Philippines draws with Myanmar; Thailand pips unlucky Indonesia in AFF Women's Futsal tilt

MANILA, Philippines — The 2024 AFF Women’s Futsal Championship opened with two pulsating matches that had the PhilSports Arena crowd hollering and screaming along to the tension.

The Philippine team came back from behind to draw with Myanmar, 2-2, in the main game while Thailand squeaked past hard-fighting Indonesia, 1-0.

Isabela Bandoja, captain of the Philippine team, opened the scoring with a clever 1v1 move that ditched her defender. She then blasted it past Burmese goalkeeper Chaw Sandi Aung after 12 minutes of play. 

Myanmar leveled early in the second half, which somewhat deflated the home side. With the momentum having shifted, Myanmar was poised to break the hearts of the thousands of Filipino fans in attendance when defender Catherine Graversen was whistled for a handball.

Philippine coach Vic Hermans sent in back-up goalkeeper Samantha Hughes in place of starter Mykaella Abeto against Yun Mi Mi Lwin, and the former saved the spot kick. The rebound, however, went straight to the path of the latter, who was quick to pounce and blast the ball in, giving Myanmar a 2-1 lead.

Forty-six seconds later, Graversen atoned for the handball as she sent a well-placed pass from the outside that found Agot Danton, who fired past Aung for the equalizer.

Finding a new gear, the Philippines went for the match winner with time running out, but Graversen missed a penalty of her own, and her last gasp volley from the outside sailed over the crossbar for the 2-2 draw.

Following the match, Hermans pronounced himself with the result and the corresponding point.

“I think our team showed character by coming back and even nearly winning the match,” said Hermans who came on board in 2022. “This is a good experience for all, and it is important to come away with confidence and knowing we had a chance to win the game. That is good leading up to tomorrow (November 17) in our game against Thailand.”

Thailand, on the other hand, struggled to break Indonesia’s tightly packed zone and the netminding of Sasiprapha Suksen especially in the first 90 seconds of the second half, where the former fired six shots.

The diagonal passing and constant cutting of Thailand saw them immediately take control of the match. However, Sasiprapha and the brilliant defending of team captain Novita Piranti denied the sixth-ranked team in the world scoring opportunities.

For the most part, Indonesia played direct as they struggled to get past Thailand’s defense at the half court line.

And yet, Novita was also remarkable on offense as she sprayed passes to teammates to keep Thailand’s defense honest.

In fact, Indonesia had a golden opportunity to win the match when Thailand’s Jenjira Bubpha was shown the red card by Japanese referee Mari Yamamoto after the former brought down from behind Ikeu Rosita.

The Indonesians were not able to take advantage of the two-minute advantage where Thailand was down one player. 

With under five minutes to play, Thailand caught a break when Darika Peanpailun’s shot took a deflection off Novita’s block and dropped inside Indonesia’s net. 

Underscored Thai coach Surapong Plyouwong after the hard-fought 1-nil triumph, “This is not the Indonesian team we played in the NSDF Women’s Futsal Championships that was held last September in Bangkok. They were very good.”

The Philippines takes on Thailand in the main game at 7 p.m. Sunday at the PhilSports Arena, while Vietnam makes its tournament debut against Myanmar at 4 p.m.