Katrina Guillou scored a late goal to salvage a 1-1 draw for the Philippines against a higher-ranked Costa Rica side Saturday, Oct. 8 (Manila time), at the Alejandro Morera Soto Stadium in San Jose.
It all boiled down to Guillou's heroics in the extended minutes as the Filipinas were able to draw their first of their second friendly against the 37th world-ranked squad ahead of their 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.
A long ball from goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel enabled Guillou to go for the equalizer even as the ball was contested in the box.
But Guillou, who suits up for Pitea IF in Sweden, was quick to get a rebound and a conversion at close range quarters for the draw.
"Ninety minutes of courage, hard work, lot of resilience l. Defensively I thought we were really good with limited possessions in the game," said Filipinas head coach Alen Stajcic.
"On the flip side, our ability to keep the ball and pass the ball was not good enouhh tonight and we have to rrally work hard on that to prove our technique if we're gonna compete against good teams like these in their home, teams that are going to the World Cup."
Still, the Aussie mentor is nothimg but proud of the performance delivered by his wards, noting the spirit and the hard work of the team against Costa Rica.
Guillou's goal put Costa Rica's goal nearing the first hour into naught as Priscilla Chinchilla put her squad in the scoreboard at the 57th minute.
Chinchilla found the back of the net after outclassing McDaniel's defense from the upper right corner.
Defense is what the Filipinas needes in the second half and they did not disappoint with a couple of saves coming from no less than McDaniel as well as vice-captain Hali Long.
Both squads, who are World Cup-bound next year, are set to settle unfinished business on Oct. 11 with the venue and kickoff time yet to be announced.