The Philippines might have been stripped of the ASEAN Women’s Championship title but the national football team still picked up important lessons for future tournaments.

Filipinas head coach Mark Torcaso said that while they failed to make it to the semifinal of the prestigious regional competition, they will move on and shift their focus on the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand in December and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Australia in March.

The Philippines suffered an early exit after a 1-1-1 win-draw-loss record in Group B.

“We obviously came into this competition with some younger players, some inexperienced players and in the end, one of those young players actually scored a goal for us. So this was a really good learning curve for all of us, our team, our coaches to see some of our young players play,” Torcaso said after their 1-1 draw against Myanmar last Wednesday at the Lach Try Stadium in Haiphong, Vietnam.

“Yes, we would like to progress to the next stage. But unfortunately, we haven’t and we focus on the Asian Cup now and our preparation is going into that.”

The Filipinas’ title defense did not go according to plan despite a strong start.

After a convincing 7-0 over Timor-Leste at the Viet Tri Stadium in Phu Tho last 7 August, the Philippines lost to Australia, 0-1, three days later.

Not even a draw could save the Filipinas’ back-to-back bid as the Burmese defeated the Matildas, 2-1, and the Timorese, 3-0, entering the match.

Despite the early exit, Torcaso said the silver lining in their campaign is that they have more options on who will make it to the final roster for the Asian Cup.