Kobe Bryant is, “The Black Mamba”

Kobe Bryant is my favorite basketball player. I have his NBA cards, jerseys, hell even those outright nasty Kobe II’s when he was still under Adidas.

Kobe now has six signature shoes under the swoosh banner, with the Kobe VI dropping in Manila with a real smart advertising behind them with Nike Stores like the Bonifacio High Street branch  using enclosures for pet snakes to display the kicks in a nod to Kobe’s “Black Mamba” nickname.

And to add to all the advertising, Robert Rodriguez directed a Nike Basketball film to showcase the talents of “the greatest player in the world”. Here’s the second official trailer which features actor Bruce Willis, Kanye West, and the perennial bad-ass, Danny Trejo.

To those who haven’t seen the first trailer, here it is.

I’m looking forward to see the whole thing once it drops. A few Laker wins in their upcoming regular season games (particularly against the Spurs and the Magic) wouldn’t hurt too.

Laying The Bricks in The Right Direction

I’m saying this just to get the obvious facts out the way. The Philippine National Football Team, or “Azkals” as they’re more affectionately known are a damn good looking team. Even their coach has got some good looks on him. But aside from the news stories on how the Younghusbands became a trending topic on twitter due to a whole lot of Indonesian wannabe WAG’s (Wives And Girlfriends), the good things about this team don’t stop at the aesthetics.

In fact, they go deeper than that to expose a fact that has been or ignored and cast aside for the longest time. Filipinos given time, can play great football. And the Azkal’s campaign during the AFF Suzuki Cup showed that there’s some promise in the way football has been quietly developing on our shores.

Sure, it was tough to see Indonesia boot them out of the semifinals with a 1-0 win, especially when both games were played in Indonesia. But that was the semifinals of an international-level competition. A few years ago, it would have been a stretch to say that the Philippines would be able to hold their own internationally.  Fast forward to 2010 and here we see The Philippines qualifying for the AFF Suzuki Cup, convincingly beating a contender in Vietnam and advancing to the semifinals of the competition. And although a goal or two against the Indonesian side would’ve made the matches more exciting, the Azkals exit with a lot to bring home aside from the adoration of a multitude of Indonesian female fans.

Haters can hate, but results are results.

Their campaign showed that the Philippines at their current level can hang with our Southeast Asian neighbors. I’ll be honest and say I really haven’t followed the development of our national team past the acquisitions of the Younghusbands and Chris Greatwich. But whoever got Neil Etheridge to play for our squad really has to give themselves some credit. It took thousands upon thousands of Indonesians to drown him out, causing a miscommunication between him and one defender that allowed the Azkals to give up a goal during the first match with Indonesia. And it took an absolutely stellar shot from Christian Gonzales to seal the deal during the second match. Other than that, he’s kept clean sheets and has made some great saves during their campaign. And with him in between the posts for the Philippines, our last line of defense looks pretty solid for years to come.

Another thing that the Azkals can take pride in is that their play has certainly raised both the attention our media devotes to football and the level of interest among Filipinos. Of course, basketball will always come first in our local pecking order of sports played and followed. But certainly their performance proved that Filipinos, pure or mixed in blood, can given time, play a great game of football. And as long as the developments keep going the right way, there’s a lot more great football to be played.

A few years ago, it was indeed a stretch to think that the Philippines could hang in there with our Southeast Asian neighbors. And now, even without a stadium that’s “up to par”, we’ve proven that we can. All we can hope for is for continued development amongst our players, and a growing level of interest among the people to eventually deepen the pool of talent for our team. And who knows, one day the Azkals won’t stop at just trying to be the best in Southeast Asia. It would be nice to see the Philippines in the mix with the other Asian football superpowers like Japan. And even better, to one day see Filipinos playing joga bonito with the Brazilians, Spanish and the rest of the world’s best in the biggest stage of them all, the World Cup.
Sure, its a far-off dream at this point, but its nice to see that the right bricks are being laid in the direction toward progress and national pride in the beautiful game.