THE Filipinas will be in “World Cup mode” when they compete at the Asian Games (Asiad) in Japan beginning on Monday.
According to coach Mark Torcaso, the target in Nagoya is two-pronged — improve on the team’s quarterfinals showing last time in Hangzhou and long-term, power up for their stint in FIFA’s centerpiece competition next year in Brazil.
Mr. Torcaso’s charges, mostly young guns beefed up by World Cuppers Liv McDaniel, Hali Long, Katrina Guillou and Jackie Sawicki, will begin their quest for at least a semifinal spot against familiar foes Uzbekistan (Sept. 14) and Hong Kong (Sept. 17) and powerhouse China (Sept. 21) in the Group G preliminaries.
“We’re going treat all these games as World Cup as such and we’re going to try to do the best thing possible to make sure that we play the way that we want to play and focus on what we want to do,” said Mr. Torcaso in a press briefing on Thursday before their flight to Japan.
Though the Pinay booters beat Hong Kong at the AFC Women’s Cup Qualifiers in June last year, and Uzbekistan at the Play-in match for a World Cup ticket at the Asian Cup last March, they have no illusion it’s going to be a cruise in the Asiad.
“It’s going to be very tough. We only beat Hong Kong, 1-nil to qualify for (this year’s) Asian Cup and we only beat Uzbekistan, 2-nil, in the qualification to the World Cup (during the Asian Cup proper last March) and we now have tough China,” said Mr. Torcaso.
Despite missing seasoned players like Sara Eggesvik, Sarina Bolden, Angie Beard and Chandler McDaniel, Ms. Guillou expressed confidence in the youth brigade, some of whom played a big part in the Filipinas’ breakthrough Southeast Asian Games triumph such as Mallie Ramirez.
“We’re confident with the group that we’re bringing into the tournament and we’re excited to get to share this also with the young ones so they can grow, learn and gain experience with us,” said Ms. Guillou. — Olmin Leyba