Football in the Valley

Barely two weeks ago, while were waiting for the family of slain Italian missionary Fr. Fausto “Pops” Tentorio at the Our Mother of Perpetual Help parish in Arakan valley town of North Cotabato, we saw young kids playing football in parched pitch at the back of an elementary school.

The pitch is overlooking from the parish grounds, which is just across the school. So we opted to shoot the game since we were anticipating that the chopper carrying the family would land in the school grounds.

Anyways, the recent success of the Philippine Azklas did not only encourage more kids to play football as well as they also inspired homegrown footballers in the provinces. Like in the remote town of in Arakan, 56 kilometers away from Kidapawan City, young kids play the game with or without proper gears such as the spikes and shin guards. Read More »

Davao blanks Dipolog, Cotabato and Cagayan draw in PFF-Suzuki football tourney

[slidepress gallery='pff']

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 Apr) – The Davao Football Association’s team blanks visiting Dipolog squad in the opening game of the Philippine Football Federation-Suzuki Under 23 (U23) National Cup All Mindanao Finals at Tionko Football Field here on Thursday.

The Davao booters scored two goals in the first half of the game and another goal in the closing minutes of the second half.

Jomar Acedo made the opening goal for the squad on the 18th minute while Joven Benitez made a quick goal just two minutes later. Read More »

Revived fan

During my early high school years in Koronadal, I used to watch football games at school as well as during the regional athletic games. I never had an interest to play football because I was more inclined to play baseball. It’s because my grandfather in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato used to be a little league baseball when he was still teaching. Maybe he has influenced me since I was a kid.

But when I moved to Pigcawayan on my 2nd year high school, my interest in football slowly faded. I played baseball and sometimes basketball.  In North Cotabato, football is only popular among the folks in M’lang.  But I could remember  during Coke Go-For-Goal tournaments in Marbel, wherein teams from Iligan, M’lang, South Cotabato and other top teams in Mindanao. I could not remember Davao.

Years have past, I barely watch football games even on TVs. During the 2010 World Cup, I rarely get updates. Aside from I don’t have a cable TV to watch the games live, I wasn’t interested. Kung may ara update, ti sige mabasa ko, kung wala, okay lang man ah. Read More »