By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
History has been made.
After decades of tears and disappointments, the Philippine Women’s National Football team finally reached the mountain top and won its first-ever AFF Championship title.
With the whole nation behind them, the mighty Filipinas completed its redemption tour against Thailand and notched a convincing 3-0 outing during the championship match held at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
Thailand became the only team in the tournament to take down the PHL women’s national team and received an early wake-up call after losing during the elimination phase, 1-0.
However, head coach Alen Stajcic and the rest of the Filipinas were locked in against Thailand and just overwhelmed them with their improved attack that helped them rack up three goals.
The Filipinas only needed eight minutes to draw first blood against Thailand after Jessika Cowart pulled off a stunning header goal delivered by team captain Tahnai Annis in a corner kick situation.
12 minutes after Cowart found the back of the net, striker Katrina Guillou added another goal to PHL’s tally after cruising past the Thai defenders and fired a line drive kick that got past their goalkeeper.
PHL continued to pour in the attack and were fearless penetrating against the Thailand backline defense but had to take a pause for almost 45 minutes without a goal.
Thailand began converting their crisp passing in the midfield and was starting to generate open looks for scores but a better coordination for the Filipina defenders made the biggest difference in the match.
With only a minute left in the match, superstar Sarina Bolden provided the finishing blow and scored the last championship goal for the PHL off a Sara Eggesvik corner kick.
“We climbed a little hill tonight. We conquered Southeast Asia, but I know there are big mountains ahead. It is a great hill to climb and there are bigger challenges ahead of us,” said coach Stajcic.
