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    Inna Palacios on World Cup: 'My purpose now became so much bigger than just playing'

    The Philippines is hoping to overcome the obstacles ahead
    Mar 3, 2023
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    PHOTO: PFF

    PHILIPPINE Women's Football Team goalkeeper, Inna Palacios, reflected on her journey en route to the FIFA Women's World Cup and expressed how it changed her life.

    "I feel very honored to have this type of journey, I think my journey is very unique and I think it has made me who I am. At this point, I just feel proud of myself but I know that...knowing me, I always want more and for that parang my purpose now became so much bigger than just playing," she revealed to reporters during the FIFA Women's World Cup Trophy Tour.

    She added: "It’s really just about paving the pathway for the young generation and give them more opportunities because it’s something that the sport deserves here in the country. That’s what we’re really fighting for."

    While her World Cup dreams would serve as an inspiration to the football community, Palacios realized that the challenges ahead will get tougher.

    The going gets tough

    “As soon as we qualified for the World Cup, we treated everything as our preparation leading up to that one. You know it gets harder of course because the demands and the expectations get higher but we expect nothing less from everyone from the team," she said.

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    "And we just keep our heads down and work as hard as we can to be able to match and hopefully win some games."

    But if they really want to make a statement in their World Cup debut, Palacios hinted that the team needed to overcome some bad habits.

    "When you climb the ladder going up and you’re trying to improve, the first stages will always be the easiest, the most obvious improvements, but once you’re at the top, it’s very hard to keep going, so we’re trying to break that, and we’re really figuring it out and how we can do that in the best way possible."

    And besides these negative habits, the added pressure will place some lingering jitters, which Palacios admitted is something that will never be erased.

    "Hindi naman ata matatanggal yun, I mean lahat especially if you’re an athlete playing in a very big tournament like that, it’s part of it, but for the team, we are very much motivated to do our best and to really bring out everything that we have in ourselves and try to be at our peak. Not just one, but all of us, it takes a team to achieve that goal," said the PWNFT goalkeeper.

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    Filipinas Pinatar Cup

    The importance of the Pinatar Cup and other friendlies

    In the end, she looks forward to playing in the World Cup group stages as the team's experience in the Pinatar Cup and other friendlies has given them the confidence they needed.

    During the Pinatar Cup, the Philippines (ranked 53rd in FIFA rankings) failed to score points, but managed to secure close results against Wales (Ranked 32nd) and Scotland (Ranked 25th).

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    Then in the friendly match against New Zealand, the Philippines had the lead by the 1st-half, courtesy of Sarina Bolden, but were given a heavy blow as the OFC-based team mounted a comeback at the tailend of the match. These two teams will once again face each other in the group stages of the World Cup.

    "Every group naman it’s difficult, but I think we’re at the best group I would say to match that and I think we have a fair good chance for the Philippines to do well," she started.

    "The past few friendlies and the last tournament we had, it’s almost the same as our group stages and we did go against New Zealand, and that was a pretty close match, so we have a taste of our opponents."

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