DON’T look now. But things are not really what they seem. In the blink of an eye, fortunes change. Expectations are blasted. And the results can be staggering.
Take note of the Malditas’ extraordinary feat of being the first Filipino football team to ever book a ticket to the World Cup. The euphoria of that win in late January by the Women’s National Football Team over Chinese-Taipei in India was out of this world. It was a historic, heroic moment that felt a bit like that Hidilyn Diaz Tokyo lift that won us gold.
But less than a week later, we were on the downside of the roller coaster path. We let out a collective groan as our girls bowed to their more technical, more defense-efficient South Korean opponents. Thus they failed to qualify for the Women’s Asian Cup Finals. Because the SoKor girls were just too stingy and didn’t allow the Filipinas to score a goal.
But let’s accentuate the positive. This is still the farthest any Filipino football team has ever gone in the history of the sport. Fortunes change, true. But for a reason. Now the focus will be on learning from mistakes, filling in the holes and adjusting the defense to give them a fighting chance against the world’s best.
The word is that these girls haven’t even played their best game yet. So they’re out to pull surprises come November. Coach Alen Stajcic can still work more magic on this team as the wheel of fortune turns again.
It’s still a long way to the Fiba Basketball World Cup in August 2023. But the Asian qualifiers that will take teams there begin in just two weeks. Group A games, hosted by the Philippines, will take place at the Araneta Coliseum starting February 24.
Gilas will play New Zealand, India and South Korea in the group. But the sands have shifted here as well, as we know. Once a steady ship moving forward, with bolts tightening, sprucing up and adding a few pieces here and there just the major concerns, now the Gilas Pilipinas roster is like the changing liquid shapes inside a lava lamp. Nothing is definite.
The resignation of head coach and concurrent program director Tab Baldwin from the team was the major shocker. Add an exclamation point to that, followed by a question mark. Chot Reyes has gallantly accepted the mantle once more. But how can you prepare for an important series of battles with the little time left?
Chot went to work immediately, identifying key players he would want on his team—La Salle’s Justine Baltazar and UP’s Karl Tamayo, specifically. But both have opted to play for their respective schools for a long-awaited University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) campaign this March. So will Chot rely on his TNT players?
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) is now plotting its next moves as Coach Chot tries to concoct a masterpiece under time pressure. He’s got to believe in magic as well.
Over at the National Basketball Association, the Brooklyn Nets were No.1 in the East once upon this season. The Boston Celtics were floundering, slowly sinking. Brooklyn started out as a favorite to win it all at the start of the season. Many doubted whether Boston would even make it to the playoffs this year, at the rate they were losing and collapsing in the end games, even against acknowledged “weaker” teams. Trade Tatum, trade Smart and Brown. These were demanded by impatient fans.
But slowly fortunes changed. A cocktail of anti-vax sentiments, a couple of crucial injuries here and there and swirling trade rumors about key personnel affected Brooklyn’s fortunes sourly.
The Celtics on the other end took in all the talk, kept their noses to the grindstone, finally kicked their Covid woes and worked, worked, worked. Now they lead the league in defensive rating, net rating, scoring margin, scoring defense, opponent field goal percentage and opponent assists. They have also overtaken the Nets in the standings.
Coach Ime Udoka, much maligned for Boston’s early woes, can now live a little.
His guys have totally bought into his defensive system. How fortunes change.