are performances in tournaments. And there are other intangibles that need to be watched too. Like how young the squad is. How the team is playing. Is the style attractive and effective?
And please none of this nonsense about us being the best ASEAN nation when we were at 127. As James Younghusband once told me “we can't claim we are the best ASEAN country until we win the Suzuki Cup.”
We have a team that is aging in spots. When do we start afresh? Today's Azkals are experienced. But too much of that can be harmful. Against Azerbaijan we had five players aged 30 or older on the roster. Had they not been injured, Paul Mulders, 33, and Chieffy Caligdong, 31, would have been there as well. In contrast, only Rashad Sadygov and Elnur Allahverdiyev were the Azerbaijanis in the 30-and-over demographic. Similar story for Malaysia, who faced us with only two older players, Amri Yahyah, 33, and Safee Salee, 30, to my knowledge.
This is likely the group that will go to Maldives in May. After that, Dooley will be faced with a tough choice: does he stick with the veterans until the Suzuki Cup in December or start the youth movement immediately?
It will be a brave choice if Dooley, no matter how the side does in the Challenge Cup, goes with a younger bunch for the ASEAN championship. That may mean sacrificing the 2014 Suzuki Cup but giving experience for the kids of today to make a better ascent for regional glory in 2016. There's another factor in the equation: Dooley's contract is only for one year. Will he gun for a deep Suzuki Cup run to keep his job?
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This is what I want to happen: we do decently in Maldives (what “decent” is will be up to you) and the PFF immediately extends Dooley's contract for another year or two. That will give the German-American mentor the security to go with youngsters for Suzuki without worrying about getting pink-slipped if the team flounders.
You can't wish for a successful Azkals team without supporting everything underneath it, especially the UFL. The Philippines is an oddity: a nation with a competitive national team but with a very underdeveloped league system underneath it. That has to change.
We cannot rely on European-based Azkals forever. The Suzuki Cup happens on non-FIFA dates. We need a strong UFL-based team. And we can't have that without a strong UFL.
Right now league Football in the Philippines is run by well-meaning, deep-pocketed entities who don't mind throwing millions into a giant black hole from where it never returns. Pinoy league Football has to become sustainable, and it can't do that without you.
The league is far from perfect. But it's what we have. And I can hold hand over heart and say it's an enjoyable, exciting, improving league with some incredible goals, week-in, week out.
If you want the Azkals to be successful long-term, then become a UFL fan. Come to the games. Buy the jerseys. Pick a team to love. If you can't do that, pick a team to HATE and cheer against them. We'll take that.
If you need a case study, just look back to Gilas' epic FIBA Asia run. Who honed and toughened up the players in that team? The PBA. The same can happen with Football.
Football is in the doldrums in this country. The Younghusbands admitted as much in a recent article on another media outlet. How many of Football fans looked forlornly last Saturday as the UAAP Women's Volleyball final drew a Basketball-sized crowd to MOA Arena. Football is very firmly a distant third in terms of popular team sports in the Philippines.
What hasn't helped is that the new pitch installation in Rizal Memorial is taking forever. It's been about a year since we had an Azkals home game in Manila, and that is way too long. It couldn't have happened at a worse time.
Another indication of the sport's struggles: TV5 pulled the plug on Thursday UFL coverage in the first round of play. They only recently began it again. I can't blame them. For sure they aren't getting much of their investment back in terms of ad revenue.
The Azkals revolution of 2010-2011 seems so long ago. How to bring back the vibe of those heady times? Difficult question, but winning the Challenge Cup will help.
But I am not worrying. The game has been in this country officially since 1907, and it will remain, in some form or another, for a while longer. Football is eternal, even in this Basketball (and Volleyball) -addled corner of the globe.
Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.
