WC-bound Filipinas face Uzbekistan in Asian Games – BusinessWorld Online
Match on Monday
(Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium)
1 p.m. – Philippines vs Uzbekistan (Manila Time)
AFTER its beloved Gilas Pilipinas men in basketball, the Philippines deploys its world-class women’s football team into the early battles of the 20th Asian Games (Asiad) in Japan.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup (WC)-bound Filipinas hit the field on Monday against familiar foe Uzbekistan in the opening salvo of Group G at the Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium.
The Uzbeks go into the 1 p.m. duel (Manila time) with a chip on their shoulder as last March, when they last faced off, the Pinay booters beat them to a coveted ticket to next year’s global meet in Brazil via a 2-0 verdict in their Play-In match at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.
“We know they’re going to come out fighting,” said coach Mark Torcaso of Uzbekistan, which because of the said defeat, found itself relegated to the inter-confederation play-offs later this year to try and catch the last bus to the WC.
“They won’t like that we beat them a couple of months ago when we qualified for the World Cup. They’re going to be tough. But our players will focus on us. Our main objective is to always focus on our team. Yes, we worry about our opponent but we focus on us, which is the most important.”
The Filipinas are fielding a predominantly young crew backstopped by WC vets like Olivia McDaniel, Katrina Guillou, Sofia Wunsch and Jackie Sawicki, in their second straight stint in the continental conclave.
“I think we’ve prepared pretty well. We’ve done the best we can and we’ve done a lot of things in camp and everything’s coming together now. We’re ready for the first match,” said Ms. Guillou.
Mr. Torcaso said the Asiad in Gifu Prefecture will serve the team’s WC buildup in the long run.
“We want to try and be better than we were at the last Asian Games, which is a quarterfinalist,” he said.
“But we also understand it’s outside the FIFA window so we have a lot of players unavailable and we’re going to test a lot of young players and new players to be ready for the ultimate goal. So we will be using the Asian Games as an opportunity for us to grow and to be ready for the World Cup.” — Olmin Leyba