CONSOLATION prize swaddled in comforting words is not enough.
“Breaks of the game lang ‘yun, mahusay kayo,” broadcaster and De La Salle University alumnus Mike Enriquez told us as he passed by the entrance of the UST Growling Tigers’ dugout at the Mall of Asia Arena last October 12 after the conclusion of the epic series between UST and La Salle. The 69-71 overtime loss still stings to date.
Watching Enriquez make his way out of the arena, I suppressed whimper and managed a half-smile as a response to what he just said. It was consoling to hear it from someone from La Salle, but the pain of being a basket away from the title, which has eluded UST since 2006, couldn’t easily be extinguished.
It is easy to sling all the hate on power forward Aljon Mariano, who took the potential title-clinching shot that missed the mark in the last 6.1 seconds of regulation. The play was originally intended for Karim Abdul, but Mariano opted for what he called a “clear shot” that he and the rest of the UST community hoped would finally end the seven-year championship drought.
Fate, though, had other plans, and the hurting Thomasians “…jumped right to anger, to the need to pin blame on someone,” Francis T.J. Ochoa, Philippine Daily Inquirer assistant sports editor, wrote on his blog.
The reactions, Ochoa added, were “knee-jerk,” and I wasn’t spared from committing that same mistake. As I encircled the final score on my steno notebook, I blamed (even cursed) Mariano, I wished he didn’t want to be the hero, I wished he never took that shot. But what if he did make it?
Mariano indeed took the risk. And though he failed, he was man enough to own up to his decision and admit mistake.
If Pido Jarencio, head coach who suffered two consecutive finals heartbreaks with the rest of the Tigers, and Jeric Teng, team captain who will be graduating without a championship, did not blame Mariano, who are we to?
If no one were at fault for the Tigers’ second-straight bridesmaid finish, the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games Task Force may have some explaining to do as fingers are pointed at the Philippine Azkals, the men’s national football team, missing the biennial tournament set on Dec. 9 to 20 in Mandalay, Myanmar.
Despite their recent success—scoring a 3-1 victory over Pakistan to rule the Peace Cup and improve to 137 and become the highest-placed SEA country in the Fifa rankings—the Azkals were denied of the opportunity to participate in the SEA Games.
The Task Force’s mind-boggling decision came after the Azkals lost to the Singapore Lions, 1-0, in a friendly game that was part of their preparations that started only in June.
In an article by Cedelf Tupas published in the Inquirer last Sept. 29, he wrote: “It turned out that the loss was the only basis for the performance evaluation by the Task Force.”
If the Azkals’ or any other team’s chances of competing in events outside of the country would always rely on a group that probably doesn’t have even the slightest idea of the struggles of an athlete, then, in the words of Philippine Football Federation president Mariano Araneta, “…the Philippines can say goodbye from competing in men’s football in the SEA Games.”
While the Malditas, the women’s national football team, was given the go-signal to join the SEA Games, it is unfortunate and quite ridiculous that the Azkals, who have been making history since their 2-0 upset of powerhouse Vietnam in the ASEAN Football Federation Suzuki Cup in 2010, did not earn the Task Force’s nod.
“If the Malditas can do it, then so can the U23 Azkals!,” Malditas coach Ernie Nieras said in an October 1 article by Olmin Leyba of the Philippine Star.
They say hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard, but if you have both plus the support of a passionate alma mater and wealthy backers, how could all efforts be put to waste by merely a wayward shot or a lone, slim loss?
For coming so close only to fall short in the end, for failed championship bids and opportunities we let slip, who really is to be blamed? Your guess is as good as mine.
