The Filipinas’ Fight to Return to the World Cup

On January 20, 2022, the Philippine Women’s National Team, then known as the Malditas,  achieved something once thought unthinkable. They advanced to the semifinals of the AFC Women's Asian Cup to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. 

The biggest accomplishment in the history of Philippine football until that point set off a chain of historic achievements: a bronze in the Vietnam SEA Games (the country’s best finish in the regional event in 37 years), the championship trophy in the AFF Women's Championship (the country’s first-ever title in any major international tournament), and a one-nil triumph over host New Zealand in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. 

The Filipinas will be looking for a return trip to the World Cup when they compete in the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Perth, Australia from March 1 to 21.  

Only the top six finishers out of the 12 participating teams will qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil. 

The path to a World Cup spot has been made more difficult this year for the Filipinas for two reasons. First, North Korea, 9th in the world ranking, will be making its return after skipping the 2022 edition due to the pandemic. Second, the Philippines has found itself bracketed with host and world no. 15 Australia and world no. 21 South Korea in the proverbial Group of Death. Group A, where the Philippines belongs along with Iran, has the highest average ranking among the three groups in the competition. 

But Philippine Coach Mark Torcaso has set high expectations for his team, and he remains confident that their month-long training camp has made the squad battle-ready. 

Now on his third year with the Filipinas, Torcaso’s journey from Australian A-League Coach of the Year to mentoring a national team in the international arena has been characterized by a dogged obstinacy to keep pushing forward in pursuit of a breakthrough and the audacity to take risks even when the stakes are high. 

There had been a sense that the Filipinas had plateaud since the 2023 World Cup. There were no big-ticket wins that came after, and the country’s only football title, the AFF Women’s Championship, was lost with the Filipinas not even advancing to the semifinals in 2025. Fans began clamoring louder for better results. 

But Torcaso stuck to his guns, believing in the playbook he had designed and his team’s ability to learn to play well with and without the ball. Perhaps also realizing that the old core of the team had reached its ceiling, he slowly infused the team with fresh blood from the youth squads.  

This intrepidity finally bore fruit in the 2025 Southeast Asian Games when the new faces meshed beautifully with the remaining old reliables. Fortune truly does favor the bold. In the gold medal match against four-time defending champion Vietnam, Torcaso tasked three teenagers to take penalty kicks in the match-deciding shootout. They all delivered, helping the Philippines win its first ever football gold in the SEA Games. 

It is these same characteristics that Torcaso will want to see his 26 players mirror beginning in their first match on March 1 against Australia. 

Team captain Hali Long, the McDaniel sisters Olivia and Chandler, Sofia Wunsch, Malea Cesar, Katrina Guillou, and Carleigh Frilles are the only holdovers from 2022. These seven, along with Angie Beard, Jessika Cowart, Sara Eggesvik, Jaclyn Sawicki, and Anicka Castañeda will be providing the poise in big time matches that they gained from their stint in the World Cup in New Zealand. 

Fourteen players will be making their Asian Cup debut in Perth. Torcaso, true to form, picked seven teenagers for the final roster. These are Bella Pasion, Alexa Pino, Jael Guy, and Ariana Markey, all integral to Torcaso’s rotation in last December’s SEA Games, along with Natalie Oca, who was part of the 2023 SEA Games lineup, 17-year-old Ava Villapando, and 16-year-old keeper Leah Bradley. 

Notably missing are the two all-time leading goal scorers of the Philippine women’s national team, star striker Sarina Bolden, still recovering from ACL, and an infanticipating Quinley Quezada.  

The Filipinas have already shown they can win without Bolden and Quezada, but this was against their Southeast Asian rivals. They will now have to prove they can topple teams with world-class pedigree.  

For them to win, they must find more efficient and perhaps even more creative ways to score, something the team has struggled with in the past. During last year’s Asian Cup qualifiers, the Philippines had the lowest goal difference among all the teams that topped their qualifying groups. In the SEA Games, not counting the 6-0 scoreline against minnow Malaysia, the Filipinas only netted one goal each against Myanmar and Vietnam in the Group stage and against Thailand in the semifinals, with all the goals happening close to stoppage time,  

That kind of output will not cut it against Australia which will be playing in front of an expected capacity crowd of 60,000 or against South Korea in what could be the most important match for the Filipinas in the group stage.  

Pino, Guy, and 21-year-old Mallie Ramirez are all killers who can smell blood once they get in front of the opponent’s goal but they will need to toughen up against seasoned pros who are bigger, faster, and more rough than the Southeast Asian and collegiate defenders in the States that they have mostly played against. Guillou, part of the DC Power in the highest level of pro football in the States, the USL Super League, and Chandler McDaniel should provide the composure upfront to complement the three young strikers who must be relentless in their attacks and not give opposing defenders room to catch their breaths.  

The Filipinas’ backline—made up of Long, now with Thai club College of Asian Scholars; Cowart of the Vancouver Rise in the Northern Super League; Beard; and Wunsch—shielding goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel has conceded just eight goals in 15 matches in 2025. Torcaso can also call on the speedy Cesar and Janae De Fazio who like Beard plays club football in the Australian A-League. Frilles, a teammate of Guillou in the DC Power, has in her last appearances with the Filipinas been converted by Torcaso as a right back to capitalize on her quickness and ball control. 

Perhaps the most critical pieces for Torcaso will be at the midfield. Torcaso will look to the captain of the Western United Club he coached in Australia, the 33-year-old Sawicki who is now with the Calgary Wild, and Norwegian Toppserien club LSK Kvinner FK’s Eggesvik. The two, along with Stallion Laguna’s Pasion who plays with a maturity that belies her age, have to hold the fort in the middle and not only give the Filipinas their fair share of possessions, but also connect with the offense and put the strikers in positions where they could sneak in some early goals.  

Their absolute best every second on the pitch will be required, as they will have to contend with an Australian rotation made up of Italian Serie A’s Mary Fowler Chidiac of FC Como Women, along with a trio of English Women’s Super League (WSL) stalwarts—Claire Wheeler of Everton Women, Kyra Cooney-Cross of Arsenal Women, and Katrina Gorry of West Ham United Women. 

South Korea, on the other hand, will anchor its attack on former Chelsea star Ji So-yun, widely regarded as one of the best midfielders in the world. 

The 2022 squad has laid out the blueprint for making the World Cup—a long preparation, brilliant coaching, and players willing to leave everything on the pitch and claw their way, an inch of grass at a time, toward the goal of qualification. The Filipinas know there are no free rides to the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Tickets to the penultimate stage of football are reserved for the courageous and the daring. The Filipinas will need to be fearless against the favorites, and bold enough to chase what many would call impossible.

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