MANILA, Philippines – Philippine women's national football team coach Alen Stajcic said that he has long believed in the potential of the Filipina booters to reach the FIFA Women's World Cup.
Right after claiming the historic berth with a 1-1 (4-3) win over Chinese Taipei on Sunday, Stajcic said it was a feat he expected the team to reach as early as 2018.
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"Yeah, of course, of course. I wouldn't have taken the job if I didn't see the potential [in them]," Stajcic said in response to a question if he saw the possibility of a team like the Philippines reaching the women's football's pinnacle.
"I said to the group, I watched them play four years ago in Jordan... I knew that there was something there — the potential for an extremely inexperienced group, and one that hadn't really competed in major tournaments," he added.
Despite his belief in the team, though, Stajcic admitted he was struck with awe at the rapid development of the team since that previous edition of the AFC Women's Asian Cup.
"For [the team] to progress this quickly is, I'm just running out of superlatives to describe what an amazing achievement this is," Stajcic said.
"To be able to grow and mature and play under this kind of pressure, against teams above [us] except Indonesia... For us to compete against all of them, just shows how far this group's grown," he added.
Stajcic knows there's much more room to grow for his team, especially looking forward to their World Cup campaign.
"I'm a coach and I'm greedy and you know, I know how much further we have to improve to be a real competitive force when we do get to the World Cup. But again, that's a discussion for another day," Stajcic quipped.
Now with the Women's World Cup slot already in the bag, Stajcic and his players are focused on writing additional history at the AFC Women's Asian Cup.
They face South Korea in the semifinal for a first-time finals berth in the tournament on Thursday.