SAN PEDRO DEL PINATAR, Spain – A strong defensive effort from the Philippines was not enough as the Filipinas fell to a 0-1 defeat to Wales last Wednesday night in their debut in the 2023 Pinatar Cup.
Well drilled and organized, the Filipinas could not find a breakthrough despite an improved second half performance as they lost in their first-ever meeting against the Welsh, who relied on Kayleigh Green’s penalty at the stroke of halftime to take maximum points.
Olivia McDaniel had another solid game on goal, coming through with a big save in each half to keep the Filipinas in the thick of the fight all throughout.
But while the Filipinas proved tough to break down, coach Alen Stajcic acknowledged there’s plenty of work needed to improve the team’s attack.
“We don’t like losing and we’ve spoken about that before but I’m really pleased with what we did tonight,” said Stajcic. “There are usual issues of not being able to keep the ball better which is something we have to work on.”
Stajcic admits that the Filipinas had their share of struggles going into the match with players coming in a few days before the match.
“For us to be in pre-season and the opposition right in the middle of their season, the jetlag, we’ve had delayed flights, we’ve had players ill and we’ve had players coming in really late to camp, that was an amazing effort – probably one of our best in terms of effort. We went up against players in the (women’s) super league and some of the big clubs as well so it was a really good effort and the team showed a lot of discipline defensively.”
Wales dominated possession, but the Filipinas were alert to every danger in the first half. McDaniel denied Rachel Rowe from close range in the 17th minute in the game’s first real chance.
The penalty came just a few seconds before halftime as Rhiannon Roberts was clipped in the area by Dominique Randle. Green stepped up to convert the penalty.
The Filipinas’ best chance of the match came early in the second half when Tahnai Annis teed up Katrina Guillou who shot straight at the debuting Safia Middleton-Patel.
“It’s the fourth or fifth penalty we’ve given away a penalty and we’ve got to learn on those kinds of things but apart from that I thought we did really well. Dom (Randle) herself had a strong game defensively. Overall, I think we need to work on that other part of the game which is still lacking at the moment. “
