Pinay booters Filipinas suffer three-goal setback against South Korea at AFC Women’s Asian Cup

Match on Sunday
(Gold Coast Stadium)
5 p.m. – Iran vs Philippines

SOUTH KOREA sent the Philippines reeling to back-to-back losses in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup on Thursday in Australia, seizing a 3-0 verdict that put the Filipinas in a tight fix in the quarterfinal chase.

The three-goal setback at the Gold Coast Stadium, which came after a narrow 0-1 defeat to host Australia on opening day, left the Pinay booters in a must-win situation in the final day of Group A action on Sunday against Iran.

With the Koreans (six points on 2-0) and the Matildas (three points on 1-0 at presstime) expected to finish Top 2 and secure the two outright tickets to the quarterfinals, the Pinay booters and the Iranians (0-1 at presstime) are left to dispute the No. 3 and earn a crack at a last-8 berth.

A victory against Iran will get the Filipinas in the running for the KO seats to be awarded to the first and second-ranked teams among the three group third placers.

“We’ll pick it up and put it together again. We’re in a tough group and we always know it’s going to be tough. But I believe in this group, I believe that we can get a result that could push us forward to the next stage,” said Philippine defender Angie Beard.

“We’ll reflect, look back on all those mistakes, look at the positives, and hopefully we can create more goal chances because that’s going to be important for goal difference coming up (in tiebreak). Regardless of who we’re playing next, we have to look at ourselves and make sure we’re doing all the right things that we need to.”

Like they did in a previous 3-0 disposal of Iran, the Taegeuk Ladies dominated ball possession against the Philippines at 77.4%, which allowed them to manufacture 15 shots.

They converted all three of their on-target attempts with young gun Jeon Yu-gyeong opening the account at the 12^th, Park Soo-Jeong doubling it three minutes later, and Mun Eun-Ju capping scoring at the 56^th. — Olmin Leyba