Filipina5 suffer early exit in FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup after yielding to Morocco

The Philippine women’s national futsal team suffered an early exit from the 2025 FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup after coming up short of completing a win against Morocco, 3-2, on Monday night, at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.

The Filipina5, who started strong in the game with a 2-0 lead, failed to sustain the momentum in the match that saw their deficit in pool play swell further to a -7 goal difference (GD).

As it stands, even if the Philippines (0-0-2) somehow staged an upset against world No. 6 Argentina by a huge margin in their matchup, it would still not make up for the first two losses it accumulated.

Only the top two teams in the group will advance into the next round.

Argentina opened the tournament with a historic 6-0 thrashing of Morocco before following it up with a hard-earned 3-2 victory against world No. 14 Poland earlier, still leaving it with an impressive 2-0-0 win-draw-loss record including +7 GD.

Meanwhile, Poland (1-0-1) earned its keep with its +5 GD to hold on to the second spot heading into its must-win match against Morocco (1-0-1), which now boasts its first taste of victory in the pool play.

It was a promising opening half for the Philippines before its dreams came crashing down after failing to hold off Morocco’s fightback.

Inday Tolentin slotted home the Philippines’ first-ever goal in the Futsal Worlds with a four-minute strike before Cathrine Graversen met a cross from Isabella Bandoja to cushion the gap three minutes later to double the count.

However, the visiting side remained unfazed in the face of adversity, as Nadia Laftah scrambled inside the box against Katrina Guillou and eventually completed her attempt at the 10th-minute mark.

Filipinas5 coach Rafa Merino immediately called for a timeout not long after, but it was all the Moroccans who held possession in the stretch that followed before Siiham Tadlooui finally equalized after connecting with Chaymaa Mourtaji.

With three minutes to go in the first half, Morocco gained the upper hand after slotting in another goal, this time by Jasmine Demraoui, who was provided an assist by Meryem Hajiri.

After the initial shock of the first half, the Nationals noticeably played better on both ends of the floor with multiple shots on target, and even a come-from-behind win in sight.

But the Moroccans held tighter to the victory until the final whistle.

“Scoring that fast in the beginning, the two goals were not in our game plan. We didn’t know that was going to happen early. I feel like we were kind of not ready for it in an emotional way or level. So, it affected the players and made them a little bit emotional in a positive way. But it affected the game,” said Merino in Spanish.

The Filipinas5 will tackle Argentina after Poland faces Morocco on Thursday to wrap up the elimination round in Group A.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News