Filipinas hope ‘meteoric rise’ to FIFA Women’s World Cup debut changes everything

In a rustic obsessive about magnificence pageants, basketball and boxing, the Philippines ladies’s group hope to ignite curiosity in soccer once they make the nation’s World Cup debut this week.

Long minnows within the sport, the Philippines have by no means performed at a FIFA World Cup, both the lads’s or ladies’s.

All that can change on Friday when the ladies’s aspect underneath their Australian coach Alen Stajcic play Switzerland in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Stajcic calls their journey from “almost ground zero” to the World Cup “miraculous”.

Half of his gamers don’t belong to knowledgeable membership and a few have been “running around the block on their own” for coaching, he mentioned.

“It’s been a meteoric sort of rise for the team,” the 49-year-old instructed AFP by way of Zoom previous to the World Cup.

“The challenge for us is to somehow maintain and sustain that improvement, not be happy with where we got to.”

Since Stajcic’s appointment as coach in late 2021, the Philippines have jumped from 68 within the FIFA rankings and are actually a best-ever forty sixth place.

It started with the Women’s Asian Cup in early 2022 once they made the semi-finals, dropping to South Korea however securing a historic World Cup berth.

They adopted it up with bronze on the Southeast Asian Games final yr, then received the regional AFF Women’s Championship on house soil.

‘We haven’t got fields’ 

The Philippines are in Group A on the World Cup alongside co-hosts New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.

They is not going to be anticipated to get out of the group, however defender Hali Long mentioned: “I would like to think we’re going to go in there and do more than just participate.

“We’re getting into there to compete with all the things now we have to point out.”

The team hope getting the Philippines to their first World Cup can be a game-changer for football in the country.

Long was born in the United States — most of the players on the national team have been recruited from the Philippines’ large diaspora.

“It’s not the preferred sport right here,” Long told AFP at a practice session for her club in Manila in the lead-up to the World Cup.

“It’s not the wonder pageants, boxing and basketball; we do not have a ‘B’.”

Goalkeeper Inna Palacios, one of the few players born in the Philippines, said more investment was needed to find and develop young talent in the poverty-plagued country.

“We haven’t got the fields or a spot to play,” said Palacios.

“It was tagged as a… sport for people who find themselves wealthy and may afford fields and sneakers, however in actuality you simply want your ft and a ball.”

Playing catch-up

Stajcic is a major reason for the Philippines’ improvement.

He brings a wealth of experience in a playing and coaching career in Australia.

He coached Australia at the 2015 World Cup and took the Matildas to as high as fourth in the FIFA rankings, but was dumped despite guiding them to the 2019 tournament.

Stajcic says that being able to get the squad together for extended periods, including a 10-week training camp in the United States before the Asian Cup, has been another reason for their dramatic upturn.

But he will need all his nous and know-how if the Philippines are to be competitive in a women’s game which is at an all-time high in Europe and North America.

“Women’s soccer within the final 5 years has gone by way of exponential development,” said Stajcic.

“The remainder of the world is already 100 steps forward of us.”

Despite that he is backing his team to make an impact if they “do all the things proper”.

“We’re going to want a bit little bit of luck,” Stajcic said.

“We’re going to need to make our luck, we’ll have to present ourselves each attainable likelihood in our preparation.”

—Agence France-Presse