Home team falters against powerhouse Thailand in second game of ASEAN Futsal tiff.
The Philippine women’s national futsal team couldn’t catch a break as they suffered a 7-0 romp at the hands of Thailand in the second day of the ASEAN Women’s Futsal Championship at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City on Sunday.
Pinay5 faltered early against the World No. 6 Thais, with Sangrawee Mekham scoring as early as the 14:38 mark of the first half, before Sawitree Mamyalee and Paerploy Huajaipetch poured it on with free kicks.
At the halftime break, it was already a 4-0 advantage for Thailand with Darika Peanpailun closing out the Thais’ scoring midway through the match.
Though far ahead, the Thais kept pushing, coming out from the break to score thrice more — including Mekham’s second goal of the match.
Lalida Chimpabut and Artkla Nattamon were the two other goal scorers for Thailand.
With huge disparity between the two nations, Pinay5 player Lanie Ortillo admitted that it was a tough assignment for them. But with an eye to develop their play, the home team fought until the end.
“This game, for me, is very challenging for us because they are so fast. Their game is so smart. But still, we are fighting until the end. We tried our best to fight with them, to play with them with good plays.” she said.
After taking a draw against Myanmar in the opener and absorbing the loss against Thailand, the Pinay5 slide to fourth place owing to Myanmar’s superior goal difference — only the top two teams advance to the final round of the 5-tournament tiff.
But all is not lost as they still have two games remaining. Vietnam is next on the Pinay5 schedule whom they face on Tuesday, November 19.
They then close out their round-robin games against Indonesia on Wednesday.
The hosts will hope to upend the higher-ranked teams to get a chance to qualify for the next round.