Filipinas face UAE in friendlies

The Philippine national women’s football team gets ready for a pair of friendly matches against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 4 and 8 April.

Filipinas head coach Mark Torcaso said the squad is in high spirits despite the absence of veterans Sarina Bolden, Jaclyn Sawicki and Quinley Quezada due to injuries.

Both friendly matches will be held at 11:30 p.m. (Manila time) at the UAE FA headquarters in Al Khawaneej.

“Yeah, I mean the expectations for us, we set our purposes at the start of the day and it was to make sure we come in and continue to implement a style and a way to play. Obviously, that's something that takes a little bit of time, but we're, we're constantly improving that,” Torcaso said.

“We've got some fresh faces here as well, so it's just familiarizing ourselves with each other and as I said, just making sure that we do it in a, in a good competitive environment.”

Despite the looming absence of Bolden, Sawicki and Quezada, the world No. 41 Filipinas still have a lot of veteran experience and firepower as strikers Katrina Guillou and Chandler McDaniel will be at the attack zone against world No. 73 UAE.

Midfielders Sara Eggesvik, Sara Castañeda and Alexa Pino, on the other hand, will be handling the playmaking duties while Hali Long, Angela Beard, Sofia Harrison-Wunch, and Madison Ayson will fortify their defensive fortress together with goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel.

These friendly matches are part of the Filipinas’ build up for the ASEAN MSIG Serenity Cup and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers that will happen in June.

Torcaso said they can’t underestimate UAE, which is led by head coach Vera Pauw of the Netherlands, who also led Ireland to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

“So, games like this against a team that's coming from the Asian continent is very important for our preparations for the Asian Cup qualifiers. We know that they're gonna give us a good game,” Torcaso said.

“Vera's a very good coach and she'll have her team very organized.”