A year ago today, the Philippine football renaissance began.
It was on this day in 2010 that the Philippine Azkals sent shock waves across the Southeast Asian football landscape by upsetting heavily favored Vietnam, 2-0, in the AFF Suzuki Cup in Hanoi, a big win that sparked renewed interest in football in the country. The result was so big it eventually made SI.com's yearend list of the 10 biggest football stories of 2010.
The 365 days that followed took the Azkals on a magic carpet ride and carried them and the sport to unprecedented heights. Suddenly, kids wanted to be like Younghusband or Caligdong. Fans lined up to watch the Azkals play Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Kuwait. Azkals jerseys became hot commodities as the names on their backs became celebrities. Filipino football players becoming celebrity endorsers? What was the world coming to?
But no one could have foreseen that it would all culminate in a match against David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane and the rest of the 2011 MLS champions LA Galaxy.
As Caligdong said while seated next to Beckham, "Parang panaginip lang. Hindi mo inaasahan na andito ang idolo mo na nakikita mo lang dati sa TV. Ngayon, katabi ko na."
And this from Younghusband: "We always say, 'Who would've thought this would happen?' Hopefully we will continue and we will progress. The exposure is there now and the attention to football is there, and it's important we sustain it."
So as we mark the first anniversary of the Dec. 5, 2010 win over Vietnam, let's pause for a while and look back at how the sport's popularity grew exponentially after that magical night in Hanoi, and how, almost a year after the fact, Phil Younghusband played against his boyhood idol Beckham at the Rizal Football Stadium.
Dec. 2, 2010. Hanoi, Vietnam — Chris Greatwich scores a goal in injury time to salvage a 1-1 draw for the Philippines against Singapore in the AFF Suzuki Cup group stage. If the Azkals had lost this match, then the win over Vietnam would not have had as much impact because they still would have been eliminated. The highlights are here.
Three days before the match, another crucial development took place back in Manila after Jose Mari Martinez was ousted as PFF president and replaced on an interim basis by Iloilo Football Association president Mariano "Nonong" Araneta.
Dec. 5, 2010. Hanoi, Vietnam — In front of 40,000 fans at the My Duhn Stadium in Hanoi, the Philippines battles host Vietnam, which is coming off a murderous 7-1 demolition of Myanmar. Once again, Greatwich stars for the Azkals, scoring on a header that bounces just clear of the Vietnamese keeper and into the goal in the 38th minute. In the 78th, Phil Younghusband completes the upset with a left-footed strike inside the box. Afterwards, Vietnam coach Henrique Calisto is so incensed that he refused to shake the hand of then-Azkals coach Simon McMenemy. Back home, the match was shown only on cable, something unthinkable today. Relive the highlights here.
Dec. 8, 2010. Hanoi, Vietnam — The Philippines plays Myanmar to a goalless draw, assuring itself of second place in Group B and its first-ever appearance in the AFF Suzuki Cup semifinals. Ian Araneta has several chances to give the Azkals a win, but is thwarted each time. The match is broadcast live back home on free TV on Studio 23, a first for the Azkals.
The Philippines advances to a two-leg semifinal showdown against Group A topnotcher Indonesia. It's supposed to be a home-and-home series, but the AFF decides there's no suitable venue in the Philippines that can host such a high-profile game. The PFF cannot do anything about it, because obviously, no one was expecting the Azkals to make it to the semis. As a result, both legs will be played at the enormous Gelaro Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta.
Dec. 16, 2010. Jakarta, Indonesia — This is supposed to be the Philippines' "home" match. Instead, it's played in front of 70,000 rabid football fans at the Gelaro Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta. Indonesia's naturalized striker Christian Gonzales scores the match's lone goal in the 32nd minute off a header from a long ball after Neil Etheridge and Ray Jonsson collide. Since Gonzales's score counts as an "away" goal, the Azkals must now beat Indonesia by at least two goals in the second leg to advance to the finals.
Dec. 19, 2010. Jakarta, Indonesia — Gonzales again scores the lone goal from a cracker of a strike from way out in the 43rd minute that curls into the upper corner. Indonesia advances to the finals against Malaysia. Meanwhile, the Azkals return home to a hero's welcome.
Dec. 30, 2010. Manila — ABS-CBN Sports and the United Football League announce the launching of the UFL: It's Our game, a weekly 30-mintue football show about the UFL that will air on Balls Channel. According to UFL marketing head Javy Mantecon in an interview with Yahoo! Phils., they idea for a weekly football show was presented to ABS-CBN as early as middle of the year, following the successful telecast of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The network giant initially wasn't convinced yet about the viability of such a program, but the Azkals' success combined with the high ratings of their matches bring about a change of heart.
Jan. 14, 2011. Manila — The PFF announces the appointment of Hans Michael Weiss as the new coach of the Azkals, replacing McMenemy.
February 9, 2011. Bacolod — The Philippines hosts the first leg of a two-leg qualifier for the 2012 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup against Mongolia right in the hotbed of local football — Panaad Stadium in Bacolod. An overflow crowd watches Chieffy Caligdong, who missed the AFF Suzuki Cup due to injury, announce his return with a beauty of a goal in the 43rd minute and Phil Younghusband add another one in injury time to give the Azkals a 2-nil win.
March 15, 2011. Ulan Bator, Mongolia - Amid freezing temperatures, Mongolia beats the Philippines, 2-1. However, the Philippines wins on aggregate, 3-2, to win the series and advance to the Challenge Cup Qualifying group stage.
