Ten-player Pinay booters suffer 1-0 defeat to host Chile in second friendly

TEN-PLAYER Philippines conceded a 1-0 defeat to host Chile in their second friendly capping its South America training camp yesterday morning (Manila time) at the Estadio Municipal de la Pintana in Santiago.

Karen Araya broke through the Filipinas’ defense in the 23rd minute and the La Roja kept the scoreline all the way through despite the visitors’ attempts for the equalizer.

The Filipinas played one-woman down in the last 37 minutes with Sara Eggesvik getting sent off for incurring her second yellow card of the game for complaining about a call.

The 53rd-ranked Pinay booters thus settled for a one-draw, one-loss record against the World No. 38 Chileans in the November friendlies. The FIFA Women’s World Cup-bound Filipinas earlier battled the Chileans to a 1-1 draw last Sunday over in Vina del Mar.

“It was a great opportunity for us to test ourselves in a new continent. We’ve never played against South American opposition before so (this is an) excellent opportunity for us to grow and develop and become better footballers leading into the World Cup,” said coach Alen Stajcic.

He noted that in the first friendly, the Philippines showed “some good signs defensively” and were “disciplined”. But in the return match, he rued the “lack of intensity and drive” in the first half.

“It’s a cauldron when you’re coming to South America. It’s the hotbed of football and it has been for a very long time and for us to go down a player, probably a bit unfortunately. But that happens in a game of football sometimes and the way we responded and rebounded after that moment is one of the most encouraging things I have ever seen from this team for a long time,” he said.

“Again, a first half that lacked some crucial elements, but a second half that showed all the requirements that you need in terms of desire and intensity and motivation moving forward,” he added. — Olmin Leyba