Filipinas score breakthrough goals in Futsal Women’s World Cup

The Filipina5 celebrate after scoring a goal against Morocco

PFF

Matches Wednesday

(PhilSports Arena)

1 p.m. – New Zealand vs Tanzania

3:30 p.m. – Portugal vs Japan

6 p.m. – Panama vs Iran

8:30 p.m. – Brazil vs Italy

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines fell to Morocco in a 2-3 heartbreaker Monday night but took consolation in scoring two historic goals in the inaugural FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup in front of an electric home crowd.

Inday Tolentin and Cathrine Graversen got the honors as milestone goal-scorers for the country in the prestigious 16-nation meet backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and Philippine Football Federation.

Tolentin struck off a free kick less than four minutes into the Group A match while Graversen followed suit in transition three minutes later, sending the roaring 1,171-strong supporters at the PhilSports Arena to frenzy.

But the Filipina5 failed to sustain the charge, allowing the Atlas Lionesses to steal the crucial win that kept them on the hunt for a quarterfinal spot at three points (one-win, one-loss).

The setback, which came after an opening 0-6 beatdown from Poland, pushed the home side to the exits with one match left in the campaign against quarterfinals-bound Argentina (six points on two wins) on Thursday.

Still, there’s a silver lining to be grateful for.

“It’s a World Cup, right, everybody wants to score so for me it’s a dream come true,” said Graversen. “To do it on your homecourt makes it more exciting and crazy. The atmosphere was just wild.”

Graversen took added pride in the fact that the Filipina5, despite relinquishing control with three successive goals from Nadia Laftah (10th), Siiham Tadlaoui (14th) and Jasmine Demraoui (17th), kept fighting.

“We created a lot of opportunities and we gave it our all. That's all you can ask, basically,” she said. “And we fought until the very last minute, even tried ‘power play’ (strategy) to try something different (in the last five minutes).” (Pool story)