The Philippine Under-17 Women’s National Football Team stamped its clean record in the qualifiers, entering the AFC Under-17 Women’s Asian Cup for a second consecutive edition by finishing the qualifiers with a 4-0 win against erstwhile undefeated Malaysia on Friday in Dushanbe.
As a result, the Philippines qualified for the 2026 U17 Women’s Asian Cup with nine points off wins against Malaysia, Tajikistan (2-0), and Syria (5-0).
“The key metric for me was never just winning — it was starting a movement and building a system that can truly sustain Philippine football,” said Filipinas U17 team manager Selu Lozano.
“This qualification shows that shift taking shape: the majority of our 23-player squad were homegrown, trained on local soil, and several of them played decisive roles across our games. That’s the real progress — seeing local talent rise alongside the best from abroad,” he added.
For his part, Philippine Football Federation (PFF) President John Anthony Gutierrez said, “The girls brought tremendous joy to our nation. Their display of clinical, team-first football is a product of their talent, determination, and the support, not only of the coaches and management, but the entire Philippine football community.”
Filipinas U17 head coach Pradhyum Reddy, emphasized on playing “good football” as the key to the team’s qualification to the Asian Cup.
“We said at the start of the tournament in the press conference about whether we wanted to win or whether we wanted to play a good style of football. I think towards the end, we managed to achieve both. We played really good controlled football,” he continued.
Indeed, such team-oriented football was in full throttle for the do-or-die third game, with goals coming from four sources
The scoring came early in the sixth minute, with full-back Luna Rivera delivering the first blow from a well-built set piece from the right corner, with Lauren Tiangco heading in the assist.
Impeccable passing was executed in the 23rd minute, as a forward build-up from the back was not stopped by Malaysia, ending with Chiara Mizzo lobbing in a rocket off a well-played cut from the top right area of the penalty box, with Ari Enderes assisting.
Team captain and center back Aiselyn Sia had her goal in the qualifiers in the 59th minute with a header from Kaida Mizzo’s left corner kick while Louraine Evangelista forced Malaysian defender Nur Dania Batrisya to commit an own goal in the 68th minute with an aggressive attack from the right flank.
“I think that we went into this tournament with a great mindset,” said Player of the Match Rivera, who is in her second Asian Cup stint. “I think this is a great show of what we worked on and what we needed to do.”
“We didn’t concede a goal in this tournament. Three clean sheets. We scored a variety of goals, a lot of different goal scorers,” added Reddy. “So really happy with the performance and I think the girls deserve it.”
Lozano summed up the Filipinas U17 campaign as a “new direction” for the Philippine women’s youth program, saying, “By 2031, our vision is to build a national team ready to compete in the 2031 Women’s World Cup — founded on homegrown Filipinas, strengthened by top overseas talent. This qualification is the beginning of that journey — a new system, a new belief, and a new direction for Philippine football.”
Filipinas U17 will seek to improve on its maiden Asian Cup stint in 2024, where they barely missed the semifinals with a 1-1 draw against South Korea.
The 2026 edition is scheduled from April 30 to May 17, 2026, in China. All four semifinalists will qualify for the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco.
