THE Philippine women’s football team looks to return to California for training camp in preparation for the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup where spots in the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup are at stake.
The Malditas look to secure one of the five spots in the Women's World Cup set in Australia and New Zealand.
National head coach Marlon Maro believes the ideal training camp is in Irvine, where the Malditas prepared for the Asian Cup.
“The next is we have to start early,” said Maro. “I think we will have three-week break then after that, the PFF and the rest of the coaching staff will plan for the next camp.”
The Malditas earned a spot in the AFC Women's Cup after sweeping Group F with a 2-1 win over Hong Kong on Friday.
Roster changes are expected in preparation for tougher opposition in the tournament set Jan. 20 to Feb. 6 in India.
“We have to make sure that we beef up the team when it comes to players based on position. We have positions that we have to strengthen especially the side defenders.”
Coach hoping for full squad in Irvine
Maro hopes this time the Manila-based players can join the California camp.
“Imagine two sections ‘yung preparation. One section is preparing in California. The half is preparing in the Philippines. Those who are preparing in the Philippines are on their own in their house although there is a Zoom-controlled but there is no actual football activity unlike in California,” said Maro.
Maro also noted the importance of having a complete team in training and conducting the preparation in California where restrictions have been eased.
“My plan next is to make sure that all players in Manila can have their visas. California is the only place that we can train on because it’s open already. You can do all sports activities there. And besides, we can have a lot of friendly matches of good teams like what happened in this competition. We had to do five practice matches with different women clubs in California so that helped us a lot to prepare tactically.”
“If we prepare in the Philippines, nothing will happen for sure because of government restrictions. I’m planning to convince again PFF to make sure that we do camps in California,” said Maro.
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