Sipa sa Masa with Hidetoshi Nakata

FutKal backed by a solid RockEd support in collaboration with UNDP head to Rosario, Pasig to do the first in a series of FutKal clinics entitled, Sipa sa Masa.

The volunteer group got together at McDonalds El Pueblo, graced by a special appearance by Ronald and Birdie.. (Did anyone notice how Ronald "changed"?)

Well honestly.. that was a whole lot of fun. It was priceless when Gang went and called Ronald to hang out with us a bit.

The whole group took this chance to plan the afternoon ahead and arrange a few logistics to make sure that the clinic runs as smoothly as possible.

Then after that was the short trip to Rosario, Pasig where everyone was so excited to have RockEd and FutKal in their midst. It was so much fun just to watch the young kick a ball around. The genius of FutKal is how it highlights the pure love of the game.. running around kicking a ball..

The clinic started as scheduled. With Eusebio high on the right of the stage and the kids (a.k.a. Eusebio low) to the left. Everyone was so intent on learning the few fundamental drills of FutKal. With the kids just so excited at getting a crack at the ball and the Eusebio players focused on improving their skills with the help of these drills.

It was as much fun for the volunteers as it was for each student of the clinic. It's refreshing to watch the young children get to play football probably for the first time in their lives.

With so much excitement in the air, so much gleeful laughter filling the air, everything was running smoothly.

Then came the moment everyone has been waiting for...

The arrival of Hidetoshi Nakata..

Soon after this, Peter and Gang officially welcomed him to today's festivities. A few balls were given to a couple of children by Hidetoshi. A couple of interviews were done on the site, by ABS-CBN and CNN.

Ofcourse this was not enough to stop the kids from having fun and kicking the ball around. The fun continued. With Hidetoshi as spectator, kids continued working on their tricks and running, kicking the ball.

After the short ceremonies, Hidetoshi took a team from the volunteer group and played a quick game against the kids. It was a close match.. Everybody was having so much fun.. they all forgot to keep scores! And that's exactly how FutKal should be played.. no scores kept. Only laughters and cheers counted.

Then after that was the same volunteer team with Hidetoshi against the Eusebio team. This was probably a dream come true for a lot, if not all, of the players. To actually be playing with a Japanese international, Italian Serie A, and English Premier League Player. A treasured moment for everyone.. players, spectator, vounteers. A lot of fun going around during the game itself.

Sadly Hidetoshi was keeping a very tight schedule. So he had to run to his next engagement soon after. But ofcourse not before a lot of pictures, autographs, and more pictures.

After the day. There was this feature at the PDI.

For more pictures.. and i mean whole lot more pictures.. click here.

Dear dear thanks going to everyone who supported FutKal to achieve this awesome success.. the the RockEd (y'all Rock!), Marco, Rex Taleon, Raffy Castaneda, Romario, Doc Rafa, Union FC, JP Agcaoili, Jason & Sven, Coach Rudy, Jay, everyone we have not named, you are definitely not forgotten and ofcourse.. Hidetoshi! Thank you.. thank you.. thank you.. All your hard work will be dearly treasured by everyone.. especially by the kids.

- g l e n v e r

Macalua Supports FutKal

thanks to marc macalua for supporting FutKal. check out his awesome banner on his website.


see more here.. if you want to put this tag on your website to show your support, just leave a comment =)

- g l e n v e r

Street Soccer - Pinoy Style

this is the next wave of athletes to emerge from our nice little island.

Why we do this?

there are frantic arguments on whether the philippines whould be playing footbal or basketball. we won't go into that.

what we will go into is what has the philippines accomplished in football?

FACT: football is an excellent sport that filipinos can get into. and we all can't help but fall in love with the beautiful game.

FACT: the philippines is not a football playing country. well atleast not compared to our neighbors (thailand, singapore, etc) or brazil, spain.. and there is a reason for this. not everyone has access to football fields. we don't have parks that people can go to anytime to kick a ball around. it's expensive to play in fields (which are more often than not exclusive).very few can afford to enroll their children to the few football schools in the city.

