Fil-American booter Isabella Flanigan and Fil-Australian Chantelle Maniti will be among the 27 players set to represent the Philippines in the ASEAN Football Federation Under-18 Women’s Championship this this week in Palembang, Indonesia.
The 17-year-old Flanigan and Maniti are coming off a successful stint with Team Philippines, known as Filipinas, who won a first ever AFF women’s championship two weeks ago.
Flanigan, a forward, from Fairmont, West Virginia, scored one of the goals when the Philippines beat Singapore, 7-0, during the group stage of the AFF meet at the Rizal Memorial Football stadium, and has played 15 matches with the Filipinas.
Maniti, who is from Wetherill, New South Wales, has had eight appearances for the Filipinas and is set to start out with the Filipinas U-18.
The Philippines is bunched in Group B alongside Australia, Myanmar and Malaysia.
Matches will be played at the Gelora Jakabaring Stadium and the Jakabaring Athletic Field.
Among the members of the team are Aspen Dunn, Andrea Evangelista, Samantha Link, Alexis Tan, Stella Divino, Elisha Lubiano, Maxine Pascual, Jenny Perez, Micha Santiago and Rae Tolentino.
They will also have Kylie Yap, Florence Ycong, Isabella Alamo, Mish Castanes, Kyza Colina, and Francesca Crespo, Jade Jalique, Sophia Lyttle and Karen Mangantang.
The top two squads from each group will qualify for the knockout stages.
Marnelli Dimzon will coach the squad, to be assisted by Gerald Orcullo, Arvin Jay Soliman and Kim Versales.
The Philippine U-18 team conducted its training camp at the PFF National Training Center in Carmona, Cavite and at the Greenfield City Sports Field in Santa Rosa, Laguna.
The team left for Palembang, Indonesia last Friday.