Maroon Booters Kick Their Way to Victory!

[Take note that this entry is actually a reaction paper i made for one of my major subjects at school. I just found it rather amusing to post it. The UAAP Football Season 73 Championship was held at the Ateneo de Manila Erenchun Feild on the 27th of February 2011.]

It was only a matter of time when I was able to get into position and squeeze my sights through an excited crowd gathered near the side of the UP Football Team’s benches. The referee blew his whistle and the game started with UP pressing hard on UST for the first few minutes. As the game advanced, the ball kept bouncing, rolling and flying (…you name it!) back and forth the field. There was monotony and a bit of amusement for me, seeing heads turning from left to right again and again. It was as though the game was equally tied until Ayi Nii Aryee scored near the end of the first half. Another sensational goal, contributed by Jinggoy Valmayor, was made during the second half. I would say that the rest of the game wasn’t that well-played because most of the time UST had the possession of the ball due to bad passes and a rather weakening defense by UP’s players. Eventually, UST scored a goal by a penalty kick awarded to them because of a handball committed in the penalty area. UP geared up for another goal, which unfortunately failed when the ball hit the crossbar after the two teams wrestled for it in the penalty area. A lot of people were disappointed, but everybody became so hyped near the end of the game when a mad scramble for the ball occurred just outside UST’s penalty area. Now I wonder if the referee was in a daze or he was enjoying the show, but I together with a lot of people were pretty sure that UST’s goalkeeper stepped outside the box, which is illegal, right…? The referee didn’t blow the whistle. Another ridiculous thing that grabbed everyone’s attention, besides uncalled for calls (yes that is a pun, a horrible one if you must), was the annoyingly long injury time the referee allowed. Either he fails to look at his watch or he’s intentionally doing it to extend the time. I guess someone must’ve given someone a hefty bag of something. Nonetheless, the UP Fighting Maroons tamed the UST Tigers and sent them home meowing (yes, another pun!).

It’s very hard choosing who the “best” player is during a game. But I guess I have to say that the player with the most impact during the game was Jinggoy Valmayor. Besides being able to score one of UP’s two goals of the game, he assisted in the orchestration of the first goal made by Ayi Nii Aryee. Whenever he has possession of the ball near the goal, UST’s line of defense would compress and isolate him in an area, and bombard him with counterattacks; he even lured the goalkeeper to step outside the penalty area. His performance led him to receive the Best Striker (for his 9 goals) and the Rookie of the Year awards.

[So there you have it. I would've edited some of the sentences but seeing this as a "don't edit it, it's nice that way" kind of thing, I won't hahahaha :)]