AUCKLAND. – For the love of the beautiful game and sparing no expense, former national player Miriam Merlin went the extra mile to support the Filipinas who are set to make their epic debut in the FIFA Women’s World Cup here.
No, make it thousands of miles — on top of a grueling 23-hour plane trip — to see the wards of Australian coach Alen Stajcic compete in the greatest women’s football showcase.
“I am here because sobrang history, eh. Something na hindi dapat i-miss ng mga sports fans,” Merlin, who once played for the national women’s squad handled by the late revered coach Orlando Plagata, said in a chance interview at a hotel here Thursday.
To save funds, Merlin, who was tapped as the youngest national women’s team recruit at 17 during the 1993 Philippine National Games in Baguio City, took a flight on budget carrier Air Asia, with stopovers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Sydney, Australia.
“I arrived here at 4 o’clock in the afternoon last Wednesday kasi gusto kong makitang mag-laro ang Filipinas,” added the former national player, the coach of the muti-titled La Salle-Lipa high school girls’ squad for the last 25 years and a Grade 9 PE teacher at the institution.
She showed a copy of her old Philippine Football Federation ID that she keeps as a treasured memento, proof that she once carried the country’s colors in international play, adding that among her contemporaries were former national women’s coaches Leticia “Buda” Bautista and Lelet Dimzon.
“Lahat kami nag-laro kay sir Plagy. Marami kaming natutunan sa kanya,” Merlin said endearingly of the low-key mentor, who also won several women’s football championships for PUP and FEU.
Although she was unable to savor success in the regular 11-aside football, she cherished the bronze medal that the national women’s futsal squad coached by Manny Batungbacal won in the 2007 Thailand Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok. That medal remains as the only one the country has garnered in international futsal play.
Merlin, who was in the process of completing the final grades of her students back home, added that she was able to get permission from her school supervisor to witness the Filipinas in action in the blue-ribbon competition featuring the best world women’s football players.
