I miss football but there is nothing in this universe that would bring me back to the field. My earthly body is already breaking down. But I miss it terribly.

We played against the FIFA Women’s World Cup host New Zealand this afternoon and we won. During the post-game interview, the captain of the Kiwi team said the Filipinas (they used to go with the monicker Malditas) may have wanted winning more badly than they did that’s why we won.

There’s this some kind of online criticism about having team members who do not even look native Filipinas. Well, the Filipino diaspora has benefited our teams—we have sourced players from all over the globe, those who are willing to go back to their parent’s motherland (normally it’s their mom who is Filipino) and play for us. Regretfully, the football program for women in this country is woefully lacking. It’s not a priority sport. It’s not like basketball or volleyball; every barangay in this country has a crude basketball or volleyball court. We have homegrown basketball or volleyball players, those who have been playing from grade school until they make it to the national team. For a country populated with short people, it’s surprising that Gilas Pilipinas ranks high in the FIBA World Cup. Plus we’re hosting the FIBA Basketball World Cup this year and the games are starting next month.

We’re also hosting the now the Premier Volleyball League.

But I digress. So when I was a varsity player, we didn’t have teams to play against in the SCUAA and STRAA because state colleges and universities just don’t have or don’t have enough women footballers. It’s only during special tournaments or the Palarong Pambansa that we get to have real opponents. 😑 So the national players most of the time had come from my uni, Ateneo or UST and from abroad—before we started qualifying for the AFC Women’s Asia Cup and now the FIFA World Cup. Now, the national team is predominantly comprised of women who have grown up and trained outside the Philippines. I can see it in their play—there is lack of cohesion or the teamwork is not organic. They are dependent on individual skills and not on playing off one another’s strength to have teamwork. Not like Spain when they won the World Cup, there was no superstar like Lionel Messi to carry the torch for them. It’s just pure team work.

The Filipinas’ goal keeper was also meeeehhhh 🤦🏻‍♀️ so many goalie mortal sins that she has committed.

But I hope whatever the outcome of Sunday’s game against Norway, there will be more little Filipinas who would be interested to play this sport.

Yesterday was Marcos Jr’s second state of the nation address (SONA). I used to cover this SONA every July when I was still with local news. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do that for the last decade or else I would lose my shit every time I cover Duterte and Marcos Jr. This clip below shows the great irony of our time:

On Friday, I will be going to a government event and I plan to wear a pink (color of opposition) dress as protest. I just ordered from Uniqlo this afternoon so hopefully it would arrive before I leave for Manila on the 28th.