Our Azkals and the numbers game

All roads lead to Panaad. Well, not literally. Even metaphorically, that'll likely be an exaggeration. But it probably looks and feels that way for Bacolodnons, in fact most Negrenses — as arguably the most important football match and certainly the most watched ever in our country is set to draw a record number of eyeballs on Wednesday evening, the 9th of February. Why, that'll be a day after our President PNoy turns 51. And it's been said that he might even show up and be the No. 1 live spectator among over 10,000 at the stadium, with hundreds of thousands more expected to watch the live TV coverage. While there may be no takers on a wager on whether the Prez does show up — to give the press additional photo ops and reportage cum feature bytes — unofficial bookies may be gearing up for the main numbers game... regarding the game itself. I, for one, have asked 18 friends, whom I believe will watch the Azkals take on the Mongolians for the first game of this home-and-away AFC (Asian Football Confederation) Challenge Cup qualifier, for their individual bets on the likely outcome. Even as I pretended to be a Vegas bookie, I had to stay modest with my own number of respondents. It kept the results to a simple, minimalist pattern, affirming the odds favoring our Azkals, with a plurality of the respondents forecasting a 2-0 win. Well, in truth, three among my survey sample didn't even respond (maybe they were playing billiards). So that leaves us with 15 (note that the number reverses PNoy's age, besides accounting for a pool table's spheroids in old-fashioned rotation, outside of the cue ball). Three other respondents sort of played it cute, with one simply asking back where the game would be held (practically telling us he's been under a rock), while knowledgeably offering the tidbit that it's currently 30 degrees below Celsius in Ulaan Bator. (Does he know Ray Jonsson plays in Iceland?) A veteran sportswriter said he's sure the Azkals will take it, but couldn't predict the score. Care to take a stab? I asked again by text. Crankily, he decided to save up on his remaining load. Another, one of Neil Etheridge's countless marriage proponents, said she doesn't know much about "the pencils" (referring to Mongolia's team), but predicted a 2-0 outcome either way. Now, I don't think Vegas bookmakers have a side feature where you just guess the score without naming the winner. That left me with 12 for my fearless survey sample. Exactly half predicted a 2-0 win for our Azkals. The most cock-eyed optimist bravely forecast a 3-nil score. Two guys voted for 1-0, perhaps playing it safe, while another, a Negrense, predicted a hairline 2-1 victory. A couple actually turned traitor, er, unpatriotic, and envisioned an embarrassing hometown loss. One of them, a young sportswriter, said his heart was with our heroes, but his mind had to go Mongolia, by 1-0. The only ex-footballer among my respondents actually said 3-1 for the visitors. Well, it was his better half whom I asked to ask him, and her first reply was: "He hasn't seen Mongolia play, so he says he can't gauge it. Here's my own fearless forecast: We pounce on them on the cuteness factor, and Etheridge, he's the junk of the litter." I didn't count her input, as it didn't offer any numbers. But maybe she read out her text to her hubby, who then said, "Okay, make that 3-1, a Mongolian win!" Either that, or maybe it's because he used to be a varsity football star in... Dumaguete. And more likely than not, he doesn't have fond memories of Panaad or Paglaum or even Barotac Nuevo. Now, I'll have to acknowledge that it was really only five respondents who went for a 2-0 hometown victory. But I went along for the ride, included myself in the survey when I was asked in turn for my Third Eye reading. Being democratically inclined, I chose to go with the flow: 2-0 it is for our Azkals! Or maybe I just don't want to be over-cocky, er, over-optimistic. Having seen our Fil and Fil-Euro boys in magnificent action in that last tourney when they won our hearts, and could have won it all if they hadn't lost to Uruguay 0-2 (okay, I mean a Urugayan), and knowing like everyone else that they're just dying to prove themselves before their first hometown crowd, I should really go over the moon and forecast a rout. I know, the Azkals' first full practice game, against the equally cutely named Asukals, ended in a 4-4 stalemate. But that was the B team that allowed the homegrown Negrense booters to tie it up in the second half. And I've read of how a 19-and-under South Korean students' squad also managed a goal and gave our Azkals a tough match before falling, 1-4. But it wasn't the dreamboat Neil protecting the net, yet, and our best striker Phil Younghusband didn't even play. (Come to think of it, if the pitch didn't have to be preserved, a good curtain-raiser might have pitted the Asukals against the Bibimbops.) The more I think about it now, I should abandon the democratic sway, jump out of the bandwagon box and go out on a limb. Our boys are under a new coach who is said to have introduced effective transition patterns from defense to offense. Plus he's German, and he has all the right professional licenses. They've also been beefed up by more Fil-Euros, whose genes may still retain that meme harking back to Genghis Khan's once-threatening horde. And still most importantly, they'll be playing before 10,979 screaming fans (with 4,763 more right outside the stadium, glued to solar-powered TV sets) — 92.3% of whom don't have to lodge overnight at L'Fisher or whatever, meaning they're from that island, meaning they've been bred on tubo and La Paz batchoy and chicken inasal, meaning that they can shout themselves hoarse the way tisoys and bisoys and Ilonggos can... ("Mongolian barbecue!!!) Why, yes, it should be a massacre. Oh, okay, as a token of Southern hospitality, let's give the visitors a goal, the last one. And so I predict a hat trick for Phil en route to an emphatic 5-1 win by our Azkals. It's the least they can do to honor PNoy, whether or not he shows up on 2-9-11. - GMA News