Philippine national football teams gear up for busy end-of-year schedules

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines' national football teams will be playing a lot of matches heading into the tail-end of the year, with multiple competitions slated for both the Filipinas and the men’s squad this coming October and November.

With a FIFA window slated in October for the women’s team, the Filipinas will be playing in an invitational tournament in Turkey, where they will face nations like Jordan and Haiti – marking their first competition since the Pinatar Cup earlier this year.

“This October, for the [FIFA] window, we are going to be playing in Turkey… We were invited and we’ll be playing against Jordan, Haiti, and Mali… Although Mali is still 50-50, they’re still confirming whether they’re gonna play but that’s gonna be a really good tournament for the Filipinas,” said PFF national team director Freddy Gonzalez during the Filipinas' open training session at Rizal Memorial Stadium last Friday. 

“Expect that overseas-based players are gonna be there so, the Sarina Boldens of the world will be there with us. So that will be the first time we’ll be all getting together for the senior team. So yeah, it should be something to look forward to.”

More exciting, though, is what happens next as the beloved national team will be playing three matches at their home turf at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Having wrapped up their short local-based camp on Friday, Gonzalez said that there are more activities to come at the end of the year. Along with the Filipinas U-20 team, the senior team will be playing its first official matches in Manila since winning the 2022 AFF Women’s Championship two years ago.

“More so though, [it] is what will be happening in November. November we have two windows, we’ll have the men’s then we’ll have the women’s. So, the men’s will be [playing on] November 14 in Hong Kong, then November 19 here, and then the women’s will have three matches here along with the U-20s,” Gonzalez said. 

“So the women’s U-20s will also be here in November all the way to December and then we have the Mitsubishi Cup which was rescheduled to December 9, so in a span of a month, we’ll actually have seven home games between the Filipinas and the men’s team.”

The matches are part of the continuous build-up for the teams for future matches. For the Filipinas in particular, they are gearing up for a busy 2025 that will be highlighted by the Southeast Asian Games and the AFF Women’s Championship.

“It looks like we’ll be involved in one or two good competitions for our team to continue to build and prepare for next year which is a busy year,” said Filipinas head coach Mark Torcaso. 

“We have the AFF, the SEA Games, and we have some U-20 qualifiers and things like that. So, this year, we’ll be focusing on that: playing some good competition and we’ve got some really good plans.”

There are some challenges ahead for the home games, however, as the pitch in Rizal Memorial Stadium is expected to be renovated soon. But with matches happening so close, Gonzalez said that they will be asking the admin to hold off on replacing the pitch.

“Yeah, it’s kind of not ideal but we’re gonna try to make it work. We were looking at other venues but it just doesn’t seem feasible to do it anywhere else so we’re gonna ask them to delay the installation of the new pitch first,” he said. 

“We’re just gonna have the company that runs this turf refurbish it and make it better for the matches in November and December.”

More details on the matches to be held in Manila will be revealed as the play dates grow closer.