We have taken part in a great adventure. And though it’s been more than a month after that trip, the memories are still fresh as if it were only yesterday. Travel with us to the land of pharaohs and pyramids, Egypt! You read it right, I co-coached and supervised the Philipiine Team delegation to the 2015 SATUC World Cup, an indoor football tournament that aims at bringing together youth of different nations in the spirit of friendship, cultural exchange and sportsmanship.
Together with Coach (John) Jason Vergara, we brought eight promising footballers from different parts of the country, namely, Ronan Ibuna, Gerald Abao, Dave Uygongco, Jet Baña, Nicollo Benito, Adrian Lim, Jim Mendoza and Jan Reu Mendoza. It has been a pleasure coaching these kids because they are passionate about football, relate to each other and the other delegates very well and they have a fun-loving demeanor. These have been the highlights of our attempt to bring home the SATUC World Cup. Though we went home without it, we brought with us a rekindled passion to do better at our game, memories that will remain vivid and most importantly, friendships that would last a lifetime and that would not have happened had it not been for the generosity of the organizers, Shiekha Al Thani for Uniting Children (SATUC) and the mother-daughter tandem behind it, Madame Meshkah Tawfik (SATUC CEO) and Shiekha, the 16-year-old founder (may you blessed with more!)
August 26
(Manila)
We travel to Bangkok today. After having my sunblock in a 200 ml container (not full) and tweezers confiscated from my hand-carry at the airport, the trip didn’t have any other glitch. We left the country all excited!
(Bangkok)
We arrived here at around 7 p.m. (BKK time), 6 p.m. in the Philippines and our trip to Egypt will be after seven hours of wait time, 1 a.m. We just rested in the lounge, went online on Facebook and ate snacks and dinner in between.
August 27
The ten-hour plane travel to Egypt took its toll on us, we were all tired when we arrived. To make matters worse for me, I had a migraine attack and I felt jetlagged. We arrive at around 5 am (Egypt time). SATUC staff greeted us upon arrival and at the arrival area, there they were, Madame Meshkah and Shiekha and the rest of the organizers. First impressions for me, last, and they were all very accommodating and gracious. Shiekha even went with us in our coaster to the hotel and we talked about random stuff like dogs, the travel and how “we’ll all have much fun together”.
Arriving at the hotel, we hung out with Shiekha and we introduced ourselves to her. Then we were assigned to our rooms (I stayed alone in a room because I was the only female in the Philippine delegation), and I immediately slept upon settling down, I was feeling rather sick. I woke up when it was almost dinnertime. When we went to the hotel lobby, we were introduced to Ibrahim, our guide, and he explained to us about the schedule for meals, trainings, and Egyptian culture, among others. Some of the other delegations have arrived and we all had dinner together. We enjoyed our food, a mix of Egyptian cuisine, pastas, and pastries. (I adore Arabic food and I will cook some and share the experience to my family and friends.)
August 28 and 29 were training days for the teams at the stadium. Two delegations take turns at a time. It was a great way for the players to adjust to the size of the playing area and their bodies to the temperature – VERY hot outside the stadium and airconditioned inside. Evening of the 29th was the event press conference. It was a glamorous event, with football-themed decorations. The groupings were drawn – we will be playing with Egypt, Syria and England in our group while Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Algeria and Morocco are in the other group.
August 30
Our game against Egypt is the first game in the entire tournament and we started on a rather bad note. We were prepared for a six-a-side tournament as per invitation and communications we got and at the moment when the referee noticed that we had six players on the futsal court, he said we needed to have only five. We talked with the tournament officials but they insisted on just having a 5-a-side tournament, even England’s coaches were disappointed with this because they also prepared for 6-a-side. Despite the misunderstanding, our boys played well enough, Egypt having a hard time scoring in the first half. They made successive goals in the second half and the game ended in a 5-0 scoreline in favor of Egypt. Coach Abd El, Head Coach of Egypt, teased us that we’ll go down at 8-0… But we didn’t, at least! 😀 Our game against England ended in a 4-0 scoreline and an injured player, Gerald. He had to be sent to the hospital and good thing that he was cleared of fractures. Games continued until the afternoon and in the evening, at around 6p.m., VIP’s started arriving to grace the “Opening Event” featuring a lights and sound show and dance performances.
August 31
Our last elimination game was against Syria – youth displaced by the turmoil in their country represented their team. These youth have experienced so much hardship but they have resilience, something we could get inspiration from. We might have had this game if only our lineup was complete, what with Gerald still injured and was advised to rest on the bench. Our defense was having a hard time, Syria scored three goals. But the warrior in Gerald eventually came out, wanting to do something for the team, he was cleared to go before halftime and what seems a lucky circumstance, scored a goal for the Philippines. We fought hard but ended up in the losing end, still, in a 5-1 scoreline.
