The Philippine women’s football team makes its historic debut at the FIFA Women’s World Cup on Friday, with odds stacked against the Filipinas making through Group A where it will battle former champion Norway, Switzerland and co-host New Zealand.
But hope for upset wins spring eternal for the Filipinas, who booked their ticket to these quadrennial tiff early last year via a 4-3 penalty shootout over Chinese Taipei during the quarterfinals of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 held in India.
New Zealand opened the group stage with its first-ever World Cup win over 1995 champion Norway, scoring the lone goal of the match and earning 3 points. Clearly, the co-host’s victory would inspire the Filipinas—the first ever Philippine team, male or female, to make a World Cup appearance—as they meet 20th ranked Switzerland.
The 46th ranked Filipinas will next meet 26th ranked New Zealand on Tuesday, July 25 and close the group stage on July 30 against Norway, which ranked 12th by world football group FIFA.
Alen Stajcic, the Australian head coach of the Philippine women’s team, acknowledged in a recent Reuters interview that the Filipinas will be the “underdog” and will have to work even harder just to score a goal. “So everything’s going to be tough for us,” said Stajcic, who ends his contact with the team this year.
(The Philippines-Switzerland game at 4 pm Manila time with be streamed on this link
FIFA+ )
