Brothers James and Phil Younghusband helped maintain Football’s popularity with Phil scoring five international goals for the Azkals in 2017.
2017 PROVED to be a historic year for Philippine Football. The eight-team Philippines Football League (PFL) was established in May as the country’s professional league in hopes of further growing the sport.
After seven months and beset by growing pains, Ceres Negros was finally crowned as the first ever PFL champions. The Busmen beat out their bitter rival Global Cebu, 4-1, at Bacolod City’s Panaad Stadium last December 16.
The creation of the PFL is said to be the logical step after the many successes of the national teams in recent years. The Azkals were ranked as Southeast Asia’s top team for almost the entirety of 2017 only to drop to Second Place behind Vietnam this month but still stand a good chance to make it to the AFC Asian Cup 2019 in the United Arab Emirates after good results in qualifying matches against Tajikistan, Yemen and Nepal.
The Women’s Team also made history of their own by qualifying for the 2018 AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Jordan for the first time since 2003. The Maldita’s placed runner-up behind the seeded Jordanians in the qualifier hosted by Tajikistan in April to earn the ticket.
However, Pinoy Football also had its low points including the failure of both national squads to bring home any medal in the Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia last August. Just before the year closed, the Azkals lost to host team Chinese-Taipei and minnow Timor Leste in a friendly tournament that resulted in their losing the top ranking in ASEAN.
Shifting back to club football, the Philippine colors flew high in the AFC Cup as Ceres was crowned as the ASEAN Zone champion while Global reached the semifinals. Global also took Second Place in the RHB Singapore Cup while becoming the first Filipino side to see action in the qualifiers for the AFC Champions League.
In the collegiate scene, Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University won the Men’s and Women’s title in the 79th UAAP. San Beda College became the kings of the 92nd NCAA while University of San Carlos topped the 17th CeSAFI.
For sure, followers and fans of “The Beautiful Game” will continue to monitor the sport in 2018 with the coming second season of the PFL and the exploits of the Azkals and Malditas. There’s no stopping Philippine Football’s rise.
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