Filipinas, Bracing for a Tough Year After Training Camp

FILIPINAS, the country’s Women’s National Football Team, is fired up as they end an eight-day training camp on Tuesday, which included an exhibition game at the newly completed Mall of Asia Football Pitch. 

With their sights on the prize, the Filipinas are prepared for a hectic year following a long time of non-competition last year. Their year will begin with participation in a pocket tournament in China. 

Furthermore, the women’s squad is ready to defend their title in the 2025 AFF Women’s Championship and compete for a gold medal at the upcoming 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

Bracing for a Tough Year

Filipinas head coach Mark Torcaso, a former Western United mentor, believes that this year is the ideal opportunity for the team to add another magnificent chapter to their already illustrious legacy in Philippine sports history.

“Obviously, there were a lot of new faces in the environment today, but this was an opportunity for us to build a training camp that would prepare us for the year,” Torcaso told the media.

“We know we’ll have a very busy year, and while there were some new faces, it was also a really good opportunity to have a match like this because we got to see all our players compete in a really good exhibition game.”

“For us, it’s really about building and creating a nice, big pool of players. It’s building toward another World Cup, obviously, which includes the Asian Cup qualifiers, the Asian Cup itself, the AFF, and the SEA Games in between,” he went on to explain.

With all of this in mind, Torcaso hopes to see this large pool reach new heights this year. For him, selecting the proper people to represent the country will be a good challenge, as they want to bring the finest of the best.

“Hopefully, everyone came out to talk and tell them, and it’s just about building on our group of players over the next couple of weeks to make sure we’ve got a nice, strong team coming into the back end of this year,” he said.

Promising Future

Torcaso is impressed with the increased pool that arrived and what it could imply for the national team’s future, as its core members competed against a mix of new and returning faces during the week-long camp. 

Despite the fact that the Filipinas are split across Europe, South America playing for their different teams, the coach is committed to make everything possible to return the Filipinas to the World Cup, where they made a historic debut in 2023.

“The main thing for me was to have a good competitive group training together,” the 43-year-old mentor said. “I’m not saying that they weren’t competitive in the past, but it was about developing our playing style against good competition.”

“And I thought it was the best thing to do that with players that we could be looking at for the future for our national team. So hence why we went with, you know, 33 players.”

“So while we’re creating a competitive training environment and a competitive match tonight, we can also see some of the players that we could potentially have part of our national team for the future,” he added.

Torcaso said that he was impressed with what he observed from his group of ten players, including the regulars. He has yet to witness a few more people who died as a result of their injuries. 

Aside from a pocket tournament in China, the strategist indicated that opportunities to play against other countries have arisen, and he is determined to make the most of every international window. 

Nonetheless, the 41st-ranked Philippines will brace themselves in facing daunting challenges as they compete in the Asian Cup Qualifiers, with the draw scheduled on March 21, 2025.