THE Philippine Football Federation (PFF), through the Central Visayas Football Association (CVFA), hosted tryouts for its U17 and U20 Women’s football teams on Jan. 28, 2023 at the Dynamic Herb-Borromeo Sports Complex in South Road Properties.
Players from all over the Visayas region were able to show off their skills in the field, together with the supervision of Australian coach Alen Stajic, team manager Nahuel Arrarte, and CVFA president Rodney Orale.
“Actually, we have a lot of players coming from different regions (aside from Cebu). This tryout is intended for the whole Visayas. We have Bohol, Samar etc.,” said Orale.
“There are four teams in U20 composed of 12-12. For the U17, there are three teams also consisting of 12-12. So there was a lot.”
Orale also mentioned the possible composition of national players which would be very beneficial for their play style along with the Filipino drafts.
“Last year, there were eight national team players competing for the United Kingdom team. Hoping that during the selection, there will be additional players coming from the tryouts from both U17 and U20 brackets,” Orale said.
Stajcic reviewed the statistics and skill set of every player during the tryouts and said there was a lot of potential that he thinks can play in the competitions. However, rigorous training must be implemented as there were some improvements to make if they want to win the games.
“Within 20 minutes of the game, the players were already exhausted. Coach Alen encouraged more tournaments so that the players from that age group would develop their fitness. Based on the tryouts, the players are not yet ready for the upcoming competition this March since they lack fitness, but in terms of their skills, they have the skills. Once the players are selected, the first thing to do (or change) is to increase their fitness training,” Orale highlighted.
For the final drafting, only 25 players will make it to the selection in which 18 players will be chosen to play on field while seven remain for bench players. After the selection process, the players will work together to build up the team, explained Carmel Genson, the CVFA committee representative.
“Four weeks’ time is rather short because all of these girls have to work together to blend. Yes, they have the talents and skill, but they really need to work on their fitness and also being able to sync and work together considering that they are a lot,” Genson stated.
The U20 National Team will compete for the AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup 2024 Qualifiers Round 1 on March 4 to 12 in Laos and Round 2 on June 3 to 11, to be followed with the AFF U19 Women’s Championship on July 1 to 19 in Indonesia.
For the U17 National Team, it will compete in the JENESYS Tournament this March 16 to 24 in Japan, then the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup 2024 Qualifiers Round 1 on April 22 to 30 in Guam and Round 2 on Sept. 16 to 24, 2023, and finally the AFF U16 Girls Championship 2023 on Aug. 1 to 19 in Indonesia.