Another Alex gets a taste of love from ‘global’ PH audience
Inevitably, there will be someone from the crowd who screams her name.
“Go, Alex!”
It is a cheer that echoes through different venues, across separate continents.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to see just how global the fanbase is for the Philippines,” she told the Inquirer on Tuesday.
Nope, it’s not the same Alex. It is, however, the same crowd experience.
And Alessandrea “Alex” Carpio, the midfielder of the Filipinas squad that just qualified for a second straight appearance in the Fifa Women’s World Cup, is still awed by the kind of support the team gets from Filipino communities abroad.
The Philippines opened its Asian Cup campaign in Australia, where the top squads of the continent battled for tickets to the football centerpiece event, with losses to powerhouse Korea and the host country.
It beat Iran to enter the quarterfinals, with a little help from Japan’s victory over Vietnam and then lost to the Japanese, 7-0, in the last knockout stage.
And Carpio said that the support of fans helped keep the team’s morale intact for that key win over Uzbekistan that clinched a World Cup berth. The Philippines became just the second Southeast Asian country to qualify for the World Cup twice after Thailand.
“In the Asian Cup, we faced a lot of strong opposition … and we weren’t able to get the results that we might have wanted,” the 24-year-old US-raised standout, who speaks seamless Filipino without an accent, said at the PSA Forum on Tuesday.
“We had a few losses and the unconditional support and love from the Filipino community uplifted our spirits,” she added. “And we were able to move on and focus on the next games, just because no matter the result, the Filipinos were very supportive of us. They say, ‘We’re so proud of you. We’ll be supporting you in the next games.’”
‘Eala effect’
The other Alex, tennis star Eala, knows the phenomenon all too well, rising to become the WTA’s certified rock star because of the crowds that fill tennis courts wherever she plays.
Her defeat in the Round of 16 in the ongoing Miami Open, the launchpad of her stardom, hardly affected her drawing power. Carpio is not only aware of the “Eala effect” in the tennis world. She and her teammates get to live it.
“I was a part of the [Philippine team to the] AFF (Asean Football Federation) tournament last August in Vietnam and we had a lot of supporters in addition to the family members of the national team,” Carpio said. “In the SEA (Southeast Asian) Games in Thailand, we really received a lot of support.
“We were in Chonburi, I believe. And … we still had such a big showing of Filipinos. I think it was the Thailand game, [where we] had about as many Filipino supporters as there were Thailand supporters.
“So it’s such a blessing, the unconditional support and love from Filipinos.”
Carpio and the rest of the Philippine women’s national team hope for that same support in football-crazy Brazil, where the Filipinas will try to better their performance from their historic first World Cup appearance in 2023.
The Philippines scored a historic first goal and first win in that edition, something that will hang as both pressure and inspiration for the current national team.
“There’s going to be pressure, playing in that environment and bringing the Filipino flag to the world stage,” Carpio said. “But we’re also looking at it as an opportunity to inspire young athletes.”
