THE Philippines found itself in tough Group B, led by two-time defending champion Iran, after the draw for the AFC Women’s Asian Futsal Cup in Hohhot, China yesterday.
Also in the same group is reigning Asean Football Federation Women’s Futsal Championship title holder Vietnam and Hong Kong. The competition is set to be held from May 7 to 18 in the provincial capital of Inner Mongolia.
Under the tutelage of newly-hired Spanish coach Rafa Rodriguez and with just two weeks to prepare, the Filipina5 qualified for the tournament as the best-placed third-ranked team in the qualifying meet last month in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
With Chinese football legend Sun Wen, now the vice president of the China Football Association, doing the drawing honors, the hosts, Uzbeks, Taiwanese and Australians were drawn in Group A.
Bracketed in Group C are Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Bahrain.
The tournament serves as the qualifying meet for the inaugural FIF Women’s Futsal World Cup that the country will host in November.
“Personally, we would have wanted to be in Group A. But at any rate I believe that we wound up in a good group. We get to play with AFF champion and the defending champion Iran at the start,” noted Filipina5 team manager Vince Santos. “There will be a lot of learning experiences for our squad.”
Santos said Rodriguez will start holding talent identification camps in the cities of Dipolog and Davao in Mindanao, one in Cebu and another in Manila in the middle of February.
He said that avoiding Japan in the same group would also pave the way for the Filipinas to have a training camp and tune-up matches in the Land of the Ring Sun upon the invitation of the Japan Football Association.
“JFA officials were in Tashkent and were quite impressed by the performance of our national women’s futsal team so offered us to play with their national team and train in Japan. Now this will become a reality,” noted Philippine Football Federation president John Gutierrez.
Santos stressed that just like the qualifiers, “the Nationals will be in the AFC Women’s Asian Futsal Cup aiming to win as they continue their preparations for the 1st FIFA Women’s Futsal World Cup.”
The finalists and the winner of the battle for third place will qualify for the FIFA Women’s Futsal World Cup, but if the Filipina5 reach the semis, all three other semifinalists will advance to the maiden world women’s futsal meet.
