McDaniel sisters savor Women’s Cup triumph

Sisters Chandler and Olivia McDaniel savor the sweetness of clinching the PFF Women’s Cup after helping Stallion Laguna FC beat Kaya FC-Iloilo, 1-0, in the final last Monday at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

Chandler, who scored the winning goal in the second minute of the game and was named as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, felt elated to win it all after seeing the squad lose all of its 10 games in last year’s PFF Women’s League.

This is the Stallions’ first title in the competition.

“When they said they were starting a league up here, it was a no-brainer. We knew we wanted to come home and play in the league,” Chandler said.

“I knew that we could make a team to win and that’s exactly what we did. Olivia and I tried to play separately last season and I think we just both decided that there’s an opportunity to play together.”

“This is something that we started together so we want to end together.”

Since opening their campaign, with a 1-2 loss to Manila Digger FC last 13 October, the Stallions never lost a game again as they defeated Beach Hut FC, 9-0, Tuloy FC, 7-1, Azzurri FC, 15-0, and Kaya, 1-0, in the elimination round for a 4-0-1 win-draw-loss record.

As Beach Hut withdrew in its semifinal game last Wednesday, Stallion got to rest before facing Kaya again for all the marbles.

Meanwhile, Olivia remembers the Philippine national women’s football team’s 1-0 win over New Zealand in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in this game against Kaya and is proud of what Stallion achieved in the tournament.

“Yeah, I mean it was a bit similar. It mirrored definitely the World Cup but I think we went up early and we kind of had most of the game the whole time,” said Olivia, who bagged the Best Goalkeeper award.

“I didn’t really feel that they were pressuring us too much. They got a couple shots here and there but nothing too dangerous that we needed to look out for but we handled them in.”