MANILA – The Philippine women’s national football team, the newly crowned Southeast Asian (SEA) Games champion, is setting its sights on the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup set for March next year in Australia.
The Asian Cup serves as a pathway to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
“We’ll enjoy this one, we have to enjoy this one because it’s been a long time coming for this country to win the SEA Games. We’ll rest a little bit and then we have to get ready for the Asian Cup,” coach Mark Torcaso said in a news release.
The Filipinas made history after a stunning 6-5 victory over eight-time champion Vietnam on Thursday.
Torcaso is optimistic that the Filipinas will perform well in their next tournament.
“We saw how disciplined our girls can be against good teams and I truly believe that we can do that against Australia or South Korea and Iran and I truly believe that we can do something special there as well and go to another World Cup,” he said.
The Philippines has to finish in the Top 2 against host Australia, South Korea, and Iran in Group A to reach the quarterfinal round where the four winners will advance to the World Cup and the four losers will contest two other spots in the play-in matches. / PNA