Gritty booters go for more

MANILA, Philippines — Already with a string of milestones, FIFA Women’s World Cup-bound Philippines seeks to achieve more as it guns for a finals berth in the AFC Women’s Cup today in Pune, India.

The roaring Filipinas hit the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex’s pitch at 1:30 p.m. (4 p.m. in Manila) against higher-ranked semis foe South Korea, determined to continue their stellar showing in the Asian meet.

The Pinay booters reached the knockout stages for the first time on the strength of a two-win, one-loss campaign in group play highlighted by a 1-0 breakthrough over tormentor Thailand. Then they went further by punching a historic ticket to next year’s WWC via a pulsating 4-3 victory on penalties over Chinese-Taipei in Sunday’s Last-8.

“We just made history, like on top of history, and it’s like, might as well, you know, keep going to the top, let’s win this whole tournament,” Philippine striker Sarina Bolden said.

“So the belief is like, let’s just continue to make history. Let’s keep proving people wrong, let’s keep working hard and let’s achieve more than what people thought we could achieve,” she added.

Today’s winner will face either defending champion Japan or China for the coveted Asian crown on Sunday.

“We’ll give one hell of a fight,” Philippine coach Alen Stajcic.

Revenge may be an added motivation for the 64th-ranked Filipinas, considering it was world No. 18 South Korea that foiled their World Cup plans four years ago.

They battled in a playoff for fifth place in the 2018 WAC with the last seat to the WWC on the line then, and the Koreans prevailed, 5-0.