The Philippine women’s under-17 football team braces for a historic debut in the 2024 AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup in Bali, Indonesia late this week.

Under the guidance of head tactician Sinisa Cohadzic, the junior booters will be vying for a FIFA U17 World Cup berth in Group A where it was bunched up with host squad Indonesia, 2019 runners-up North Korea and second round winners South Korea.

The PH crew held its Manila camp a week prior to the tournament and concluded it with a pair of friendlies before it flew to Indonesia against Ang Liga U17 All-Stars, which it defeated in dominant style, 6-0, before following it up with a 3-0 rout of seniors club Manila Digger FC. 

The preparation couldn’t have been more important for Cohadzic, whose guidance is laced with unwavering faith on the youth squad. 

“(The Manila camp) has been a great preparation for us to go into the Asian Cup tournament where we’ll probably have to control the game against Indonesia and where we physically have to compete against South Korea and North Korea,” said Cohadzic after the Adidas-organized send-off exhibition match over the weekend at the Vermosa Sports Hub in Cavite. 

“It’s been a tough, tough decision. There’s some injuries, some players who are not one hundred percent ready, so we need to make sure we go with a good balance of fit and prepared players to cope with the demands of the tournament,” he added. 

The Filipinas U17 will be having the trio of captain and midfielder Alexa Pino, Niña Mathelus and Aiselyn Sia in the roster, who just all made their debut in the seniors team during its back-to-back and away FIFA friendly games against South Korea last month. 

With Filipinas seniors’ mentor Mark Torcaso and co-captain midfielder Tahnai Annis assuming coaching roles for the youth side, Cohadzic is hoping for a positive turnaround which will catapult their place in the history of Philippine football — the same way the seniors squad did in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. 

“One thing this team has is the passion to play the game. And it’s something that they will never go wondering of what’s going to happen. That passion will flow into the tournament. That’s something we can rely on and be very confident that we can bring there,” said Cohadzic.

“There’s a lot of factors about what’s going to happen. But we are very confident that we got this group of players ready and we are very confident that they have the support and the best resources possible that we gave them to actually get that objective.”

“That’s probably the advantage that we will have and hopefully the players will fully grasp on that and we get the results that everyone wants.”