AUCKLAND. – Running out of tricks, the feisty Filipinas on Sunday absorbed a 0-6 lacing at the hands of Norway to bow out of the FIFA Women’s World Cup at the end of Group A action at Eden Park here.
Even the spirited cheers of hordes of Filipino fans at the arena could not boost the Nationals against the in-form Grasshoppers, who finally lived up to their lofty billing, dominating early on to score the win they desperately needed.
In the absence of injured ace forward Ada Hegerberg, Sophie Roman Haug proved to be a one-woman wrecking crew with a hat trick in the sixth, 17th and 95th minutes.
Celebrated striker Caroline Graham Hansen had a blistering goal for the other marker in the 31st minute while Guro Reiten converted a penalty kick in the 53rd minute that boosted the former World Cup champions to second place in the group, behind Switzerland, on superior goal difference and into the next round.
On a miserable night for the plucky charges of coach Alen Stajcic, defender Alicia Barker, coming off the bench, scored an own goal in the 48th minute during a goalmouth scramble while substitute Sofia Harrison was flashed the red card 11 minutes later that left them with only 10 players on the pitch.
Also seeing their bid of advancing to the next round cut short were the hometown Ferns, who were held to a frustrating scoreless draw by Switzerland at the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.
Thanks largely to their 2-0 win over the Philippines in the same venue last week, the Swiss sealed the top spot in the group with five points while the Norwegians took second with four points on superior goal difference against New Zealand and made it to the knockout round.
New Zealand, which finished third, and the Philippines were left out in the cold.
At the post-match press conference, Stajcic conceded that they played against a much superior team.
“As we said, they are a very classy team. They were favorites to win this group and they showed some of their class today,” he noted. “They really picked us apart in some of the battles in the box early and this allowed them to be more creative as the game went on.”
But he praised his squad for fighting till the end despite being outclassed and outmanned, especially in the second half.
“We tried to fight to the end with 10 players and we kept them out from 25 to 30 minutes.
I am so proud with the heart and spirit of the team. They fought till the end, to the death, and from that perspective it has been an amazing World Cup,” he said.
Haug, who plays for AS Roma in the Italian Serie A, opened the floodgates by scoring two consecutive goals in the first 17 minutes, booting in the icebreaker with a left-footed flick inside the box in the sixth minute then doing it again 11 minutes later with a glancing header almost from the same spot.
A star at Barcelona, Hansen blasted a sizzling roller from the right side of the fringe of the penalty area in the 31st that gave Norway an imposing 3-0 lead.
The Norwegians padded their lead to 4-0 when Barker failed to clear the ball in the face of intense pressure and accidentally drove the ball into the Philippine goal three minutes into the second half, after which Reiten added the fifth with a penalty kick off Anicka Castaneda’s tackle inside the box.
Fittingly, it was Haug who scored the last goal with a stunning strike five minutes into injury time.
Among the changes that Stajcic made was giving youthful striker Isabella her first start after coming off the bench in the game against New Zealand, giving the squad another option on offense, but apparently went for naught.
The Filipinas seemed energized by the huge crowd of Filipinos, numbering in the thousands, who came out to watch them play, hoping they could pull off another milestone.
Just like in Wellington, they paraded around the arena early in the afternoon, wearing the red-and-white and blue national colors and brandishing flags and flaglets, some of them wearing the traditional “salakots” to identify themselves as coming from the Philippines.
And they just kept on cheering them on even when the outcome was beyond doubt.
