Limpag: Cebu football’s strength is its weakness

Limpag: Cebu football’s strength is its weakness

One of the strong points of Cebu football is the number of football festivals held annually — the CVFA President’s Cup, Justice Lee Memorial Cup, Sinulog Cup and the soon-to-be revived Thirsty Cup, the biggest in terms of participation.

These festivals, featuring 15-minute games, have a lot of players, especially girls, who get a chance to play and develop their skills. But, as was discussed extensively in the comment section of my old blog a few years ago, the 15-minute festivals that have no offside rules can also limit a player’s development.

“There were a lot of players with good technical skills but the fitness level was not very good,” said women’s senior team coach Alen Stajcic, who’s in Cebu to oversee the Girls U17 and U20 tryouts together with Nahuel Arrar and team manager Jeff Cheng.

Coach Alen said that while seven-a-side and futsal matches are good in promoting the game and developing technical skills, the 14- and 15-year-old players need as many 11-a-side games as possible, citing youth teams from China and other Southeast Asian countries whose youth players are way ahead.

In Cebu, the only 11-a-side competition girls get to play is the Aboitiz Cup since girls’ football isn’t a part of the Cesafi (Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc.) and DepEd (Department of Education) calendar. And I hope that it will change soon.

By the way, why is the senior team coaching staff taking charge of the youth tryouts? The Philippines is taking a unique approach to youth development, instead of the usual model wherein youth players and coaches go through the club, regional, national, youth and finally senior setup, it’s the other way around.

And they’re doing it on a voluntary basis, according to Cheng.

“There’s no reason why we can’t succeed. We have the ingredients for a successful program,” said coach Alen.

The coach said more resources and facilities should be poured in for the youth program and he’s right. If we want more girls to play, we need more fields for them to play in.

One advantage of coach Alen taking charge of the tryouts is that they have no affiliation with the youth teams. It’s a simple statement that addresses a touchy issue in youth football.

Usually, national youth coaches are affiliated with other clubs and parents usually complain that certain girls get picked — even if they are deserving because they play for the coach.

The fruits of this upside-down approach won’t be harvested in the two tournaments in March and April the U17s and U20s but in five years’ time. The tryouts though is just the first step.

“We need to have continuity. We need Centers for Excellence, we need more 11x11 games,” said Stacjic, who added that the PFF is planning to hold regional women’s competitions.

Meanwhile, Cheng hopes the women’s team’s success will lead more girls to play. He also wants to help the PFF sit down with the DepEd to include girls’ football in its step-ladder Palarong Pambansa meet, a move that could add at least 5,000 girl players nationwide.

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