Friday, December 19, 2008 Villalva: When silver is as good as gold By Henry C. Villalva Offside
THE silver medal finish of Don Bosco-Negros Occidental's Under-15 football team in the recent 3rd Philippine Olympic Festival (POF) in Cagayan de Oro City is something as valuable as a gold medal, considering the Negrense booters drew with eventual champion Cebu City, two-time and defending POF champion.
It was because of tournament quirks that our booters were relegated to second place. Why? As far as we know, championship football matches are decided through an extension, in case of a tie at the end of regulation period. In fact, the match is decided by a penalty shootout in case both sides end up with a draw at the end of overtime period.
That's why an abnormality occurs when tournament managers totally disregard international football rules in favor of accommodating time pressure, which usually happens in DepEd run competitions where everything is compressed in a specific time frame regardless of the nature of the sport being contested.
That is why in Palarong Pambansa or provincial meets, players are punished by having to play two to three matches in one day just to accommodate the ultra-tight tournament schedule. This is the kind of abnormality that happens at the Palaro at the expense of quality matches, especially in the case of football.
Team Don Bosco-Negros Occidental is a victim of an "abnormality" where the championship had to be decided the abnormal route. That is why we say it was done in utter disregard of the rule of "Fair Play" which is the spirit of football.
At any rate, we take our hats off to the Don Bosco-Neg. Occ. team, its coaching staff, team officials, patrons, supporters, as well as to players from other schools like West Negros University, BCNHS, RTNHS-Bago City, DHSBNHS-La Carlota City and JLNHS-San Carlos City.
We also noticed that the team was able to draw on its own the support of patrons from the government and private sectors. This alone is an achievement of sorts and is something that should be emulated by other sports disciplines.
