Filipinas rookies all pumped up

Southeast Asian (SEA) Games standouts Mallie Ramirez and Jael Marie-Guy are ready to prove their worth as the Filipinas campaigns in the AFC Asian Cup kicks off on 1 March in Perth, Australia.

For Ramirez, who scored two goals in the prestigious biennial meet, being one of the newer faces in the squad makes her eager to showcase her skills.

Ramirez will join World Cup veterans Hali Long, Olivia and Chandler McDaniel, Katrina Guillou and Sara Eggesvik as they brace for a tough quest starting against the home squad at Perth Stadium.

“I think the SEA Games prepared us a lot. You know being a newer face and like my friends here, we’re all younger faces being able to step up and be able to play for this tournament is really humbling and an honor,” Ramirez said.

“Always having high standards for each other, for ourselves is  really important for us and I think in the SEA Games we... made a statement for ourselves and I think we’re gonna continue doing that in the Asian Cup.”

As for Marie-Guy, she believes their one-month training camp is enough as they gun for a slot in the 2027 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

“I think that we have a lot more to prove with the momentum that we have and just how hard we’ve been working during camp leading up to this tournament. I think that there’s a lot of good things coming our way, and we’re gonna do our best to make the Philippines proud and hopefully bring home a lot of wins,” Marie-Guy said.

Filipinas mentor Mark Torcaso agrees that chemistry between the players will play a huge factor in their Asian Cup campaign.

“We saw in the SEA Games that when they put their minds together, and us as a group of coaches put our minds together, we believe that we can do really good things here,” Torcaso said.

“We want to create another little bit of history. We want to get out of the group and we know how tough it’s going to be.”