FACT: not a lot of people play football here in the philippines.. but we have accomplished so much, only in terms of individual talent. here's what i found.

re:BASKETBALL O SOCCER? • (2467 bytes)
Posted: 8/24/2006 • 12:24 GMT+8

Quote-reply
By: esphfc
registered: 3/5/2006
member
Philippines

it has been proven that Filipinos can excel in football. a Filipino named Paulino Alcantara played for Barcelona FC in the early 1920's and up to now he still holds the clubs all-time
leading goalscorer. 357 goals in 357 matches! not
356 goals in 357 matches as previously posted in
articles according from Barcelona. he rip the goal net with a thunderous strike from 35 yards out in a match between Spain and France on April 30 1922. he is considered the best asian player in the football history, mind you it's not an opinion, its official coming from Barcenola FC.

not only that there have been Pinoy footies playing in Europe like the de Guzman bros. but sadly they arebplaying for the Canadian national team. the Younghusband who are Chelsea reserves.
here are some Half Pinoy Booters that i know of, anybody can add some more...
-Jane Toernqvist, Sweeden Women's National Team, Philippine born
-Jan Morten Arnesen FK Sparta Sarpsborg in Norway
-Jerry Lucena Esbjerg in Denmark
-Kristian Hauso Norway club called Halsoy
-Julien "Bobby" de Guzman, Deportivo la Coruna, La Liga Española, Canada Men's National Team, Filipino father, Jamaican mother
-Jonathan de Guzman, Feneyrood, Bundesliga (German League), Canada Men's National Team, Filipino father, Jamaican mother
-Heinz Putzier, Alemmania Aachen
-Daniel Peters , Half-Filipino Alemannia Aachen Coach
-Simone Rota,
-Dennis Cagara, Denmark Men's Football Team
-James Younghusband, Chelsea reserve team
-Phil Younghusband, Chelsea reserve team
-Chad Gould, South Hampton
-Greatwich, Chris, Westbrom & Albion
-Greatwich, Philip Carlo, Brighton, England
-Jeffrey Tunaman playing for Bayer 04 Leverkusen
-Filipo Paner Braggio,
-Andy Prochnow,

there are lots of local talents waiting to be dicovered. i think a regular league will help in uplifting the sport and promoting it further. i hope sponsors/ advertisers will help promote the world's most popular game in the Phil. considering we'll be celebrating our national team centennial year next year, our national team is the oldest in asia yet the development and popularity of this sport was halted when the basketball was injected to our system by the Americans. local tv should show games such as La Liga or English Premiere League.

there've been no Filipino basketball player that played for major int. tournament such as the nba. and i don't see that happening, sorry but that's just the way it is!

from the website forum of the phil gov't. an interesting read..

the question then is who is paulino alcantara..? arguably one of the greatest footballer of all time (yes... IN THE WHOLE WORLD!)

learn more about him here and here.

filipinos will excel in football, most likely be among the best in the world. but they don't have a venue to play at..

so many reasons.. no more excuses philippines.. let's bring it to the streets!

- g l e n v e r

1st Invitational FutKal Tournament

awesome thanks to maestro peter amores for this magnificent video. and this successful event would not have been possible without the support and collaboration with RockEd.

gratitude is also due to Gawad Kalinga for the invitation and support.




- g l e n v e r

Futkalista with Nakata

Hidetoshi Nakata is coming to Manila. And FutKal is right in the middle of it promoting football here in the Philippines. In collaboration with Rocked and UNDP, we will make football the spark by which our nice little island will shine brighter on the world map!

Hang on to your knickers for more details to come!

- g l e n v e r

FutKal is finally going online.

Fut - Kal - ista n. from the root word FutKal (accr. Football sa Kalye) strong willed individuals taking the most popular sport in the world to the streets



The first FutKal Event was held in collaboration with Gawag Kalinga and RockEd. This event was a 2 day tournament held in the Mall of Asia during the Power of We, GK Expo.

The teams were composed of Gawad Kalinga kids from the different villages. Some of those on the list were BASECO, North, South, Dapitan, Red Ribbon Team, etc.

Dapitan took home the trophy as the first FutKal Invitational Champions.

From an organizer's perspective it was a very tiring two days. But it honestly is was all worth the effort seeing all the kidas have so much fun.

Personally this event took me back to when i started playing football, the pure love of the game. This i think i slowly gecoming hard to find in such a competetive sport. For the longest time people were taught football to win. And somewhere along the way, we sort of forgot how much fun it was.

I found myself reminiscing how much fun it was to simply run around kicking the ball wherever it went. No offside traps, no triangle formation, no 1 - 2 plays to worry about. It helps as well where the only rule is HAVE FUN.

Peter Amores (futbol extraodinaire), the mastermind behind futkal, rightfully explains that the reason why we are not doing so well in futbol is because there is no strong talent base. We don't play it on the streets like brazilians do. I agree with him all the way! If we were playing futbol as much as we are playing basketball. And with the physical built of filipinos. We could eventually give brazil a run for their money.

And this is exactly what FutKal aims to do. If not everyone can afford to go the the exclusive school for a footbal field, or pay the handsome fees in renting a field.. Let's bring it to the streets! Where all we need is a make shift goal, a ball and heart!

Click here to see pictures from the first FutKal Invitational Cup.

(to be continued)

g l e n v e r