AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The Philippine women’s national football squad stays cool, calm and collected despite a heartbreaking 2-0 loss in their Group A opening match against Switzerland in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“We can only bring it up from here, stay true to what we are and keep on going,” said goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel, who was stellar at the net and mostly held the La Nati at bay that kept them competitive for much of the game at the Forsyth Barr Stadium.
“We got an unfortunate PK (penalty kick) but we learn from these mistakes and get ready to go for the next one,” added the SoCal Union FC mainstay of Ramona Bachmann’s completed penalty in the dying minutes of the first half following Jessika Cowart’s tackle of a Swiss player inside the box.
“Given this loss, we’ll think what we did wrong and how to get better and apply it to the next game,” added the goalie, who will likely be back for duty and play a prominent role against the Ferns at the Sky Stadium in Wellington on Tuesday.
Striker Katrina Guillou, whose potential ice-breaking marker early in the match was ruled offside, shared the same sentiments, saying: “It was a close call but we still have two group stage games and hopefully we can pick it up from there.”
“We started out pretty strong and we made things difficult for them (the Swiss). We were popping into spaces and covering a lot of gaps so it was good. Unfortunately, we gave up two goals, but it was our first World Cup in our debutant game. We still have lot of things to look forward to.”
Midfielder Sarah Eggesvik was as on the same page as her celebrated teammates.
“We will keep on fighting and have two more games to look forward to,” she declared.
While tipping his hat off to the La Nati for being the better team last Friday, Australian Alen Stajcic was also moving on, stressing that “the next game will be a different game.”
