New Zealand coach praises Filipinas for 'strong opposition' in friendly
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine women's national football team earned the respect of New Zealand head coach Jitka Klimkova after an impressive showing in their international friendly at the Titan Stadium on Fullerton, California on Tuesday (Wednesday, Manila time).
As her Football Ferns edged the Filipinas, 2-1, Klimkova could not help but laud their opponents for a job well done.
"First of all, congrats to the Philippines for their performance. I think they were very strong opposition," said Klimkova.
"It was not easy to find a way to win this game," she continued.
Despite a good 21 spots ahead of the Philippines in the FIFA World Rankings, the Football Ferns needed to fight tooth and nail to come away with the victory.
The Filipinas were the ones to strike first on a Sarina Bolden goal at the end of the first half that saw New Zealand trail, 0-1.
It took a penalty kick by Meikayla Moore in the 70th minute to score the equalizer and while skipper Ali Riley gave the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup co-hosts the lead after 82 minutes of play, they needed to stymie a Filipinas comeback after a last gasp try by Jessika Cowart was deflected by the crossbar.
For Klimkova, it was a gutsy win against a Philippine side that tried to pull all the stops to take the victory.
"I'm very happy that our second half had the grit that we were talking in our locker room with the players and with the team to find a way to win this game and we did it, we found a way," she said.
Meanwhile, her Philippine counterpart in Alen Stajcic said that there was much to be learned from with the loss, especially with how they were able to hold the fort despite some injuries to his players.
"I think we showed that we can compete in that level if we do everything right, there's certainly a lot of improvement left in us as well so, best part is we're working hard and trying to improve every day and trying to get better," said Stajcic.
"[A]nd we had a few niggles and injuries leading into the games so, you know, it was good that a lot of players could complete the game," he added.
New Zealand and the Filipinas are currently deep in preparation for the FIFA Women's World Cup next year. New Zealand are co-hosting the tiff with Australia.
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