Great teamwork wins games in international youth football
Tue 2:02 pm +00:00, 15 Jul 2025
My son is enjoying playing some football for his football club in Manila, Makati FC having hundreds of youth members. The coaches are superb. There are no professional type fouls committed by defenders and no jealousy amongst goal scorers wanting to be the last foot on the ball before it goes into the net. In England you get all the tricks by defenders copied off the TV, and rivalry between players inside the same team. The competition in the Philippines is entirely against the opposition. Given the superb spirit in the teams he is playing in, it is not surprising to find them winning in international youth competitions in Europe.
At least that was the case until FIFA referees started pulling some stunts, as admitted to above by the competition organisers. There’s too much money in football these days unfortunately and Filipinos are not going to be allowed to show up Europeans. They are allowed to fly over purely as goal fodder and to play the role of underdog, not to win the games. That was how it was twenty years ago, but Filipinos have an extraordinary ability to play asa team, which is becoming rare amongst professional footballers who are focused on the self above the team by the financial reward system.
Nazis were never good at allowing other races a fair crack of the whip. Jessie Owens at Berlin 1939 Olympics…another good example.
