Entering a new year, Filipinas again on the hunt for another historical feat
Just when it seemed that the Philippine women’s football team’s knack of making one history-making feat after another had ended, the Filipinas proved otherwise near the end of last year in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games, where grit under pressure-packed situations won them the jewel that has eluded them since they can remember.
“What brought us to the gold medal, what brought us to the end is that mentality of not stopping and not quitting,” said goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel, the hero of the Philippines’ dramatic shootout victory over Vietnam that sealed the breakthrough gold in the biennial meet.
McDaniel has been a major part of every milestone the team has achieved over the last three years, from clinching the World Cup spot in the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup in India, to winning the Asean Championship the same year in Manila and defeating cohost New Zealand in the World Cup the following year.
But the Filipinas looked like they were slowly fading since the departure of coach Alen Stajcic after the World Cup and, later, former team manager Jeff Cheng in 2024.
While the Filipinas were able to secure their spot in the 2026 Asian Cup during qualification in July, their defense of the Asean title ended by failing to get out of the group stage while also being held to a 2-2 draw at home by Uzbekistan in their final friendly before the SEA Games.
Local football fans on social media have also voiced their displeasure with the tenure of coach Mark Torcaso, who has been at the helm since 2023. But Torcaso had the belief that the team could do something special amid the inconsistent results.
The SEA Games started in Chonburi, Thailand, with a stinging 2-1 loss to Myanmar, a team that appears to have a way of dealing the Filipinas some unfavorable results in recent years.
It also put the Filipinas in danger of missing out on a semis berth, needing a big win over Vietnam in its next game to stay alive. From that period on, the Filipinas put out a “refuse-to-lose” mantra.
Scoreless near the death, the Filipinas got the precious winner courtesy of Mallie Ramirez, one of the team’s newest faces, to stun Vietnam and start off its hard-fought run to the gold.
A 6-0 thrashing of Malaysia to close out the group stage sealed the semis berth for the Filipinas, whose reward or predicament, was a semis face-off with host Thailand.
“We never want to end [the SEA Games] on a loss,” said team captain Hali Long. “We were going to win the bronze or we’re going to win the gold. We gave ourselves no choice.”
Break of the game
The Filipinas bucked an early second-half deficit to equalize on Jael-Marie Guy’s penalty near the end of normal time, eventually forcing extra time that was stretched into penalties. Instead of succumbing to the pressure before hostile territory, the Filipinas converted all four penalty attempts while Thailand missed its last two, securing a heart-stopping win.
That sent the Philippines to a rematch with Vietnam, which was eager to atone for the group stage loss and out to win a fifth successive gold. A disallowed goal at the half-hour mark due to an offside flag that should have been called otherwise continues to haunt Vietnam and its fans to this day.
It was a break the Filipinas took advantage of, with the game going scoreless up until another shootout to decide the gold. And like in Thailand, the Philippines made all spot kicks, six to be exact, while McDaniel came up with the save to secure the gold.
“[The mental toughness we] showed after we lost the first game,” said Torcaso. “We put in the girls’ minds that some of the best teams have won tournaments after losing the first game of a tournament. And we constantly said to them that we believe in them and they started really believing in themselves.”
The country continues to believe and it believes that there are better things up for the Filipinas in 2026.
