AFTER a podium finish in the Vietnam Southeast Asian Games football tournament last May, the World Cup-bound Filipinas are also being primed to become gold-medal contenders in the Cambodia Games in May 2023.
“Of course, Cambodia is in the sights of the (national women’s football) team. The team will be there to try and bring the championship to the country,” Philippine Football Federation general secretary Atty. Ed Gastanes said last Tuesday during the PSA Forum.
In another football milestone for the country, the Filipinas garnered a bronze medal in the regional showcase last May by beating Myanmar 2-1 at the Cam Pha Stadium in Quang Ninh province, ending a 37-year Philippine medal drought in Southeast Asia’s most popular team sport.
The last time the country won a medal in women’s play was in the 1985 Bangkok SEA Games.
Australian coach Alen Stajcic’s charges should loom as top favorites in the Cambodia SEA Games after bagging the Asean Football Federation Women’s Championship trophy last July, highlighted by a 3-0 thrashing of Thailand in the final at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
They also clobbered reigning SEA Games women’s champion Vietnam 4-0 in the semifinals on the way to clinching the country’s first major international football trophy.
The Cambodia Games will serve as another tune-up for the squad before seeing action in the FIFA Women’s World Cup scheduled July 20 to Aug. 20, 2023 in Australia and New Zealand where the Filipinas were drawn in Group A together with New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.
To sustain interest in women’s football, Gastanes revealed the PFF will launch the Women’s League early next month featuring eight teams. Matches will be played at the PFF national training center in Carmona, Cavite, the Rizal Stadium and the refurbished University of Makati pitch.
“We have already talked to the eight participating teams and the tournament will be played until December. These teams have also expressed interest in helping our national women’s football squad,” he said.
PFF President Mariano Araneta Jr. said they intend to rebrand and relaunch the PFF Women’s League after the World Cup and make it a commercial league similar to what is being done in women’s volleyball.
