The Philippine national women’s football team will focus on competing in major tournaments this year.
Filipinas head coach Mark Torcaso said while they haven’t had any major tournaments from last year, he is confident about their fitness as most of the squad are competing in their respective clubs locally and internationally.
The national team will have a nine-day training camp in Manila from 17 to 26 February.
“We’ve got some of the best staff that support our national teams and our staff are in contact regularly with our players, making sure that they’re working through programs, they’re working and training at clubs. So I’m not too worried about the players and their conditioning and their fitness and stuff that they have because they do that at their clubs,” Torcaso said.
“We were in camp in October. I mean, that was three months ago now but there’s a lot of countries that have been in a very similar situation to us last December, January and February, where it is a quiet time.”
The Filipinas are set to defend their ASEAN Women’s Championship in Indonesia this June, compete in the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers from 23 June to 5 July, and aim for a gold medal in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in December in Thailand.
With the national women’s futsal team also set to compete in the FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup in November, Torcaso doesn’t mind some of the Filipinas joining but vows to make the best squad for the women’s football side.