WELLINGTON, New Zealand – It is back to the drawing board for the Filipinas after Tuesday’s emotional win in the Fifa Women’s World Cup.
Filipinas prepare for Norway
The Filipinas flew back to their base camp in Auckland on Wednesday morning to begin their preparation for the final group stage match against Norway on Sunday.
Their flight back to Auckland came several hours after the Philippines made history, defeating co-host New Zealand, 1-0, for its first-ever win in the Fifa Women’s World Cup.
“It’s back to work. Our job is not done,” said head coach Alen Stajcic during the postmatch press conference on Tuesday.
“It’s very important that we switch back into competition mode and think about what we have to do in the last game and try and squeeze out of this group,” said Stajcic.
The Filipinas will look for another surprise as they go for a spot in the final 16 in Sunday’s match to be held in Eden Park.
But the task will be a daunting one as they take on Norway, a team that may have been struggling in the group stage but is very capable of coming out of the group and enter the round-of-16.
The Australian mentor said one of the emphasis is to maintain the team’s foot in the ground following that emotional win.
“They are one of the best teams in the world in Norway with Ballon d’Or winners and many players playing in Barcelona and Graham Hansen. That’s such a monumental task for us to come up against them especially when it is the third game in just over the week, and being able to recover physically and, let alone, from the emotions of tonight,” said Stajcic.
Stajcic is confident that the Filipinas can stay the course with the many competitions they’ve been competing during the 18-month preparation period.
“The players understood before. We have been to the SEA Games (in Cambodia) recently, we lost our first game and bounced back and won the next two. There’s actually quite a bit of tournament experience in this team in the last 18 months, winning the AFF, the Asian Cup, two SEA Games, we’ve seen that maturity and growth in not only the way they fought but the way they talk and carry themselves off the field,” said Stajcic.
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