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25 Sports Wednesday, July 11, 2018 Hoops-mad Philippines finally catches case of World Cup fever ‘Our physique, our skill, moves and agility are really very good for football’ MANILA: Shirts are selling briskly, crowds pack sports was missing from their football team, a gap evident even in bars to watch matches and football is front-page news. the nicknames of the respective squads. The Philippines Whisper it quietly, but basketball-crazy Philippines has basketball team are dubbed the “Gilas”, the local word for finally been afflicted by World Cup fever. For decades, elegance, while the football team are called the “Azkals” the nation of more than 100 million was on a very short which is a slang term for stray dogs. list of global locations that had failed to fall for the beau- “When I arrived, the football community was very tiful game. small,” said Azkals captain Phil Younghusband, who made That is beginning to change as football’s narrow, but his debut in 2009. “You can probably count in the hun- passionate, Filipino following grows fuelled by success of dreds the people who were aware of football and playing the national team whose new coach is former England football.” great Terry Butcher-a World Cup semi-finalist with the The former youth player with English Premier League Three Lions in 1990. club Chelsea is one of a wave of photogenic foreign-based “Definitely, we do have... World Cup fever,” television players of part-Filipino parentage recruited by the Azkals. sportscaster Bob Guerrero told AFP outside a Manila bar In a few short years they have vaulted the team to qualifi- where he was watching France knock Argentina out of the cation for the Asian Cup for the first time, and in May they global tournament.
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