Alen Stajcic, the Australian that helped "change football in the Philippines forever", couldn’t help but marvel at how the 18-month journey led the national women's football team to rise in the global stage. It was only meant to be a 10-week contract for the decorated coach at the helm, but here he was sharing a piece of history with the Filipinas one and a half years later following their first-ever hard-earned victory, 1-nil, in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup against tournament co-host New Zealand on Tuesday, July 25.
*Filipinas head coach Alen Stajcic. (PFF)*

An added delight to claiming the maiden win was making it happen to the frustration of the hometown bet Ferns. “Beating the host nation in a World Cup, no question, it’s No. 1,” the two-time World Cup coach with Australia said of what the debut win meant in his career with the Philippines. “When you hear the stories of how long it has taken other teams to win World Cup matches - New Zealand, I think [they won] after their 15th or 16th match, so that’s what [like] five or six World Cups..,” he added. “For us to be able to do this in 18 months.. To think that we’ve done it in our second match in our first World Cup… the unity and work rate and heart from the team was special. We had some luck but we also earned our luck.” It was Sarina Bolden who headed the Nationals' first-ever World Cup goal in the 24th-minute from a set-piece that Sara Eggesvik rebounded and crossed accurately to the Filipinas forward. The world No. 46 Filipinas were widely expected to struggle against much experienced and highly ranked nations –– they evidently did –– but they held on to history and were in safe hands after Olivia McDaniel's heroic defensive effort until the final whistle. "Of course we rode our luck. New Zealand had three or four unbelievable chances and the VAR call," he said, referring to a disallowed goal in the second half. The Last 16 hopes were already fading after the Philippines' 2-0 opening defeat to world No. 20 Switzerland, which it owed its -1 goal differential to. But as it stands, all four nations in Group A can still potentially see themselves through the knockout stage depending on how the final fixture of their group campaign wraps up. “It's back to work. Job’s not done. It’s very important that we switch back into competition mode and think about what we have to do in the last game to try squeeze out of this group," Stajcic said. The Philippines is set to take on 1995 World Cup winner Norway at Eden Park, Auckland on Sunday, July 30 at 3 p.m. (Manila time). Surprisingly, though, the world No. 12 Norway, which was the group's top seed, is sitting at the bottom of the standings with one point behind the Filipinas after suffering an opening 1-0 loss to world No. 25 New Zealand and settling for a scoreless draw against Switzerland.