March 21, 2011. Rangoon, Myanmar. The Philippines is in Group A of the Challenge Cup Qualifying group stage together with Palestine, Bangladesh, and host Myanmar. The top two teams will advance to the tournament proper in 2012. A James Younghusband penalty kick in the 76th minute gives the Azkals a 1-0 lead, but Myanmar scores on a set piece in the third minute of injury time to salvage a draw.
March 23, 2011. Rangoon, Myanmar — The Philippines draws with Palestine, 0-0. The Azkals must now beat Bangladesh to advance.
March 25, 2011. Rangoon, Myanmar — The Azkals rout Bangladesh, 3-0. Araneta scores in the 41st, while new recruit Angel Guirado adds two more in the second half. The Philippines advances to the final tournament of the Challenge Cup for the first time.
March 30, 2011. Los Banos, Laguna — The first-ever under-23 national tournament, called the PFF Suzuki U-23 National Cup, is launched in UP Los Banos with Nonong Araneta, Weiss, Dan Palami and Azkals Caligdong, Ian Araneta, Guirado, and Roel Gener, among others, in attendance. Twenty-seven teams from all over the country join the three-month-long tournament.
Later in the day, at Baker Hall just across the university's football field, Araneta, Weiss and Palami join the media in watching the live draw of the Asian qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup. There is jubilation in the large room after Sri Lanka is drawn as the Philippines' first-round opponent. But the celebration is muted after the Azkals draw a much tougher opponent, Kuwait, in the second round in the event they get past Sri Lanka.
June 29, 2011. Colombo, Sri Lanka — The Brave Reds of Sri Lanka draw with the Azkals, 1-1. Nate Burkey salvages the draw with a header in the 50th minute.
July 3, 2011. Manila — In the first FIFA World Cup Qualifying match played on Philippine soil in 10 years, the Azkals rout Sri Lanka, 4-0, before a jampacked crowd at the Rizal Stadium to advance to the second round of the World Cup Qualifying for the first time in history. Caligdong, Younghusband (twice) and Guirado are the goal scorers for the Philippines. But there's little time to celebrate. Kuwait, ranked over 60 notches higher in the FIFA rankings, is waiting in the second round.
July 23, 2011. Kuwait City, Kuwait — Welcome to high-level Asian football. Playing their highest-ranked opponent in years, the Azkals absorb a clinical 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Kuwait. Skipper Aly Borromeo misses the match after incurring a second yellow card in the qualifiers against Sri Lanka.
July 28, 2011. Manila — The Azkals need to win by at least four goals to offset Kuwait's three-goal advantage. Stephan Shrock, the immensely talented Fil-German midfielder, gives the home crowd something to cheer about with a spectacular strike from way out in the second minute of first-half injury time. The Kuwaitis genuinely look stunned; the nerve of these Filipinos, they must be saying, to score against us. Phil Younghusband almost makes it 2-0 early in the second half after he eludes two Kuwaiti defenders for a clean shot, but the Kuwaiti keeper comes up with a brilliant save. Minutes later, Kuwait is reduced to 10 men following a red card. Everything is looking good, until Yousef Naser catches the defense napping and somehow scores on a long strike. The goal knocks the air out of the stadium. Kuwait adds one more goal in the 85th to eliminate the Azkals.
August 17, 2011. Manila — The UFL and TV5 announce a five-year, P150 million deal that calls for the live broadcast of selected UFL matches over TV5's AKTV channel. It's a major development for the local league.
September 30-October 4, 2011. Kaohsiung, Taiwan — The Azkals compete in the Long Teng Cup and finish runner-up to Hong Kong with one win and two draws. Caligdong wins the Golden Boot award with four goals. Coach Weiss gives some exposure to select members of the U-23 team that will be seeing action in the SEA Games in Jakarta.
October 7, 2011. Singapore — The Azkals lose to Singapore, 2-0, in an international friendly.
October 8, 2011. Manila — The United Football Cup opens its 2011-12 season with a record 28 teams. Several Azkals are playing for different teams. The Cup's first two matches are broadcast live over AKTV.
October 11, 2011. Manila — The Azkals thrash Nepal, 4-0, in an international friendly at the Rizal Stadium. Phil scores two goals, brother James one, and Matt Hartmann one. For the senior Azkals, this is supposed to be their last international match of the year.
October 16-21, 2011. Vientiane, Laos — The Malditas, the Azkals' female counterparts, compete in the AFF Women's Championships. Coached by Ernie Nierras, the team finishes third in their group with one draw and two losses. It is a marked improvement from their 2009 campaign, when they lost all their three matches and were outscored 30-1.
October 27, 2011. Makati — In a press conference, LA Galaxy president Thomas Payne and PFF president Nonong Araneta jointly announce the December 3 match between the Azkals and the Galaxy.
November 3-15, 2011. Jakarta, Indonesia — The Philippines returns to the Southeast Asian Games football competition for the first time in six years. Backstopped by standouts from the U-23 national championships and some members of the Azkals, the team stumbles badly, losing four of its five matches. After losing to Timor Leste, team captain Matt Harmann abruptly leaves the team following a dispute with Weiss and returns to Manila.
December 3, 2011. Manila — Before another huge crowd at the Rizal Stadium, the LA Galaxy put on a display of topnotch football and win, 6-1. Beckham scores the game's first goal, while Younghusband is the lone scorer for the home team.
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