PH women’s futsal team falls to world No. 14 Poland in inaugural FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup

The Philippine women’s national futsal team succumbed to world No. 14 Poland, 6-0, in the inaugural FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup on Friday night, at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.

The Filipina5, though brave and backed by the home crowd, could not break through in their debut and sank early to the elimination zone in Group A with a -6 goal difference (GD), and met a similar fate as Morocco earlier against Argentina.

In the curtain-raiser of the competition, Argentina blasted Morocco for the provisional pole position in the table after a commanding 6-0 victory to take the first three points.

Argentine winger Ana Ontiveros tapped in the first-ever goal scored in the tournament to add on to the South American nation’s historic conquests.

The nationals held limited possession throughout the match but displayed a decent defensive plan in the first half, making the Polish side fight hard for its first two goals.

Julia Basta slotted the first goal in their debut past Filipinas keeper Samantha Hughes at the 6:19 mark after meeting a cross from the right side.

In an effort to redeem herself, Natalia Matuszewska, who was slapped by the first of four yellow cards of the match, found the back of the net exactly two minutes later to double the count for the visiting side.

“I see it not as a loss, but I think we played a really good game by keeping this level of play for more than forty minutes which is a lot of time. So I’m not sad, I’m still happy with how the team played,” said Filipina5 coach Rafa Merino in Spanish as translated in English by a staff.

Filipinas forward Inday Tolentin made the most multiple shots on target which either slightly went wide or hit the post to keep the Filipino crowd’s in high spirit despite the lopsided defeat.

The 17-day tournament continues on Saturday with Group B that features second-FIFA ranked team Spain taking on Asian powerhouse Thailand.

—JKC, GMA Integrated News