Unfinished sentences.

On October 1, 2011, my mom, brother, and I went to eat dinner at the Garden Villa Hotel. That's where the Azkals and other teams participating in the Long Teng cup stayed, so we got some pictures!

 In the buffet dinner where I was chickening out to go to the lobby with my bro and ask the Azkals for a picture. :P As for the guy at the back, I don't know which team he belonged to.

 Still chickening out...so I took this shot.

 At this point, my bro and I have passed the lobby, saw the Azkals lounging around, and kept walking on till the bathroom. Yeah...my bro kept insisting we should go them but whenever we got nearer, he'd keep turning back to me and saying stupid stuff like, "What?" or "What should we do?". -.-

 

Finally, after we approached them, I asked the stupid question, "Hi, are you the Azkals?" (my excuse was that I didn't see the word "Azkals" on their shirt yet and I wasn't that familiar with their names at the time lol). Then Mark Hartmann replies, "No, this guy is the real Azkal (points at Misagh), and this guy is the water boy (points at Jason de Jong). We have a really buff water boy."
Me: "...really...?" while thinking to myself that the Philippines would never send a water boy overseas.
Mark: "Yeah. And I'm the towel boy. I carry the towels."
Me: Riiiight, you guys are just kidding with me! Can we take a picture?
Misagh: Yeah, come sit here with us!
So my bro goes and takes a first shot with them, then I go to take the pic next.
Then Chieffy kindly tells us to go to the couch across them and take a pic with those guys, and we did.

 

We get to the next couch and my bro, again, sits with them and I take their picture. When it was my turn, someone else called them to take a group picture (in which Chieffy very nicely encouraged my brother to join), so I didn't get to take one with the people on that couch. But before leaving for the group picture, Jeffrey Christiaens, who was so cool, actually paid attention to me and told me to hold on. After that group photo, the others excitedly went ahead to the buffet dinner while Jeffrey came back to take a photo with me :D

 

Jeffrey Christiaens and me :) I didn't know how he played yet when we took this picture, but when he debuted in the Philippines vs Taiwan match, I was so amazed! He had a number of scoring opportunities and he did justice to his position of midfielder. I still really want to ask him why he passed the ball to Phil Younghusband instead of taking the shot himself - he was so close! Nonetheless, he's become someone I look forward to watching in future Azkal games. I am so thankful that he stayed to take the picture with me, it left a really good impression :)

 

Then we proceeded to dinner and stopped some players to take more photos. But then we didn't really want to be a disturbance to their pleasant evening, so we weren't able to take some pics with others. But look, it's Chieffy Caligdong!!! What an idol, he is so down to earth and was more than accommodating.

 

Bro and Phil Younghusband

 Me & James Younghusband

 Peek-a-boo! Still in the buffet after finishing eating.

On Sunday, October 2, 2011, I brought 3 of my close friends with me (who are also my soccer buddies [we play in our school team]) to watch the Philippines vs Taiwan game! They enjoyed it so much that they watched it again with me on Tuesday. Here are some pictures:

We arrived 2 hours early thinking that there would be a long line outside. Turns out we were wrong and we just entered right when we got there. We were able to get real good seats though! It also rained that day, so we were holding up our umbrellas while watching. 

After the game. Philippines and Taiwan tied 0-0.

I love that they come near the crowd and acknowledge their fans! It's such an admirable gesture :) They were the only team that did it too!

Jeffrey Christiaens - his debut game. He kinda grew on me since then :)

# 4. I wonder if that's really his preferred number.

And of course, Roland Muller! My friends and I are huuuge fans of him now. He played incredibly in all 3 games, especially in this Taiwan one - he saved so much! Ah, it was wonderful. He did so well!