The Philippine Women’s National Football Team, which I will probably call the Malditas for as long as possible, is on course to securing a possible spot in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
All they need is to win two more games to book a historic first for the country in the biggest soccer tournament for women in the world from July to August 2023.
By the time this comes out, the result against Indonesia will be known and hopefully we will get the result that we wanted. The Malditas need to beat Indonesia in their last group match to gain a hassle free pass to the knockout stage.
The Filipinas shocked Thailand in their first game of the tournament to end a 12-game losing streak against the regional powerhouse, despite losing 4-0 against Australia. The Malditas gave a good account of themselves after holding the Matildas, the moniker of the Australian women’s team, scoreless for more than 50 minutes in their encounter. Incidentally, Australia, which is currently ranked 11th in FIFA, was the highest-ranked team for both men’s and women’s that the country has ever faced in a football game. Thailand is ranked 38th, while the Philippines is currently at 64th place, but the big disparity in the pecking order was not evident when the Filipinas made the shocking upset and were able to stand their ground before the Matildas found the breakthrough goal, courtesy of Sam Kerr, six minutes into the second half. That eventually broke the Filipinas’ defense the rest of the game.
If the Malditas prevail over Indonesia at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, they will probably face Chinese Taipei or Iran for a spot in the World Cup.
More importantly, however, a win against the Taiwanese or the Iranians will give women’s football, and even in men’s, the boost it needed most.
“The players in the squad want to change the game back at home. They want to be inspirational to the next generation and they have spoken about that often. They are at the forefront and on the precipice of being able to do that, but there’s a lot of hard work to be done between now and qualifying. Hopefully, we can give the Philippines and all the players back home, the young boys and young girls, an inspiration and hope they can play in the World Cup in the future,” coach Alex Stajcic said.
For a country that used to be great in football, a spot in the World Cup will bring much-needed support and attention to the sport. This is the breakthrough needed by football to gain its lofty status in the country that has seemed to forget to love other sports except basketball. Filipinos are good in football, but being good is not enough. The Malditas, the Azkals and the U-23 need all our support (especially the funding) and love, too, for them to reach places and make our dreams of reaching the World Cup, either the Pinay booters or the Dan Palami led-Azkals. Volleyball has gained so much stride in the past few years by the way. Football, however, needs a lot catching up to do.
While the pressure is great, I believe the Malditas can do it. One game at a time.
Azkals team manager Dan Palami has confirmed that at least 11 of the 13 foreign-based players will be flying directly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to join the team that will compete in the AFF U-23 Championship Cup 2022.
Palami said Oliver Bias, Dennis Chung, Yrick Gallantes, Keiran Hayes, Jacob Maniti, Griffin McDaniel, Antonio Miguel Mendoza, Antoine Ortega, Nathan Rilloraza, Sandro Miguel Reyes and David Setters have been called to the national pool. Bias and Chung will be flying from Germany, while McDaniel and Rilloraza will be coming the United States. Reyes and Ortega will come from Spain, while Setters and Hayes will travel from the United Kingdom. Mendoza and Maniti, on the other hand, will come from Canada and Australia, respectively. All of them are expected to be in Cambodia by February 1 or almost two weeks early for their first game against Timor Leste on February 14.
“With the quarantine protocols that they (Cambodia) have, there is no reason for the foreign-based players to go to Manila anymore. They will have to spend 5 to 6 days in quarantine in Cambodia, so might as well they just go straight to Cambodia,” Palami said.
Oskari Johannes Kekkonen (Finland) and Quincy Julian Kammerrad (The Netherlands) will fly out from the country, along with other local-based players, who will make cut for the national pool. Kekkonen has just signed up to play for Kaya FC Iloilo for the forthcoming domestic league the other day.
The camp for local-based players is currently ongoing in Carmona, Cavite, while training is being done in Biñan, Laguna. According to Palami, the local camp will give the coaching staff the chance the identify players, know their fitness and if they can compete in Cambodia. Even with the call-ups, the team is not yet final.
“That’s what we are looking and trying to find out right now. Too early to make an assessment, but hopefully our local-based players will step up and show what they have,” Palami said.
Twenty-four players are in the camp right now.
Palami also revealed that plans for the Azkals’ camp and friendlies against European teams in March have hit a snag. Palami says pandemic concerns and quarantine restrictions have greatly impacted the plan to bring the team to Spain.
“It is difficult to secure games in Europe right now. We were only able to secure one game and unfortunately we need at least a minimum of two games,” Palami said.
But all is not lost: Palami said there is an option for the Azkals to consider if the European camp will not push through.
“There is an offer, however, for us to play against a team from South East Asia and they will also help us play against another country,” Palami revealed. “Minimum of two games. We need to practice and we can have more games prior to the June competitions in China,” he added.
Palami said they are still weighing the best options for the Azkals’ preparations for the third round of the 2023 Asian Cup. And he also knows that time is something that they don’t have right now, but still, he remains hopeful that something concrete will happen soon.
Let’s include the Malditas in our prayers tonight.
Stay safe. Stay happy peeps!