Off-Beat: 'Azkals' website crashes

Although they missed on their chance to lift the AFF Cup this year, the Philippine men's national football team has gained so many admirers and critics alike along the way.

The mania has not only been on the football pitch but has also spilled over in cyberspace.

Besides the buzz and the hype surrounding the team through extended coverage by the local and foreign media, they also gained much ground on the social networking website called Tumblr with some of its users having school girl crushes on a number of its players.

Then, there was talk about the team's official website on Twitter.

During the team's return presser at the H2O Hotel in Manila Ocean Park, there was a banner that explicitly did not display the Philippine Football Federation's website, but of a separate and different website that was devoted to the team, which could have been part of the ploy created by their team manager Dan Palami to shield the squad from the bitter politicking that has plagued the organization in recent times.

Going back to the talk about the team's website, I immediately pointed out to TJ Manotoc about the squad's official homepage in a reply, which he quickly disseminated for all to take a peep.

Before I knew it, an Error 509 message greeted me when I tried to access it at around 4am.

I knew that a good number of people here in the country were maniacal about football (see: World Cup 2006/2010 viewing parties) and know a good number of friends supporting teams that made it into the World Cup Final (that's the tournament, not the championship game in itself), but this is something much better than I could imagine.

The boys are finally getting the credit they are due. Playing under the radar and gaining the respect and admiration of our Southeast Asian neighbors is a good sight to see amidst all the drama behind the scenes.

Let's continue this passion for OUR team in future tournaments, specially the upcoming 2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers in February, where they will grow together as a team and inch their way to a chance of making it into the World Cup Final.