The national women’s football team is determined to polish its game entering the final stretch of its preparation for the FIFA Women’s World Cup starting 20 July in New Zealand.
Filipinas head coach Alen Stajcic said they couldn’t wait to go head-to-head against the best teams in the world in the prestigious 32-nation showpiece.
The Filipinas will open their campaign in Group A of the preliminaries on 21 July against Switzerland before facing New Zealand on 25 July and Norway on 30 July.
They will cap their preparation with a friendly match with world No. 3 Sweden on Monday.
Stajcic said they are already excited to step on the pitch and display their talents for the world to see.
“Last few days of training before our friendly and we get into it against Switzerland. I’m really looking forward to the week ahead. We’re always finding ways to improve on the ball and off the ball, tactics, set pieces and always focusing on our mentality,” said Stajcic, who guided Australia in the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada.
“It’s been fantastic, can’t fault any one of the players. It’s such a beautiful group to work and train with. You know, I think they are all really excited but to be honest, they’re really not showing it at the moment.”
Stajcic said the Filipinas are not in New Zealand to serve as mere tourists.
“They’re just showing that they are willing to work hard and keep improving day to day and the culture around the team is fantastic and the belief around the team just grows everyday and I hope we can carry that into the first game,” he said.
“I hope that they can really show that we can be a force and can be competitive on the world stage. I have nothing but praise for the entire group.”
Quinley Quezada said they are still in the process of polishing their ball control.
“I think right now, we are using that time to just see how we do against good opposition like that and I think right now, our defense is really strong. I think moving forward, we have to focus on controlling the ball,” Quezada said in a virtual press conference last Saturday.
“So we used that camp to fine-tune us and compete for spots. It was a competitive environment and we gave 100 percent in every training session.”
