Filipinas shoot for big win over Iranians

The Philippine women’s football team understands the need to get not just any win, but a convincing one, that could potentially keep its chances of getting out of the group stage in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

And coach Mark Torcaso feels the Filipinas are well-equipped in pulling things off on Sunday against Iran in Gold Coast, Australia, given their recent history when they faced a similar obstacle during their run to the gold in the Southeast Asian Games last year in Thailand.

“I’m grateful for the preparation that we had at the SEA Games, where we had to set a target of getting a certain result,” Torcaso said during Saturday’s pre-match press conference.

A loss will definitely eliminate the Filipinas from the knockout phase and also end their dreams of another appearance in the Fifa Women’s World Cup.

A one-goal victory may not be enough, given the last two results of the competition that saw the Philippines drop a 1-0 decision to Australia and 3-0 at the hands of South Korea in Group A.

The two best third placers will advance to the quarters where the six World Cup berths will be contested.

At the moment, the Filipinas have an inside track along with Vietnam, which has three points on one win and one loss in Group C. Uzbekistan is the other third placer, but also has two defeats in Group B.

The Filipinas, however, have a better goal difference than Uzbekistan, which is at -6 after losing to North Korea and China on similar 3-0 scorelines.

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Last December in the SEAG, the Filipinas bounced back from an opening matchday loss to Myanmar by defeating Vietnam and Malaysia, winning the latter contest, 6-0, to reach the semis where they beat Thailand and Vietnam for the gold.

“We were really happy with the way that we prepared for that, and then we got the outcome that we needed,” said Torcaso. “So we will prepare very similarly to that, with the mindset of getting an outcome.”

The Filipinas, however, are not counting out an Iranian side that fell, 3-0, to South Korea and 4-0 to Australia.