Filipino booters booked for overseas tournaments

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine men’s and women’s football teams are gearing up for testy battles overseas as part of their respective preparations for major competitions down the road.

The Filipino booters, now under Spanish coach Albert Capellas, are booked for action in the King’s Cup from October 11-14 in Thailand, where they’re pitted against the host Thais, Tajikistan and Syria.

For their part, the Mark Torcaso-coached Filipinas are slated for the Pink Ladies Cup from October 26-30 in Antalya, Turkey with matches against Jordan and Congo.

After this, more friendlies and matches in Manila are being arranged for both squads, according to the Philippine Football Federation.

"The final stretch of this year will be very exciting; there will be so much football. I hope it becomes a trend in the following years,” PFF president John Gutierrez said in Friday's presscon with national team’s director Freddy Gonzalez, Capellas and Torcaso.

The King’s Cup will serve as a good workout ahead of the Philippines’ campaign in the Asean Football Federation Mitsubishi Electric Cup in December.

“I’m very positive,” said Capellas who was impressed with how the Filipinos responded to the changes he wanted in last month’s Merdeka Cup in Malaysia and held their own despite losses to the home team,. 1-2, and Tajikistan, 3-4 on penalties after a 0-0 tie.

“We just had three days to change the way we play. And when I saw the game against Tajikistan, I started to see a lot of things that are aligned with the way we want – more courage in pressing forward and trying to win the ball. I saw a lot of players could play in that way and they loved it. And that gives me a lot of hope.”

Torcaso looks forward to testing the Filipinas to different opposition as they take the long road to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027.

“We have a strategy to play some really tough opponents at the start of the year and the plan is now to play some opponents that are probably closer (in strength) to us so we can focus on the way we want to play,” said Torcaso.

“The main objective of doing this is to bring in a solid game model that we want that will get us to the Asian Cup in 2026 and push us to the World Cup in 2027.”