These Girls are Titanium!

So I know many of us are still brokenhearted because of what happened last night (hindi pala masarap na midnights snack ang ampalaya). But well, if there was one thing that Filipinos are well-known for aside from being Pacquaio country, it is our RESILIENCE.

Yup, according to Merriam-webster.com, it’s the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. And boy do we know how to bounce back.  An average of 20 typhoons hit our country every single year. We should be fleeing to another country right? Not gonna happen.   

I won’t try to sugarcoat it though. Last night, we lost. And we lost really bad. The score 25-9, 25-11 and 25-18 pretty much sounds like a DLSU-UE game in the UAAP (sorry UE, consider this a challenge :D). The Vietnamese whipped our 12 heroes like hell. But should we lose faith and ask them to just come back home and forget what happened? No way.

In last night’s game, Valdez scored 9, Jaja 6, Dindin 5, Yongco 2, and 1 each for Roces, Ortiz, Dimaculangan and Pablo. Unbelievable right? What happened? (Actually, very few people know since there was no livestreaming available last night. Bleh.) I honestly have no idea too. But according to reports and tweets, the Vietnamese were just too quick and powerful for our girls.

So just like what I always do after a failure, I try to think about what I did wrong and what I could do better. Oops, I don’t mean to say the girls failed. They absolutely did not. But here are some things that may have contributed to their loss.

1.      First is insufficient preparation. I know who to blame but I won’t even waste time talking about him. The girls barely had a week to prepare. And second, just like what Coach Roger said, they weren't able to scout the opponent.

But then there are the more important differences. For one, Vietnam has a really successful volleyball program. They also have a professional league. They have lots of experiences in international competitions and they did have homecourt advantage. You see, their players are authentic “volleyball players”. Volleyball is their job. They play volleyball all-year round.

Our players on the other hand only play volleyball after classes, or when there is a chance to play as a guest player in a short conference. We haven’t joined any international competition for years. Again, I find it hard to accept this. It’s not like we’re the poorest country on earth!

Okay, I guess if we try to look for the positive side of things, maybe we can say that our girls and the team learned something from last night’s game. Perhaps they realized that they still have a lot to learn and still have a lot to improve on. Perhaps they also realized that since they are much taller than the other team, they can actually beat them when they meet again if given sufficient time and training.

Guys, we have won 6 gold medals in women’s volleyball in the SEA Games. Vietnam has zero. ZERO! That alone should be reason enough to believe that we can do so much better. 

However, our last gold medal was from 1997. From 2001 to 2005 we fell for the Bronze then from 2007 to 2011 we got nothing. Vietnam on the other hand has been consistently getting silver from 2001 to 2011 always being second to Thailand.  

This is definitely a wake-up call. Not to our players but to the Philippine Sports Commission or whoever it is responsible for the sport in our country. We have talented and very willing players. Please support them, give them world-class training and international exposure.

As for us fans, all we can do is shrug off what happened and keep on showing the girls our love and support. Remember, if Cinderella started as a rich princess, her story would not be as interesting. We're still in the beginning guys, and it can only get better! #OneForTheCountry!

(as for the title, "You shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am Titanium.. gets na? :D)