The successful tournament proves that the Philippines must invest in futsal more than ever.
I have been involved in sports for more than two decades. I have attended and worked on countless events. You can get a bit jaded going to these tournaments and matches for work. But there was something special about last Wednesday when I caught the final group game of the Philippines in the AFF Women’s Futsal Championship at the Philsports Arena.
Yes, the Pinay 5, as this team is so beautifully named, lost a heartbreaker, 2-1 to Indonesia, with a set-piece concession with barely a minute to go. But that did not detract from the almost intoxicating enjoyment I got out of the experience.
I had not been to Philsports, nee ULTRA, in eons. I was happy to see that the renovation for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games has held up well, with everything looking clean and modern. I paid my PHP 170 ticket for the lower box and as soon as I stepped into the section with the game already underway, I was greeted by a wall of sound.
The stadium was nowhere near full, with a few hundred people, but Philsports is a great design, with steeply raked seating that amplifies crowd noise. It’s an intimate bandbox of an arena that makes for a terrific atmosphere for any sporting event.
The game itself was fiercely contested, with Isabella Bandoja of Tuloy pirouetting around a defender and spearing in a goal from an angle, sending the crowd into absolute euphoria. She replicated the feats of Agot Danton and Shai Del Campo in previous games.
The crowd was vociferous in its support for the home team, a highly motivated squad cobbled together by legendary Dutch coach Vic Hermans from a few futsal specialists and other football players who could manage in the five-a-side game. The gallery only quieted down when Indonesia snatched a late winner, propelling them to the bronze medal match. Bandoja crumpled into a tearful heap in front of the celebrating Indonesians at the whistle. Keeper Samantha Hughes did the same.
The team showed unbelievable character, resolve, and stamina that week. They gutted out a 2-2 opening draw against Myanmar before being overwhelmed by eventual champs Vietnam, and runners-up Thailand. The close loss was a good way to end the campaign.
The Philippines has a ways to go before being able to hang with the best of the region in women’s futsal. The five-a-side variant is notably different tactically and technically from the game played on grass. Slotting in field players into a futsal team oftentimes does not work. It would be like asking Carlo Biado and Johann Chua to show up in a snooker tournament and expect them to perform well. The chances of success are not great.
The footballers on the team showed some difficulty in adapting to futsal, which usually has silken off-the-ball patterns of movement that are alien to the field game. They somehow managed to make up for it with effort and grit to eke out some good results.
Philippine futsal has a future internationally if we are patient about it and have realistic expectations. But for local play, we can create a futsal revolution almost immediately.
In an ideal world, futsal should become a UAAP sport for both women and men, and the PFL should have a futsal competition, even if it is a short one, among its teams during the rainy season. Why? Because it is such a great spectacle that can arguably draw in fans better than the traditional 11-a-side game. I have written in the past about how futsal can be a gateway to football as a player. But after last week I am convinced it can be a gateway for FANS as well.
Futsal is almost always played indoors. That alone is a massive help in filling up stands. Too many folks these days cannot bear to be outdoors away from air conditioning for long. Futsal is a forty-minute game with a clock that counts down like basketball. A game takes a little over an hour in total to play, better for the reduced attention spans of today’s fans. The fact that the field is 40 meters long instead of 105 like in an eleven-a-side game means there are constant end-to-end attacks. It is also cheaper to maintain a team. You can have a club with 12 players instead of the customary 23 in field football.
When I was watching the Philippines-Indonesia game and the noisy but fun ambiance that came with it, one thought popped into my head: what if this was a UAAP final between, say UP and Ateneo? Or Ateneo and De La Salle? Or UP and FEU? A proper derby final. I have little doubt that the place would be packed, the atmosphere would be utterly mental, and everyone would have a good time.
The first FIFA Women’s Futsal World Cup is coming next year. This AFF event was a great dry run. We hope this can be the beginning of a wave of growth in the five-a-side game.
The futsal scene in the Philippines may indeed be a small subculture within the greater football scene, but there are committed and passionate people behind the sport. Folks like Danny Moran, Ramon Almeda, Roy Moore, Tuloy Foundation, and others. The PFF is also very much throwing its support. President John Gutierrez was in attendance.
The shining example of the Pinay 5’s hard work and dedication on the court was admirable. Let’s hope the powers that be can be just as driven and focused in making futsal take-off in the Philippines.
Banner image from Philippine Football Federation.