Veteran booters upbeat on Filipinas' future as youth team gets revamped
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine women's national football team mainstays Hali Long and Inna Palacios are optimistic for the team’s future even as they near the latter part of their careers with the Filipinas.
With both the Under-17 and Under-20 teams getting a shot in the arm under the tutelage of Coach Alen Stajcic and Nahuel Arrarte, respectively, the veterans believe that the Filipinas’ meteoric rise will trickle down to the youth program.
"I myself didn't go through the youth here in the Philippines, but I did start at a pretty young age myself for the senior team. So, just seeing how we've progressed and developed, and the chapters we have made with this country is phenomenal," Long shared during a media conference hosted by the Philippine Football Federation at the Acacia Hotel on Wednesday.
"Like they said, we're not done. It's just the groundwork, what we're laying here. And it's all for the future of our country, and what Philippine football can do in Asia and on a global level," she added.
Long is the most capped Filipinas player with more than 60 to her name. She has been wearing the captain's armband for the team for a while now.
Fellow co-captain Palacios, for her part, said that the youth teams getting exposed early on to the program of the senior national team, with their same coaches, will help them develop faster than the present Filipinas.
"I've been very expressive from the very start, even to my two coaches here, even to Sir Jeff, that my goal is to really see the youth and that gap get closer from the youth to the seniors. That's very important for me to see it in my lifetime, at least. And for that to slowly happen — and I see it happening right now — I think the youth teams will be in very good hands," said Palacios.
"What I think my advantage was going in the youth, and then to the senior national team was I had similar coaches, or coaches who have been through the same program. So that helped me transition. So, now, if we have them as our head coaches, and our coaches in the senior national team, and then they come down to the youth and teach them at a much younger age, what they taught us just last year, I think it would be very beneficial for them to keep going. And it will definitely get their full potential out." she added.
The goalkeeper added that it easier for her to eventually let go of the sport knowing the team’s positive direction for its future.
"I guess it would make it easier for me to exit now, in the sport, in the near future, because it is why we keep playing, anyways — to see that continuity. So I'm very happy that we have that, and it's going to happen." she said.
Stajcic and Arrarte are working from the ground up in the youth teams as they recently held tryouts in the US for young talents.
They are also set to go around the Philippines in Manila, Cebu and Davao to scout talent.
Meanwhile, in the seniors team, Palacios, Long and the rest of the Filipinas are getting ready for the upcoming Pinatar Cup in Spain as a "warm-up event" to the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in July.
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