I wanted to step-up as a coach at this point, not just as a goalkeeping coach, I even had mental notes of what I wanted to tell the players in the huddle before the game, but to no avail, as I felt sidelined. Having nothing to do but focus on the goalkeeper’s training. I vowed to myself that in the game the following day, battle for seventh against Algeria, I would step-up, by hook or by crook. You know that feeling of wanting to do something, even just to reinforce the players with positive remarks, so that they’ll feel good about themselves – something that I wasn’t able to do for the past two days of the elimination games.
We all have different styles of coaching, some are bossy while I see myself as a democratic coach who believes in shared-decision making and being a guider, but I am someone who also knows when to draw the line. And I drew just that. I had a mission, of stepping up the following day. Because I believe that “when the team loses, it’s the coach’s fault, when the team wins, give all the credit to the players” and with my not stepping up, I was liable for their losses.
September 1
Today is the day that I stepped up. And after their warm-up routine, I huddled them and started talking of how far away we’ve travelled from and how we’ve lost in our other games, and how we’ll be going home as heroes despite our loss, but we’ll be remembered as losers and not as fighters if we don’t even bring home a single win. I just told them to play as if they were playing a championship game, to treat not the game as a battle for seventh but as the most-awaited match. I was the coach who was standing the entire time of the game, I motivated them and suggested our players what to do, and boy, did I feel good at how they played their hearts out.
Despite Algeria scoring the first goal in the game, I just told our players that we still have a lot of time to make goals. And of how much I wanted to see them win and we did, the game ending in a 5-1 scoreline in favor of the Philippines with goals made by Jan (2), Nicco (1), Dave (1) and Gerald (1), the best goal (for me) as it was a buzzer-beater via long-lofted shot two feet away from our arc. Nevertheless, it was great teamwork that made them achieve the win, Jim, Adrian, and Jet helping out and making great passes, even attempts to score goals, and brave and hard-working goalkeeper, Ronan, whose eyes were always on the ball and everywhere (that is possible for a great goalie, peripheral vision is your ally).
After our game, the battles for fifth and third were played next, all leading to the final match which was between Ivory Coast and Egypt and with Egypt ending up as the victor in the finals. They deserved to win the cup. It was a well-played game, with Ivory Coast battling it out until the final whistle was blown. In the evening of today, we celebrated Egypt’s victory and the success of the 2015 SATUC World Cup in a sumptuous dinner and a cake party after, where there were impromptu dancing, and showing-off of talents, and the boys, coaches, players and organizers having fun, (I even had a wedding proposal from a Syrian kid, who despite his difficulty in speaking English, asked adults around, to translate, and ask me if I would like to be engaged to him, hahaha!) And funny thing is, he told his coach that I broke his heart. “Poor kid, you’ll find the right lady for you, it’s not just meant to be you and me”, what laugh we all had!
September 2
Today, we’ll have our tour of the city and be off to visit the Pyramids and Sphinx of Giza. It felt surreal, travelling to Giza, having a glimpse of the majestic Nile River, on our way. We had a lot of fun under the Egyptian sun, and when we were in the desert, the marvelous pyramids welcomed us, we got to climb the steps on its outside and took several pictures as souvenir. Lucky of me to be able to pick a small stone from its blocks and pebbles too. I told the stone that I’ll be bringing it with me and how it’s going to bring me good luck, instead of bad. You know, how there are several instances where bringing souvenirs bring bad luck to its bearer. So much for that. I also got to ride a camel, the players and other coaches did have a short ride on the back of a camel too, it was terrifying at first but when you get a hang of it, it’s not that bad at all. Team Philippines was set to leave later in the evening, and upon arrival back to the hotel, we packed our bags and we readied to go. And when it came for us to leave, we surprised Shiekha with our rendition of “Leaving on a Jetplane” which made all of us teary-eyed, even Madame Meshkah, the other kids and many of the organizers. Way to leave a mark, Team Philippines. We’d surely miss the new friends we’ve made and we all promised to keep in touch.
September 3
We arrived in Manila, late in the evening today. Our flight was still via Bangkok. And having difficulty sleeping, I spent hours watching movies on the individual entertainment system in the plane. It dawned on me what great memories we have shared from the great adventure. Reminiscing them makes me want to go back to Egypt in the future, I just might. I will. 😉 The opportunity for all of us has been a great blessing and the great adventure that has just ended is actually the beginning of our journey to be better players, better coaches and better people. We will keep our SATUC experience the victory which we will consider as our last best and it is our goal to surpass our performance in the cup. Again, from Team Philippines, thank you and congratulations to SATUC, Shiekha Al Thani, Madame Meshkah Tawfik, coaches and players, and of course, the SATUC 2015 ambassadors, for the success of this year’s cup!
mspatsperous 