Vets, youth banner Filipinas

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will field a mix of veterans led by Olivia McDaniel and youth led by Alexa Pino and Mallie Ramirez in its quest for a return trip to football's  biggest stage via the AFC Women’s Asian Cup pathway.

McDaniel will serve primary goalkeeping duties again and provide leadership and experience alongside fellow FIFA Women’s World Cup campaigners Hali Long, Angela Beard, Sara Eggesvik, Jaclyn Sawicki, Jessica Cowart and Katrina Guillou to the side assembled for the Continental meet set March 1-21 in Australia.

Joining them are Pino and other young guns who shone bright during the Filipinas' historic Southeast Asian Games triumph in Thailand like Mallie Ramirez, Jael Marie-Guy and Ariana Markey.

The Filipinas’ ultimate goal is to reach the semifinal stage to gain an outright ticket to the 2027 Women’s World Cup or at least clinch qualification in the play-in matches for the losing quarterfinalists.

The troops of coach Mark Torcaso need to survive first an acid test in the group stage, where they’re up against host Australia (March 1), South Korea (March 5) and Iran (March 8). The Top 2 teams in Group B will advance to the KO stage while the two best third-ranked squads across the three groups will also proceed to the Last-8.

“It's going to be hard, but we're going to try our best to get to go to another World Cup because that's what everyone wants,” said Torcaso, out to duplicate the feat of his predecessor, Alen Stajcic, who steered the Filipinas to their WC debut and a historic 1-0 victory over host New Zealand, in the 2023 edition.

“We want to get to another World Cup so we're going to do everything possible to do that again.”