Bung Karno pitch bane of Philippine booters

Bung Karno Stadium in Indonesia. Photo from https://ligasportindonesia.blogspot.com/

JAKARTA—Rolando Pinero, a former Philippine football team forward, came to the 26th Southeast Asian Games as a member of the staff of the current Azkals hoping to erase memories of the last time he was here.

He was looking at the huge, almost-empty Bung Karno Stadium, recalling how Malaysia upset host Indonesia in the finals of their national sport and ignited a near riot and a debris-pelting incident from a crowd of more than 80,000 upset Indonesians.

But that wasn’t the detail he was all too willing to forget.

“We never won a game here,” Pinero, in a talk with the Inquirer prior to the start of the PH-Vietnam match Thursday, said in Filipino, referring to that SEAG tournament held in 1997, which was also the last time Indonesia hosted the Games.

“We lost to Malaysia, 4-0, to Laos by 2-1 I think, and to Vietnam, 5-0. And I couldn’t help the rest of the tournament because I got injured right in our first game against Malaysia.”

Now 46 years old and retiring after these Games, Pinero was one avid cheerleader Thursday, especially after Manny Ott scored on a right-footed gem to push the Azkals ahead of the Vietnamese late in the first half.

The second half was one to forget for the Azkals, however, and the 3-1 PH loss merely added to Pinero’s bitter memories.

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Wanting to eliminate the risk of food poisoning and being blamed for it, the organizing Inasoc (Indonesian Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee) didn’t allow a single country to bring in their respective culinary teams for home cooking.

Meals for athletes and officials here in Jakarta are being served at the Hotel Sultan, a posh five-star establishment right in the heart of Indonesia’s business district.

When the Philippine Olympic Committee insisted on bringing its own culinary team, the Filipinos were told that they could bring in their own cooks, billet them outside of Sultan Hotel and let the athletes and officials of the PH delegation eat their food outside.