The Philippine women's national football team gets back from a long-time hiatus with new gameplay in the Pink Ladies Cup.
It will be a new-look Philippine women’s national football team in more ways than one as the Filipinas are set to return to action against Jordan in their opening match of the Pink Ladies Week in Turkiye on Saturday.
The Filipinas, who will be playing in their first games since a couple of friendlies in South Korea back in April, will not only be flaunting new recruits — including Fil-Foreign players Maz Pacheco and Janae DeFazio, they will also be debuting a new playing style.
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With head coach Mark Torcaso already holding his position for more than a year, the Filipinas have adopted new ways to go about their matches.
Filipinas mainstay Sara Eggesvik spoke about the change ahead of their match with Jordan.
“I feel like we have been trying to transition to playing a type of football where we have more possession than [our opponents], more pressing hard than we have done previously. I think that it will fit us very well, it’s also a very exciting type of football to play because we get to play more chances maybe than we had earlier,” said Eggesvik.
“We’ve had the coaching staff now for a while, so we’ve kinda rebuild along the way this past year, but I’m really excited and I think that it will be very good for us to play this way,” she added.
In recent years, the Filipinas have been known to focus on creating opportunities from set pieces and counter attacks. But going up against a team like Jordan, a team that has a good defense and would also be aggressive, the Filipinas are going to need something more.
Luckily for the Filipinas, who will be led by core players from the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup roster, they’re well-rested and eager to take on the challenge.
“I feel like we have prepared well these couple of days we’ve had. And, yeah, I think we are all very eager to start our games. It’s been a while since we last saw each other,” said Eggesvik.
The team is also expected to face Kenya on Wednesday, October 30, as they try to make a productive campaign during October’s FIFA international window.
Among the older players in the program, Eggesvik said that she’s eager to see how it turns out for the mixed roster.
“Yeah, we have some fresh faces. It’s always fun to see new people coming in and bringing their character and their football to this team.” said the Fil-Norwegian booter.
“It’s a good mix of old players, the ones who have been on the team for a while, and also young players — you see the girls that have been doing well for the U17 it’s good for them to get a chance to show themselves here because they obviously have something to bring [to the team].” she added.
The game against Jordan is slated for kickoff at 9 p.m., Manila time. It will be aired live on One Sports+ and streamed via the Pilipinas Live app.