They say friends are special because they are the family not given to us, but the ones we get to choose. Even fewer than those are the true best friends who know almost everything about our lives and have been there for us in both the ups and downs. Mathew Custodio and Chris Lawless are two players that have been friends almost their entire lives but coincidentally also play big roles in the DLSU Men’s Football Team’s quest to return to the championship.
A lifetime of friendship
Since the two met while biking when they were six years old, they have formed a special bond with each other and the others they grew up with. Most of this stemmed from each of their loves for football. “We all live in the same area, almost 25 of us who have known each other like all our lives,” explains Custodio.
Recently, though, the two have become even closer since the two started going to DLSU and playing for the Green-and-White’s football team.
“It just so happens that Chris and I have the exact same schedules. Like we’re in the same class, you know we’ve been playing in the same team,” Custodio adds. “And you know he’s good-looking so I take him out with me because this guy is a ladies’ man.”
Off the field, the two do other things like extra work at the gym or grabbing some Korean barbeque. The two, however, have recently been hooked on the game Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, or better known as PUBG. Lawless explains, “Honestly, right now, who hasn’t been playing PUBG? Even girls are playing PUBG, man, it’s crazy.”
While the two are best friends, the duo doesn’t share the same personality. While the outgoing Custodio has been modelling for Bench and other brands, Lawless says that he is more of the “shy type” but would love to try it out if his friend ever brought him along. The two, however, both share the same positive outlook in life that has carried them all the way to Coach Hans Smit’s team.
With this in mind, Custodio jokingly says to describe the two’s friendship, “It’s amazing, dude, like if I don’t end up marrying anyone, I’ll marry this guy. You know what I mean?”
When asked if he would ever get tired of his friend Mathew, Lawless smiled before giving his honest answer. “This guy? Never man. He’s something different every day, he’s just too funny.”
Focusing on Season 80
After missing out on the championship last Season 79, Custodio described it to be the worst season he had ever played. Aside from not being able to play at their best, Lawless adds that the main factor that contributed to the unpleasant performance of the team last season was the inability of the players to get along in the field, “Everyone just had a bad season, no one clicked, nothing was working.”
The approach that Custodio and Lawless will be going for this Season 80 is telling themselves that with a bad season like last already under their belt, they have nothing else to lose. “If we have a bad game then like people have seen it already—people have already seen a bad season so what’s a bad game? So we’ve got nothing to lose and now we have no other choice but to play better and to win,” Custodio remarks.
Having the goal of reaching the top four of the league, the duo tells that the team for this edition of the UAAP is a lot better compared to last season’s. With the efforts of team captain Noel Brago, the DLSU Men’s Football Team was able to bond together—something that was severely lacking in the previous year.
They reflected that the team just needs to do what it is doing now, as well as having the trust in one another, which is an important aspect of achieving their objectives this UAAP season, “I think we should just keep everything simple and trust everyone in the team, trust each other, trust the passers, trust the system. And you know everything is working well so everyone is just doing great and we just have to continue everything we’re doing now,” Lawless concludes.
While the two have already experienced a lot in their storied friendship, the duo hopes to add another memory to their already long list: a UAAP championship.
