Here’s how it ends, not with bang, but with a whimper: Indonesia beat the Philippine national football team on 2-0 aggregate goals in the semifinals of the 2010 Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup, ending the latter’s miracle run in the tournament. The Azkals displayed every bit of the grit and heart that has made them the darlings of our basketball-crazy country these past two weeks, but in the end Indonesia’s edge in talent, experience, and home field was too much to overcome for the Philippine side.

I don’t know if anyone else shares my feelings, but I can’t really get disappointed with the loss, considering the team has already exceeded all the expectations; they were already playing with house money, and they’re already winners in everyone’s eyes. It really wasn’t about the wins or the medals, nor should it be.

It’ll be interesting to observe the next few days, as the team comes home and they are feted by the media. I suspect there will be a fair amount of stories touting the Azkals’ grit and heart, and these would be well-deserved. But I hope there will also be stories that contain sober and objective analysis of the team’s run and the state of the football program, stories that neither pander to nor patronize the team and its new fans. That would be much more helpful not just to the team and the program, but also to us who are new to the game.

There are, of course, questions to be sorted out with the football federation and all the politics that surround the sport. But there are other very real issues that affect football in the country that deserve some discussion.

An example of one such issue: a key part of the success of the Azkals was the very aggressive recruitment over the past several years of foreign players of Filipino lineage to play for the team. With the pressure on the team to keep performing, we could expect the program to step up its pitch to talented foreign players with Filipino blood.

It’s a tricky situation, as coach Simon McMenemy himself admits, because the foreign player would end up dislodging a local player who just isn’t as talented. “It's very tough man-managing a situation whereby the locals know that, no matter how hard they work in training, they will be replaced when the foreign players come in,” he told ESPN SoccerNet before the Suzuki Cup.

It’s going to be a tough balancing act for the football program, if they ever get their political issues sorted out. On one hand, there is the need to strike while the iron is hot; there’s still a very real danger that all the goodwill and momentum from the Azkals’ miracle run will be squandered if the team does not perform up to expectation in their next few outings. On the other hand, they need to work hard to put together a strong local grassroots program that would ensure that the next generation of local footballers would receive the proper training and exposure. It’s a hard sell to keep players motivated despite the very real possibility that some foreign kid might end up taking their spot anyway.

There are no right or wrong answers, but it’s a worthwhile discussion that hopefully gets the coverage it deserves.