Camille Naredo

The Philippine women's national football team in training ahead of their FIFA international friendly against Chinese Taipei. PFF-PWNFT Media

The Philippine women's national football team in training ahead of their FIFA international friendly against Chinese Taipei.

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MANILA -- The Philippine women&#x27;s national football team expects to be tested by a &quot;very tough&quot; Chinese Taipei squad when they play in a friendly on Tuesday at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.The Filipinas are in the midst of a camp in Manila to continue their build-up for a series of competitions in the second half of 2025, including the AFC Women&#x27;s Asian Cup 2026 qualifiers in late June.Head coach Mark Torcaso has been pleased with their progress, noting that the players are &quot;slowly getting used to the conditions.&quot; However, their true test will come on Tuesday against a Chinese Taipei squad that is just one spot below them at No. 42 in FIFA&#x27;s latest rankings.<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/othersports/2025/5/21/3-newcomers-join-filipinas-for-manila-camp-0112">READ: 3 newcomers join Filipinas for Manila camp</a></div><div><a class="fr-strong fr-green" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/othersports/2025/3/27/football-filipinas-drawn-into-group-g-of-asian-cup-qualifiers-1719">READ: Filipinas drawn into Group G of Asian Cup qualifiers</a></div>&quot;We&#x27;ve obviously followed Chinese Taipei over the last year and a half. And they&#x27;re a developing side like us and they&#x27;re getting better and better,&quot; said Torcaso. &quot;So they&#x27;ve played some tough opponents in the last couple of windows. We know they&#x27;ll be a very tough team.&quot;&quot;That&#x27;s why we chose them to be here and to play us. So it&#x27;s perfect preparation for the Asian Cup qualifiers,&quot; he added.The Philippines clobbered Chinese Taipei, 4-1, when they met in the second round of the AFC Olympic Qualifiers back in October 2023. Since then, Chinese Taipei have been busy, with several friendlies in 2024 including a pair of games against powerhouse Australia in December.Meanwhile, the Filipinas are coming off back-to-back victories against United Arab Emirates from their camp in Dubai last AprilTorcaso acknowledges that Chinese Taipei is a step up in competition from UAE, which is ranked 112th in the world.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1748680038514IMG_9007.JPG" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="The Philippine women&#x27;s national football team in training ahead of their FIFA international friendly against Chinese Taipei. Mia Montayre, PFF-PWNFT Media"/>The Philippine women&#x27;s national football team in training ahead of their FIFA international friendly against Chinese Taipei. Mia Montayre, PFF-PWNFT Media</div>&quot;This camp, we wanted to work on a stronger team and we know Chinese Taipei is a very strong team,&quot; he said. &quot;We wanted to come up against a tough team that would help challenge us for the Asian Cup qualifiers.&quot;&quot;So the expectations are for us to continue to build the playing style. We&#x27;re getting there, we got to a point where we&#x27;re comfortable with it. But this camp will provide us, hopefully an opportunity to be really good defensively,&quot; said Torcaso.The Filipinas will still be without a handful of veterans, including Sarina Bolden and Quinley Quezada, as they are dealing with injuries. Star midfielder Katrina Guillou, a veteran of the 2023 FIFA Women&#x27;s World Cup, was also not called up along with Meryll Serrano.For Torcaso, the absence of some senior players due to injuries should open the door to players from their Under-20 pool to make their mark in camp.&quot;You&#x27;ll see a lot of young, new faces. There&#x27;s a couple of new players as well. But it&#x27;s a great opportunity for them to give themselves a chance to be part of the Asian Cup qualifiers,&quot; he said.Kick-off between the Filipinas and Chinese Taipei is at 7:00 p.m. at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. Tickets are still available.

The Philippine women's national football team expects to be tested by a "very tough" Chinese Taipei squad when they play in a friendly on Tuesday at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

The Philippine women's national football team expects to be tested by a "very tough" Chinese Taipei squad when they play in a friendly on Tuesday at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

Filipinas brace for tough test against Chinese Taipei

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Filipinas brace for tough test against Chinese Taipei

Camille B. Naredo,

ABS-CBN News

Published May 31, 2025 04:57 PM PHT

Read More:

abssports

absnews

football

Philippine women's national football team

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Mark Torcaso

Chinese Taipei

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