National women’s football team Filipinas eye 2024 Paris Summer Olympics berth
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The Philippine women’s football team, also known as Filipinas, is aiming to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. PHILIPPINE WOMEN’S NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM FACEBOOK PHOTOS
The Philippine women’s football team is aiming to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, but coach Alen Stajcic expects obstacles in their path.
The team has been drawn into Group E for the first round of the qualifying tournament, along with Hong Kong, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. The tournament will be held April 3-11.
The goal is to secure one of the two Asian slots in the Olympics, following their historic participation in this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“It’s a long and difficult road to qualifying for Paris,” Stajcic said in a report after the draw ceremony held on Thursday at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
He said, “But qualifying through Round 1 and trying to get some matches against the big nations of the AFC is a very enticing and appealing prospect,” he added.
The Filipinas hope to continue their success.
The first round of the Asian qualifiers will see 26 teams competing for the two available spots. The 26 teams will be divided into five groups of four and two groups of three, with the Philippines being ranked No. 53 in the world, and placed in Pot 1 alongside Vietnam, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, and India.
The seven group winners from the first round will advance to the second round, where they will compete against the top-ranked teams from China, South Korea, Japan, North Korea, and Australia.
The Philippine women’s football team, also known as Filipinas, is aiming to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. PHILIPPINE WOMEN’S NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM FACEBOOK PHOTOS
Only the top teams from the seven groups will advance to the next round, where they will join the top five seeded teams from DPR Korea, Japan, Australia, China PR, and South Korea.
The second round will consist of home-and-away playoff matches for the two spots in the Olympics. The seeds for the first-round draw are based on the latest FIFA women’s world ranking released on December 9, 2022, with the Philippines having performed well against their first-round opponents in the past.
The Philippines reached the second round of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics before being eliminated by Taipei.
The Philippine women’s football team, also known as Filipinas, is aiming to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. PHILIPPINE WOMEN’S NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM FACEBOOK PHOTOS
The remaining 12 teams will be split into three groups to compete for the four spots in the final round, with the four teams bracketed in a pair of two-legged playoffs to determine which teams will go to the Olympics.
The Filipino as have had success against their first-round opponents in the recent past, having beaten Hong Kong in the 2021 Asian Cup Qualifiers in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the 2020 Olympic Qualifiers in Dushanbe, Tajikistan
The Filipinas team, like the Azkals, has a strong lineup of Filipino-foreign players.
These players have had the opportunity to train and compete in top-level leagues in countries like the US, the UK, Australia, Sweden, Taiwan, and Japan.
The Filipino diaspora has led to many Filipino emigrants’ offspring becoming successful athletes in other countries. Additionally, over half of the national women’s football squad is of mixed Filipino and foreign parentage.
Players like Olivia Davies-McDaniel, an American-born Filipino goalkeeper, and Inna Palacios, a Philippines-based goalkeeper, have joined forces with other Fil-foreign booters to help the Philippines achieve success on the field.
Despite being the lowest-ranked team among the 32 countries competing in July, the Philippines’ presence in the tournament is a significant achievement.
