We were all fired up with the resurgence of football as a national sport for the Philippines. We were angry that politics reared its ugly head to mar a glorious moment for those who fought hard in the Vietnam fields. It was difficult not to be saddened by the 1-0 defeat from the Indonesians yesterday. But it does not matter.

That is what sports is all about or should be about — fighting well despite the odds. That is the best omen that there will be future victories.

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The day before the match in Jakarta I met with Jim Libiran, producer of a film about a group of football-playing street kids from Tondo. How could street kids play football in Tondo and call it a happy land? I was compelled by the very idiosyncracy of calling Tondo Happyland. I had imagined (never having been there) one garbage dump peopled by gangsters. How wrong I was. 

Football is more than just Azkals winning games. “For example in Tondo we are more excited about “futkals” ie “football sa kalye”. I saw some of Libiran’s film clips from the Internet of young boys kicking the ball across, in between, and on top of the dumps. And did you think they should have at least had shoes? Naah. Nothing but bare feet.

Happyland, the film tells the story of how a Spanish missionary priest formed a group of poor boys from Tondo into a fighting football team. It is more a documentary based on true events in Tondo in the 1980s when Spanish priests from Don Bosco parish and youth center, probably homesick for the game they played in their youth, taught football to local out-of-school youths. It was these priests who had performed the miracle that I could not believe — “how to make barefoot boys into great footballplayers.”

There I was worrying how the Azkals would do in Jakarta and Libiran tells me about a film on the “coming-of-age story about poor young kids who learned to dream and dared to fight for their simple goal.”

Also in the interview was Peter Amores, a rich boy who studied in La Salle. He is good-looking, confident and intelligent enough to be an executive, a government functionary or a politician. But he chose a different career path to become the founder of the organization to provide football training to youth in poor communities around the Philippines.

Libiran, film maker and Amores, sports revolutionary worked together for their vision for Futkal or Futbol sa Kalye. “We are building self-confidence and discipline among poor kids through football,” says Libiran. Through this we will cultivate the next generation of Filipino football players. Did I know that in all the countries where football flourished and made champion players, it was a poor man’s game? I always thought it was a rich man’s game. “That’s only in the Philippines and we are going to change that,” chorussed the two. They will show that real grit, dexterity of body, resilience, comes from boys used to poverty. That is what makes them potentially great football players.

“The film is still about Tondo and the face of the Filipino as resilient, defiant, and happy, despite all its problems.” Libiran, himself raised in Tondo adds. He wanted real life, not actors to play the main roles in Happyland. He had to find them and found himself teaming up with Amores to organize futkal in Tondo. Yeh. A story in search of actors was the incentive that led to an absolutely incredible resurgence of a game that brings us back to our historical roots. Today they have more than 20 boys from 12 to 20 years old trained not only in football but in acting.

”We teach them the discipline of football that can be applied in their daily lives and help them reach their goals, their aspirations, ang mga pangarap nila sa buhay through using the discipline of futkal or futboll sa kalye,” says Amores.

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Filming Happyland began early this year. They wanted to release the film last June but were short of funds. They eventually found some funds and more — the Azkals’ victories gave them the push they needed to bring their impossible dream into the mainstream. 

“I wanted to present our country, Tondo in particular, in a different light. That’s why I used the best equipment I could get my hands on,” said Libiran.

“Originally my budget was for P25 million but I pared it down to P12 million.” The film is finished but he is in debt so he asked if this column can help him look for an angel who will help out. They can be contacted through their website, SaveHappyland.com.

They need support for what to me should be a national effort. What started as a film in search of actors had become something else — it opened a whole new world for personal growth among impoverished teen-aged boys who could one day represent the Philippines not just in the Asian Cup but in the World Cup. They will do it in small but determined steps.

Libiran and Amores saw how it was possible to change the boys’ outlook in life just by teaching them football. They now want to be champions not just in football but in their studies and in their work. If it was possible to do in Tondo, it can be done all over the country.

“Happyland” should be shown in schools and poor communities around the country. He suggests a game between the futkals from Tondo with the poor boys in war-ravaged areas of Mindanao.

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And why did it have to be a Spanish priest who would teach poor kids football in Tondo is still another story. We were playing basketball all these years and thinking it was and ought to be the national sport of the Philippines when the rest of the world had come around to favor football as the game to play because it can be played anywhere by anyone even poor kids from Tondo.

Before I left they let me in on another fact. Did I know that one of the great footballers in world history was Spanish Filipino? Paulino Alcántara Riestrá. He played for Barcelona (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Barcelona>) and was the first Filipino and Asian player to play for a European club. He scored a still unmatched 357 goals in 357 matches.