Philippine women’s team secures historic FIFA win against New Zealand

The Philippine women’s national football team has shocked their New Zealand adversaries by taking the Philippines’s first-ever victory in the FIFA Women’s World Cup at one-nil. The historic win was done at the Wellington Regional Stadium, Tuesday.

Original story by Camille Naredo for ABS CBN News

It was a dramatic triumph for the Filipinas, who went ahead in the 24th minute off a header by Sarina Bolden, then leaned on their defense in the closing stretch to hold off the Football Ferns. The victory — which came in front of over 32,000 fans at the “Sky Stadium” — gave the Filipinas three points in Group A and kept alive their hopes of advancing to the knockout phase of the World Cup.

Meanwhile, it was a frustrating result for the Football Ferns, who entered the match with great confidence following their upset of Norway in their tournament opener last Thursday. But they could not break down the Filipinas’ defense for over 90 minutes, despite dominating possession and sending 15 shots at Olivia McDaniel.

“It means everything to us … We put our head down, we came in focused, we had a goal in mind and we achieved it. We couldn’t have asked for better,” said McDaniel, who earned Player of the Match honors after another superb performance in between the sticks.

Philippines coach Alen Stajcic said on Monday that the Filipinas wanted to “crash the party” and his side came through, producing a more confident performance after absorbing a 2-0 loss to Switzerland in their World Cup debut last Friday.

It was Bolden who put the Filipinas ahead in the first half, powering the ball past New Zealand goal-keeper Victoria Esson despite being tightly marked by CJ Bott and Katie Bowen.

That goal made the Philippines the first debutante team to score in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, while Bolden took her tally to 22 goals for the country.

To read the full blow-by-blow historic match that put the women’s football team on the world’s radar, read the original story by Camille Naredo, visit https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/25/23/filipinas-stun-new-zealand-for-first-ever-world-cup-win