Filipinas, Uzbeks square off

Uzbekistan is pulling out all the stops against the Philippines as they face each other in the play-in of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup on Thursday.

Head coach Kotryna Kulbyte said while losing 0-6 to South Korea in the quarterfinal was painful, they opted to reserve their energy as she kept key players like Lyudmilla Karachik, Maftuna Shoyimova and Nilufar Kudratova on the bench while Diyorakhon Khabibullaeva only came in during the second half.

The play-in match will be held at the Robina Stadium in Robina, Australia on Thursday at 10 a.m. (Manila time)

“If you saw the big rotation of the team, (it was because) we are already thinking of the game in Gold Coast,” Kulbyte said

“We already did our job here by reaching the quarter-finals but we still have one more goal to achieve. We dream of reaching the World Cup and we hope to do our job there.”

“When you lose the game, no matter which opponent, you cannot be happy. But the girls did everything they could today but we had girls who gained experience today.

The Philippines only met Uzbekistan once in a friendly match at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium last October with both sides settling for a 2-2 draw.

Expect both sides to fight tooth-and-nail for a chance of booking their slots for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.

Whoever loses in the play-in will have to go through a harder route to the World Cup via the inter-confederation playoffs in November against teams from other continents like Europe and Africa.

Luckily, the Filipinas didn’t go 100 percent in their 0-7 loss to Japan in the quarterfinal last Sunday as goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel and forward Katrina Guillou sat on the bench.

Veterans like Sofia Wunsch, Angie Beard and Sara Eggesvik entered the match in the second half against the Japanese to get some game time before their must-win game against the Uzbeks.

For head coach Mark Torcaso, they will have to move on from the loss and focus on Uzbekistan.

“While the scoreline isn’t what we wanted, we will focus on the next game because we still have a chance to reach the World Cup,” Torcaso said.