Massive boost for the Filipinas.
The FIFA Women's World Cup is Angela Beard's first-ever tournament with the Filipinas and the national team defender has clearly shown why she deserves the roster spot in the world stage.
The 25-year-old has been a solid contributor on the back end and was a crucial part of the starting lineup in two historic FIFA Women's World Cup games.
For Beard, playing in the tournament feels a little bit familiar, especially in their 1-0 victory against New Zealand. After all, she's played with and against some of the competitors.
"I've actually played against them in the A-League [Women in Australia] and in my career, so it wasn't that much different for me," Beard told Radyo Pilipinas 2 Sports' Aaron Bayato.
"But for the team, I guess we've really been working on keeping it strong, making sure that we're preparing ourselves well for these individual players."
On Wednesday, Beard posted on Instagram a throwback picture of her and Fern's Indiah-Paige Riley exchanging jerseys.
The two athletes previously played together for the Fortuna Hjorring.
"Hey @indiahriley, tell these girls that in a year's time, they'd be playing each other in [the FIFA Women's World Cup," Beard said in the caption.
The Kiwi replied with, "I much prefer when we are on the same team, but this was pretty cool too!"
This heartwarming moment is one of the many reasons why the FIFA Women's World Cup is such a landmark moment for the Filipinas.
But the job and history-making are not done yet because the Filipinas are still very much alive in the competition.
They face world giants Norway on Sunday, and Beard knows exactly what the Filipinas need to do.
"I think we've come to play, and we've come to compete, and ultimately winning games is what it's all about. We take tonight's performance, and we take it all the positive and the good things and the bad things and try to get some learnings out of that and we look at our last game, hopefully not our last game, and we just go from there."