Filipinas meet Matildas

MANILA, Philippines — Ninety-six days after its massive upset of fancied New Zealand and its hordes of home supporters, the Philippines is gunning for an encore, this time in Australia.

The 44th-ranked Filipinas seek the scalp of the No. 11 Matildas today in a challenging match in the AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament today at the 60,000-seat Optus Stadium in Perth the home squad intends to fill.

“We’re playing against Australia in Australia like the girls did against New Zealand in New Zealand in front of a home crowd and I think that will excite the players, get them really pumped up to be the best they can be,” said coach Mark Tocaso, whose crew opened the Qualifiers with a 4-1 romp over Chinese Taipei Thursday.

Torcaso is counting on the Filipinas to summon the big fight that propelled them to a historic 1-0 reversal over the Kiwis in the FIFA Women’s World Cup before a 32,000-strong crowd in Wellington last July 25.

The 3:10 p.m. encounter serves as a duel for No. 1 in Group A. The Philippines holds the top spot with three points and +3 goal difference with the Aussies closely behind with three markers and +2 GD from their 2-0 victory over Iran.

It’s also a rematch of two sides that previously clashed in the group stage of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in January 2022 in India. Sam Kerr and the Matildas beat the Filipinas then, 4-0.

“It’s going to be a really tough game but again, nothing that we’re new to when it comes to challenges,” said ace striker Sarina Bolden, emboldened by the experience of dueling with Switzerland, NZ and Norway in the WC and Korea and Japan in the recent Asian Games.

“We also played Australia before and they’re a tough opponent. But we always believe we can get a win. (But) It’s going to take a lot of hard work, reconvening, developing our tactics against them and we’re going to go from there.”

As opposed to the defense-centric tactic of the Iranians, the Filipinas plan to be aggressive against the Matildas.

“We want to be brave. We want to accept this challenge of playing against a top side and just give the girls the opportunity to go out there and enjoy the moment. And whatever comes from that game comes from that game,” said Torcaso.

“But we truly believe that they can get something out of this game and get a good result.”