The Philippine Malditas were reminded of the things they have to fix before making their historic appearance in next year’s AFC Women’s Asian Cup after being clobbered 5-1 by Jordan on Wednesday in the final match of the qualifiers for the said competition in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
A late goal by substitute Alisha del Campo avoided a shutout after the Malditas conceded three goals in the first half, two of which came from Maysa Jbarah to suffer their only loss in five games in the Group A qualifiers.
Coach Buda Bautista’s squad finished second in group with 10 points, five off Jordan, but is enough to gain passage to the Asian Cup for the first time since a qualifying stage was first held before the 2006 edition.
Since Jordan has already secured a spot being the host nation for next year’s event, the Philippines got the other spot in Group A after an impressive campaign that made football fans back home proud.
Back-to-back 4-0 routs at the expense of the United Arab Emirates and Iraq set the tone for the memorable run by the Malditas. They clobbered host Tajikistan, 8-0, before a Sara Castaneda goal in the 1-all draw with Bahrain enabled the Filipinas to secure their place in Jordan.
The impressive run of the Filipina booters have boosted their chances of making the grade for the Malaysia Southeast Asian Games. Philippine Football Federation officials are hopeful that their stint in Tajikistan would convince the POC-PSC Task Force to include them in the list of athletes for the biennial meet.
