The Philippines wants to develop the winning mentality in Kenya

THE Philippine women’s soccer team faces another test in her next international friendly when she faces Kenya in her final Pink Ladies Week match in Antalya, Turkey on Wednesday.

It will be the first known matching of the Philippines against an African nation at 9:00 PM Philippine time, a friendly that will give the team a boost in future competitions.

“Kenya, I’m not someone to be looked down upon,” said the Filipina goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel.

“They have some good games. It is a first African opponent, I think we will face. It will be a challenge and I think we will not take it lightly at all, even if we are on a high with our 3-0 win.”

McDaniel was referring to the Philippines’ win over Jordan last Saturday in their first friendly in six months. McDaniel said playing against Jordan made the Filipino girls regain their cohesion.

READING: Sarina Bolden scores a brace as the Philippines beat Jordan in a friendly

“I think we’ve continued to work on our possession, our offense and our set-up game and just working together and our cohesion as a team. We have been away from each other for some time. The recovery of this cohesion has been very important in the last two days. We go through the core of it all, but it all comes together,” McDaniel said.

The current international friendly saw several new faces in the squad, including the Aston Villa defender Maz Pachecowho is still waiting for his Philippine passport has already joined the Philippine camp.

PHOTO: PFF

Making her debut for the Filipinas last Saturday was former UCLA defender Janae DeFazio, who made an immediate impact when she fed Sarina Bolden for the first goal of the game against Jordan.

Filipino coach Mark Torcaso said the friendly against Kenya is again part of the process as they build the new group.

“It will take some time. It will take three to six months to get close and we need to build over the next six to 12 months to make sure we are good at it.”

“These are good signs. But we have to get better and better every game. We cannot be satisfied with the 3-0 result. We have to be better every game. We have to keep working on what we want to do. And we’ll make sure we always have a winning mentality,” Torcaso said.

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