Eye CANDIES! (WC Africa 2010)

I've always loved football. Yes FOOTBALL ( not soccer) I have to admit though, like other girls, there are other reasons why we do like em .. Lemme count err show you the ways.



Italy Defender and Captain- Fabio Canavarro- Fabio the Fabulous!



CZech Republic's (and Arsenal) and personal favorite Tomas Rosicky. They did not get into last year's World Cup but he is still awesome.



Argentina's Gonzalo Higuain- Miss the scratchy stubbles, but still looking hot!



Uruguay's DIEGO (NOT maradona) FORLAN. Single-handedly led his team to the Semis, inspiring awes and adulation because of his magnificent goals Such heart and determination



SPAIN' striker FERNANDO TORRES- hmmm envy that ground



Spain's Gerard Pique. Yay, Shakira !

Of Azkals, football in the Philippines and that pocket Schrocket goal!

Nothing really matters during that 2nd leg game of the Azkals vs the Kuwaiti Al Azraq-even if we lost understandably to the mighty Al Azraq. It was all about the feeling when Schrock made that goal- It was all about the teary -eyed moment and the look of so much awe and love in the faces of even the barefooted cigarette vendor, the thin frail old woman selling softdrinks outside the Rizal Stadium, alongside this group of expensively dressed mestizas.. It was unity- no class or ranks or status in life. We were all just happy to send in that much needed goal - against an almost insurmountable odds thrown at us- A team so highly fancied from a country whose oil had fuelled almost half of this globes economy. It was a goal that made those Kuwaiti Students beside me also clap with admiration- even raising a thumbs up everytime Schrock and Caligdong are shown on screen..

I came from a small town in Antique but whose love for football was born out of my regions' passion  for this sport even before I was born.. I knew of Pele, Kruyft, Baggio and Maradona's name even before I knew who Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar were... I thought of Argentina and Brazil as superpowers rather than the US.. I've grown up believing in tall tales of the old men in our barrio about this obscure yet legendary town of Barotac Nuevo were small kids learn to kick balls even before they can walk- or of young boys practicing on coconuts to play this beautiful game- Of stories about this great great man named Paulino Alcantara from Iloilo whose name is actually shrined in the hollowed grounds of Camp Nou- home to the legendary FC Barcelona- El Romperedes he was known- the netbreaker,  of that one magical moment during the Far East Games back in the old old days- when the Philippines romped Japan 12- 0 or somethign that lopsided and finding out that the country is one of the oldest member of FIFA in Asia ( 1906)...

Oh to dream again- That was what that amazing Pocket Schrocket awakened in me with that magic moment. Imagine US in a few years time- Given this much support and much love from our countrymen.. I can dream again of actually hearing our National anthem of being played in the WORLD CUP - maybe 2018? Its a tall dream- but who cares its free to dream anyways..