By CARLO ANOLIN
Filipinas head coach Alen Stajcic expressed satisfaction with the recent performance of the Philippine women’s national team but insisted that there’s still a lot of room for improvement heading into the 2022 AFF Women’s Championship here.
“As we know, we’re progressing, we’re evolving, we’re emerging,” said Stajcic in an online press conference Wednesday, June 29. “We’re not getting ahead of ourselves. Certainly, other results we have in Europe were encouraging. I thought we really played well with certain aspects of the game.
“And the players and the group really know the areas that we did well in. But we’re also really focused on the areas that we didn’t do so well.”
The national team capped its three friendlies with a 2-1 record, securing two wins against Bosnia & Herzegovina and yielding to higher-ranked team Ireland.
Participating in the friendlies is part of the Filipinas’ preparation for the AFF Women’s Championship and Stajcic is confidentof the team’s chances heading into the tournament, not to mention finally gaining a homefield advantage.
The 48-year-old Australian tactician was also grateful for the chance to compete internationally with exposure considered as one of the important factors in honing the players’ skills.
“There’s a lot of learning and growth that happened so we’re really looking forward to the next chapter and playing on home soil is something special and I’m sure something that the players are gonna remember for the rest of their lives,” added Stajcic.
Football fans are in for a treat starting Monday, July 4 when the Filipinas begin their campaign and take on Australia at the Rizal Memorial Stadium at 7 p.m.
Aside from Australia, the Filipinas are slated to face Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand until July 13 in the qualification matches.
