MANILA – The Philippine women's football team is currently gearing up for a friendly match against Sweden on July 17.
The match would be both squads' last tuneup battle before they shift their attention to the FIFA Women's World Cup (WWC).
"We have a friendly match in New Zealand that I’m focusing on and all the details that goes into each game is really important," coach Alen Stajcic said on Monday.
The match will be played behind closed doors.
Like the Filipinas, the Swedes, ranked third in the world, will play their group stage matches as well in New Zealand.
Sweden headlines Group G, which also consists of Italy and Argentina, two known world football giants, and South Africa.
Stajcic, though, admitted that they're just focused on Sweden at the moment.
"At the moment, I’m not really focusing on Switzerland, but focusing on how we are as a group, focusing on day to day training, traveling, arriving fit and healthy and ensuring that everyone is healthy for our training session and making sure that the time we have are used to fine tune the aspects of our games so by the time we play our first game, we’ll be in our best form," he further said.
The Filipinas will have only four days from their clash with Sweden to shift their focus to Switzerland in their first ever FIFA WWC match on July 21 in Dunedin.
Both the Filipinas and the Swiss ladies are in Group A with co-host New Zealand and Norway.
However, according to Stajcic, the Philippine team is now near its supposed World Cup peak.
"The whole point of the cycle of a World Cup is to be at your peak at the World Cup and I would say that we are at that point now and where we are close to that peak and we have 10 more days to try and reach that peak for July 21," he further said.
Stajcic then lauded everyone who followed closely their journey, saying, "Again it's not just about these 23 players, it's about this amazing staff that have followed us around, amazing support from various people behind the scenes and all the players (there’s been more than 30 players that we’ve used in this squad). I'm really proud of everyone for their collective effort and now it’s time to go to the biggest women’s sporting event in the world and try to do the best that we can."
In an earlier interview, Philippine Football Federation president Nonong Araneta said he hopes that the Filipinas would get at least four points in Group A play, a draw against Switzerland and a win against New Zealand.
However, whatever happens to their campaign, Stajcic is glad that being there is already enough for the Filipino football fans.
"It really is a magical moment for the country and we hope that everyone is proud of the fight that we’re going to show in those games," he said. (PNA)
