It’s been greater than per week for the reason that Philippines crashed out of the ladies’s soccer competitors within the thirty second Southeast Asian Games, going out within the group levels regardless of beating defending champions Vietnam on the final matchday.
The feeling of what might have been nonetheless lingers, most particularly for the reason that aforementioned Vietnamese group, which the Filipinas beat 2-1, was finally topped because the SEA Games champions.
Speaking on the unveiling of the official adidas World Cup jerseys in Manila, goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel shared the identical sentiment.
“We were looking at the scores when we were all here together and a lot of us thought that that should have been us, we could have won this whole thing,” she stated.
The SEA Games, conceivably, was a match the place the Filipinas have been anticipated by many followers to do properly.
A bronze medal end final day out, coupled with victory towards these exact same opponents on the 2022 AFF Championships, meant that followers have been moderately optimistic in regards to the group’s possibilities of not less than securing a remaining 4 place.
But a gap day defeat to Myanmar, coupled with the shortcoming to get a high-scoring victory over Malaysia for tiebreak functions, resulted within the Philippines lacking out on a podium end on this regional competitors, a lot to the frustration of the Filipinas’ followers.
But was it a complete catastrophe, as some make it to be?
From the angle of being a World Cup-bound group who had received a championship towards a few of these exact same groups, will probably be perceived as a disappointment.
Hopes have been excessive for the Filipinas, who have been additionally coming off a formidable first spherical of Olympic qualifiers, the place the group received three of three video games, while scoring 16 objectives with out reply, albeit towards weaker competitors.
Some followers nonetheless, will probably be fast to leap to the group’s protection.
The Filipinas have been lacking key gamers who have been unavailable as a result of it was not a FIFA window; and maybe after taking part in European and South American competitors, the type of soccer from our Southeast Asian neighbors wanted a little bit of getting used to.
But from the angle of a short lived setback within the build-up to the FIFA World Cup and past, no, the SEA Games marketing campaign was not a failure.
As former NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo stated just lately: “There’s no failure in sports. You work towards a goal. It’s not a failure; it’s steps to success.”
And in that context, one can view the Filipinas’ campaign as yet another step to success, particularly with the FIFA World Cup looming in a little over two months’ time.
There is massive room for improvement, and the players know this only too well.
McDaniel admitted, “It wasn’t the result we wanted. We wanted to do better than bronze from last year, but every moment is a learning curve and a learning process and I think we learned a lot from this tournament and we are going to take some time to reflect and some good things came from it as well.”
Naturally, there are positives from the SEA Games, not least having the ability to beat the champions two occasions on the trot.
“Beating Vietnam two times in a row is a big deal after having had a history of not playing well against them, so I think that will give us a boost going into what’s next for us,” stated McDaniel.
“I think that will just boost morale for us going forward.”
Defender Sofia Harrison enthused: “We beat Vietnam twice and it’s something we have never accomplished before so we just have to look back and be proud of ourselves.”
“We expected to perform better and that’s kind of like the gear that shifted in the last year is that we want to win and we know that we can win, and when we don’t, we’re kinda disappointed,” defender Maya Alcantara additional expounded.
“I think it’s a good lesson to learn going into the World Cup, there’s some things we need to work on and it’s over now, lessons learned, and ready to work.”
Personally, it’s higher for the Filipinas to be dealt this blow and have the group style the bitter tablet of defeat and disappointment now, and function motivation to do properly on the planet stage that’s the FIFA Women’s World Cup in July.
If this setback serves solely so as to add fireplace and spirit to the group going ahead, then will probably be a setback price affected by.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
