These ladies never back down.
The Philippine Women’s National Football Team is all set to take on the higher-ranked teams of Wales, Scotland, and Iceland in the 2023 Pinatar Cup in Spain, which kicks off tomorrow. In facing three of Europe’s best squads, the Filipinas are hoping to gain enough learning experience to help them prepare for their historic FIFA World Cup stint in July.
This doesn’t mean, however, that the Filipino contingent isn’t eyeing to win it all in San Pedro del Pinatar.
Filipinas defender Sofia Harrison explained exactly what they’ll be gunning for and how ready they’re going to be when they take on their vaunted European counterparts.
“I think we have definitely tough competition ahead of us. But I think that these games will definitely show the growth that our team has had in the past few year[s] and even in the past six months or so,” Harrison said in a video uploaded on Monday on the national team's official Facebook page.
The Filipinas aren’t going into the Spanish invitational like headless chickens. Coach Alen Stajcic has a game plan in the works and his squad is out to execute the right strategies in order to win and continue to progress.
“These next few days will focus on getting our game plan ready. And just focusing on being the best we can against them,” the 23-year-old Harrison added.
The Filipinas, currently ranked 53rd by FIFA, will open their Pinatar Cup campaign on Thursday (Manila time) against world no. 32 Wales. That will be followed up by a match against 25th ranked Scotland two days later. And finally, they’ll square off against world no. 16 Iceland on February 22.
Harrison, on behalf of her teammates, expressed how excited they are for the upcoming games.
“I think we’re all hungry and we’re all ready to, you know, fight until the end of each match. I think we definitely want to win each game. So, it’s important that we go in with an open mind and a winning mentality each game.”