AS THEY take the long, challenging road to the FIFA Women’s Cup (WC), the Filipinas are drawing extra strength from countrymen giving them love everywhere they go.
The “Filipino connection” in WC site New Zealand and other faraway cities they’ve spent their buildup in has been a huge boost for the lady booters, according to team administrator Belay Fernando de la Cruz.
“…Too much pride of the team that they have these people supporting them whether they know them or not,” Ms. Fernando-De la Cruz said in The Game on One Sports.
The Filipinas had goosebumps when they arrived in Auckland for the final stretch of preparations as flag-waving kababayans (countrymen) welcomed them warmly at the airport while singing “Ako ay Pilipino” and shouting “Mabuhay!”
“This (Pinoy) connection is always there. A lot of them are doing it for the pride of the motherland. It just gets amplified when they see the all-out support of the Filipino communities who weren’t even football fans before and now coming out to support a Philippine football team,” she said.
“That just warms the heart of the girls and every bit of support everytime they see people waving the flag and coming out for them makes them so happy and so proud.”
The Alen Stajcic-mentored Pinay booters are priming up for a historic debut in the football spectacle beginning tomorrow against Switzerland in Dunedin.
The team has undergone camps in Australia, Tajikistan, Spain, Chile and the United States over the last 18 months to get ready for the biggest battle of their lives. — Olmin Leyba
