For Club and country

Sunday, 22 January 2012 20:01 Rick Olivares / Bleachers� Brew / bleachersbrew@gmail.com

I WAS unable to watch the match between the Azkals United and Icheon Citizen on Saturday night (I had previous commitments that I could not wriggle free from). Despite my absence, I would text friends as well as my staff who covered for my absence as media officer on match day.

When I learned that our team had lost, 4-2, I bowed my head and felt hurt. Having been one of those few covering the national team (I know technically this is not the national squad but still�), I�ve been trying my darned best to help the sport that I grew up playing grow in the country. The players aren�t the only ones who get hurt by the losses. While football activity and interest has spiked in the 13 months, there remain those critical of the sport who feel the national squad is overhyped and that interest in the sport is a fad.

However, this isn�t about me debunking those arguments. I have done that in previous columns. Instead, I would like to clear the air about certain matters.

Over the last two days, a lot of people have asked me if it was true that the Azkals United team was going to miss the services of several mainstays due to club duty. When I confirmed that, some quickly opined that the clubs were selfish as they put their concerns above national duty.

That is quite untrue. For starters, the clubs have always supported and given way to the national team. The UFL Cup competition of 2010 was suspended for a couple of weeks as the nationals left for the Suzuki Cup in Vietnam and Indonesia. So hectic were the schedules that the finals originally slated for December were postponed for January of 2011. And the cup competition was once more suspended so that everyone could support our campaign in the Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta last December.

Yet in an unfortunate quirk of schedules, the Kia Rio Cup (between the Azkals United and Icheon Citizen) was set for January 21, a week after the kickoff of the UFL�s league competition. League mainstays Kaya and Loyola were unable to release their players because they had matches the following day.

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