Nothing short of exceptional. That’s the assessment as the Philippines lifted its first major international football trophy as its World Cup-bound women’s team wrote another page in history for winning the 2022 AFF Women’s Championship on home soil.
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Philippines head coach Alen Stajcic, who led the Matildas from 2014 to 2019, is ecstatic.
“The ground that the team keeps breaking, the history they keep making, just raising the bar of expectation and what we can achieve as a country. It’s just great to see football come to life,” he said.
Contested by the 11 South-east Asian nations and Australia’s under-23 team, the AFF Championship is the top football tournament organised by the ASEAN Football Federation.
Until now, teams from the Philippines has never won a medal in the tournament, but the women’s national team exceeded expectations with the country’s hosting.
The Filipinas kicked off the tournament with a stunning victory over Australia and went all the way to trounce competition favourite Thailand in the final, in what was considered a “miracle run”.
Golden boot Sarina Bolden drilled the nail in the coffin with her 89th minute goal, to complete a 3-0 thrashing of the Thais in the decider.
The host nation struggled to attract 1,500 fans to the first game but, by the final, more than 8,000 people turned up to Rizal Memorial Stadium, lighting up the stadium in celebration.
“I wanted to cry,” said veteran midfielder Camille Rodriguez, who witnessed the magical moment for the first time.
Behind the confetti and the champagne, though, were years of heartbreak and grit.
From being a victim of double-digit losses years back, the Philippines is now shining to show its true lustre to the world.
A diamond in the rough
Before Stajcic came on board in October 2021, the Filipinas were already showing potential in Asia.
Ranked No. 64 back in September, Philippines punched a ticket to its 10th appearance in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup under long-time coach Marlon Maro.
The team management decided to search for a new head coach, and Stajcic was available for the call, more than two years after he was controversially sacked by Football Australia.
Knowing the heartbreak of missing out on a World Cup berth back in the 2018 Asian Cup, Philippines knew that it had to work double time to make it to next year’s World Cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand.
Stajcic’s first mission was to lead the Philippines in the Women’s Asian Cup held in January in India, which doubled as a qualifying tournament.
It was an uphill climb for the Philippines to begin with, having been grouped with Australia and higher-ranked Thailand.
However, the Filipinas thrilled the competition with a penalty shootout win over Chinese-Taipei in the quarterfinals to nail World Cup history and a semi-final appearance.
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With the World Cup in the bag, there was more history to make for the Philippines.
The nation ended its 37-year medal drought in the 2022 South-East Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam, with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Myanmar in the bronze medal match.
With the country’s success on the international stage, the Filipinas reached a record-high FIFA ranking of No. 53.
Weaving the World Cup magic
However. behind these milestones were head-scratching moments for Stajcic: “How do you turn a young and inexperienced team into a World Cup contender?”
Stajcic, instead, embraced the youth of the squad, which has an average age of 24, and used it as a key to the team’s development.
“It’s been a historic and meteoric rise over the last six months but the good part is this team is so young,” he said.
“There’s so much room for potential growth and improvement.”
Stajcic knew that the Philippines was still far behind in terms of experience compared to World Cup-calibre teams such as Australia.
The Australian coach set a goal that the Filipinas needed to play as many international matches as possible to “accelerate” their development.
In a span of six months, the Filipinas played 17 matches in their training camps in Australia and Europe, in addition to the SEA Games.
“We’re doing everything we can to give the players that experience but, ultimately, it just takes time. Winning and losing experiences in different cultures, climates, environments, types of football and different qualities of teams,” Stajcic added.
Beyond the winning culture
The Philippine women’s football team has the character of champions.
Led by captain Tahnai Annis and co-captain Hali Long, the squad has always been a mix of Fil-foreign players as well as homegrown veterans such as goalkeeper Palacios, Rodriguez, Shai Del Campo and Anicka Castañeda.
Filipino-Americans Sarina Bolden and Quinley Quezada had the honour of becoming the first Filipinas playing in Japan’s first professional women’s football league.
Newcomers who have shone brightly this year include goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel and Fil-Norwegian Sara Eggesvik, who made a stunning debut in the AFF championship, anchoring the team’s midfield.
“I’m grateful that the team is on the same page, in terms of accepting the beliefs that we have and the willingness to embrace them. It’s always a process that we can always build on,” Rodriguez said.
In a basketball-crazed country, football struggles to grab the attention of fans and is not a priority on broadcast television.
The Filipinas’ historic AFF Championship final was not aired live on the partner TV network as a regular men’s basketball league game was prioritised.
This further motivates the team to keep succeeding to fight for a spot in the country’s top sports.
“I hope that we give the Philippines just more interest in women’s soccer. I hope young girls, young boys, adults, titos and titas [uncles and aunts] come out and continue to be interested,” Bolden said.
“We’re an exciting team to watch, quite frankly. So, please just keep supporting and that’s just what I hope keeps coming out of this.”
As the Filipinas buy into the lifestyle of travelling the world, learning football at an accelerated pace, and representing the country, not all of them are playing in the national team full-time.
It becomes a balancing act to work or study while playing football at a high level or to manage businesses from across the world.
Some have also given up work to play full-time without enough pay.
Just like the rest of women’s football, the Philippine women’s team also dreams of a professional league in the country, that will light up pathways for the sport to be a career.
“That’s literally a dream,” Palacios said.
“I feel like there needs to be urgency also with the stakeholders of the federation to ride this wave that we have. We are currently living something historical,” Rodriguez added.
“Because why are we doing all of this if we’re not going to follow through?,” Palacios asked.
After seven months of non-stop football action, the Filipinas are ready to get the rest that they deserve.
The team will reunite for the FIFA window in September, and will explore new continents to continue the World Cup dream.
ABC Sport is partnering with Siren Sport to elevate the coverage of Australian women in sport.
Beatrice Go is a freelance journalist and researcher from the Philippines. She was a former Rappler Sports multimedia reporter covering sports governance, national teams and athletes. She is a member of ABC International Development’s Women in News and Sport Initiative, funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Team Up program.
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