Filipinas lose crown but gain lessons

The Philippine women’s football team known as Filipinas in action during the Asean Women’s Championship. –CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Coach Mark Torcaso insisted that there were silver linings that the Philippine women’s football team can take despite the disappointing early exit from the Asean Women’s Championship.

The Filipinas were denied a semifinals berth and a chance to defend the title they won three years ago after Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Myanmar in Haiphong, Vietnam, where the Philippines fielded lots of youngsters to plug roster spots opened by missing key players.

“We came to this competition with some younger, inexperienced players, but this was a really good learning curve for all of us,” Torcaso said after the team placed third in Group B with four points on one win, one draw and one defeat.

Myanmar and Australia’s U-23 team emerged as the semifinalists from the group, joining Vietnam and Thailand.

Seven debutants were among those in the Philippine lineup that was missing the injured Sarina Bolden plus the likes of Sara Eggesvik and Angie Beard, among others, due to club commitments.

The Philippines opened the campaign with a 7-0 rout of lightweight Timor-Leste, but was put on the brink by Australia the following game after a 1-0 defeat.

Against Myanmar, the Filipinas fell behind when Win Theingi Tun produced a penalty in the 33rd minute. Nina Mathelus, a product of the U-17 team that played in that age-group version of the Asian Cup last year, came up with an equalizer in the second half, but it was not enough to avoid elimination.

Mathelus and Azumi Oka, who played all three games starting as defender, are among those Torcaso is banking to make strides moving forward as the Filipinas shift their focus on the Thailand Southeast Asian Games in December and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in March.

“We saw some really nice things in this window and we’re really happy, everyone just keeps getting better and these young girls just keep getting better,” said Torcaso.

“There’s definitely a lot of positives and definitely a lot of really good perspective and headaches for us to pick a really good team for the Asian Cup.”