By Ashley Bercasio
The Philippine women’s national football team is off to a rousing start in its ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Women’s Championship campaign after beating world no. 12 Australia, 1-0, at the Rizal Memorial Stadium on Monday, July 4.
Filipinas Midfielder Sarina Bolden made the game’s lone goal, converting on a header that went past Australian goalkeeper Jada Mathyssen-Whyman in the 59th minute.
The national squad then buckled down on defense, preventing any Australian equalizer until the final buzzer.
“An amazing result, the performance from the players was first class, to beat a team that’s been ranked in the top 10 for the last 10 years up as high as number four is just amazing,” Filipinas head coach Alen Stajcic said.
Bolden, who had another crack at a goal in the 76th minute, had her first match on Philippine soil after being a part of the women’s team that lost to Myanmar in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games’ battle for bronze.
“It’s really great to see how far we’ve come,” said the 26-year-old Bolden.
“The growth of how far this team has come, last time we’re here, losing and remembering how heartbreaking that feeling was, but now, starting a tournament winning means so much. For me and for the other girls, too, we just want to continue to grow and get better cause we have a World Cup coming up.”
Despite the rainy conditions, more than a thousand spectators attended the match, a thing Bolden appreciated.
“There’s always a lot of energy, a lot of support, a lot of yelling, a lot of screaming and I personally love that type of energy out there,” Bolden said.
“I’d love to personally see even more Filipinos, Filipinas coming out to our games but the love and support we had today, we just want to continue it.”
The world no. 53 Philippines now sits at the top of Group A alongside Thailand with three points.
Filipinas will next take on Singapore on Wednesday, July 6. – gb
