Impact of Filipinas’ success felt in U17, U20 tryouts in Davao

Davao City — Finding herself in good goalscoring position, a sixteen-year-old hopeful in a pink bib received the ball from the left wing, controlling it with a good first touch.

Instead of whacking the ball towards goal, which would have resulted in an easy save, she took a further touch to elude an onrushing defender before finally smashing it home. The result — an impressive goal for her team.

Welcome to the Philippine Women’s Under-20 and Girls’ Under-17 tryouts in Tionko Football Field in downtown Davao, where young players woke up at 3 a.m., traveled great distances, and even skipped finals exams, all for a chance to show their wares in front of Philippine national senior women’s coach Alen Stajcic and assistant coach Nahuel Arrarte.

Stajcic and Arrarte have taken the reins of the Under-17s and Under-20s, respectively, and it is under the watchful eyes of these mentors that these girls tried to prove themselves.

After conducting tryouts in Los Angeles and Manila, it was the turn of Davao to host the tryouts, and for many aspiring players, being potentially coached by the respected Stajcic and Arrarte was an occasion not to be missed, despite it being a school day.

On the opposite side of the field, another player, a 14-year-old, had hopes of being able to catch the coaches’ eyes. Playing since she was 5, she regularly competes against girls in much higher age groups and is clearly motivated to do well.

Her coach in Davao attributes this motivation in part to the rise in the prominence of the Filipinas, the Philippine Women’s National Football Team, citing Sarina Bolden and Sara Eggesvik as two of the more popular Filipinas amongst her squad.

“The women’s team is usually behind the men’s in terms of popularity, but qualifying for the Women’s World Cup has become motivation for all young girls here,” the local coach shared.

And while hopes ran high here, the harsh reality is that most of the girls who attended these tryouts will not get called up, and their dreams of representing the Philippines will end here in Tionko Field.

Addressing the girls after the tryout, Coach Stajcic was direct in his assessment.

“There is talent here. You have skill, but you’ll need more than skill,” he said.

“There is a common theme here. For a lot of girls, there are some technically good players, but in stamina needed to play international football, there is a gap… Fitness levels are not enough to play international football.”

Stajcic, though, issued a challenge to those who attended.

“Work harder if you make the cut. Work harder if you don’t make the lineup. Challenge yourselves to take the spots of those currently in the lineup.”

Though it is always the dream to find the next great talent, the diamond in the rough, in tryouts like these, there is value beyond that.

As Coach Arrarte states: “The beauty of the game to be able to take the national team staff to cities like Davao and create that exposure and that awareness and for us to show them that we generally do care about Filipino football.”

“You see the impact here, ultimately, we are all human and the beauty about it is football gives everyone the opportunity to see how everyone else is human as well.”

The goodwill and the interest that was generated by the Filipinas’ success should not be wasted and all efforts must go into capitalizing on that.

The senior women’s teams coaching staff taking the reins of the younger age groups is certainly a step in the right direction, with the opportunity to align the senior national team along with young players coming through.

The goal is to keep the momentum and build on the further development of the women’s game here in the country, to continue the challenge in the coming years — and longer — through a sustained pipeline of quality players.

That will be the true test of the Filipinas' success.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News