When the football national team known as the Azkals reached the AFF 2010 Suzuki Cup semi-finals the nation suddenly woke up from its deep sleep and started the hype of bringing back the game of football to the mainstream. When the nationals played the home game against Mongolia for the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 qualifier, again the nation showed its outpouring support. Today, everyone is so excited for the 2014 World Cup qualifier game against Sri Lanka with the hopes that we get through the 2nd round of the competition and hopefully, yes, with so much faith, that hopefully we will be there in Brazil for the world cup and get to score our 1st ever world cup goal.
But we have a challenge right in front of us. Everyday I open up a newspaper and on to the sports section, not a single news is written about football, I open my television and found no show telling me the latest about my favorite sport and sadly even on the radio there is nothing. This is a basketball nation, we must admit and media coverage is great, from the PBA, NBA, UAAP and even the tournament from a small barangay. If you are in Europe and Latin America or just even in our neighboring countries like Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia news about football is everywhere, FA Cup, Premier League, La Liga and so many other leagues within the region. If we want football to be known and followed, encourage the young to participate or simply have the interest and successfully have a grassroots development, we must put football in our news first, just like how we give importance to basketball, surely we can revive football from its current state. The media will play a vital role in our dream of having that 1st goal in the world cup, if we don't we will be forever cheering for the Azkals, just the them. Peace!
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