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Football: Plenty of potential among young Filipinas, say coaches

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Camille B. Naredo, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Philippine National Women’s Football Team head coach Alen Stajcic speaks to players during their match against Thailand for the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Women’s Championship title held at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila on July 17, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/sports/01/29/20220717-aff-womens-ph-thailand-gc-13.jpg"/><figcaption>Philippine National Women’s Football Team head coach Alen Stajcic speaks to players during their match against Thailand for the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Women’s Championship title held at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila on July 17, 2022. <em>George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA, Philippines -- National team coaches saw plenty of &quot;really good&quot; players when the Philippine Football Federation held tryouts for its women&#x27;s under-17 and under-20 team in the United States last week.</p><p>Coaches Alen Stajcic and Nahuel Arrarte oversaw the trials held from January 20-22 in California, which saw well over a hundred players show off their skills and talents in hopes of one day playing for the Philippines. </p><p>Stajcic, who will coach the women&#x27;s U-17 team aside from the national senior team, was pleased with the turnout as players from all over the United States and even Canada and Hong Kong showed up.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/01/25/23/coaches-eye-alignment-of-natl-womens-team-with-youth-squads">READ: Coaches eye alignment of nat&#x27;l women&#x27;s team with youth squads</a></li></ul><p>&quot;It was a really pleasing turnout, to see that connection to our national team was really heartening. It was a good starting point,&quot; said Stajcic. &quot;The talent was really good, was at a really high level.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Obviously, there&#x27;s a bigger awareness now of our national team, and the fact that these players who can represent the Philippines see a pathway to major tournaments like the World Cup and Olympic Games and youth World Cups and things like that,&quot; he added.</p><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn-_HIVPnuo/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14" style="background:#FFF;border:0;border-radius:3px;box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15);margin:1px;max-width:540px;min-width:326px;padding:0;width:calc(100% - 2px)"><div style="padding:16px"><div style="display:flex;flex-direction:row;align-items:center"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:50%;flex-grow:0;height:40px;margin-right:14px;width:40px"> 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</div></div><div style="margin-left:auto"><div style="width:0px;border-top:8px solid #F4F4F4;border-right:8px solid transparent;transform:translateY(16px)"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;flex-grow:0;height:12px;width:16px;transform:translateY(-4px)"> </div><div style="width:0;height:0;border-top:8px solid #F4F4F4;border-left:8px solid transparent;transform:translateY(-4px) translateX(8px)"> </div></div></div><div style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;flex-grow:1;justify-content:center;margin-bottom:24px"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;margin-bottom:6px;width:224px"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;width:144px"> </div></div><div style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:17px;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:8px;overflow:hidden;padding:8px 0 7px;text-align:center;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn-_HIVPnuo/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:17px;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">A post shared by Philippine Football Federation (@phifootballfederation)</a></div></div></blockquote><p><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br/>Nonetheless, Stajcic was reluctant to brand any of the players in the California tryouts as potential &quot;game-changing&quot; talents, stressing that he does not want to burden a young player with such a tag. </p><p>&quot;These kids have varied abilities and there are some who have potential and ability, but to say someone at 13 or 14 or 15 is a game-changer is a pretty big call. I&#x27;d never put that much pressure on a kid,&quot; he explained.</p><p>&quot;But definitely, there was some exciting talent there that hopefully we&#x27;d get to work within the next couple of months,&quot; he added.</p><p>More than anything, both Stajcic and Arrarte are hopeful that the enthusiasm they saw in California will be matched by the response in the Philippines. The two coaches also handled tryouts in Manila, Cebu, and Davao from January 26-28. </p><p>&quot;Some of the numbers here, especially for the Under-17s have been really, really low. We spent all day today in the PFF discussing the fact that, you know, there&#x27;s not a large amount of players that are available for selection,&quot; Stajcic noted.</p><p>&quot;When I come here and we fly across the whole world to get here, and there&#x27;s a handful of players who are coming to trials from a region of 10 or 20 million people, I have to say it&#x27;s a little bit disappointing, and something that I wanna see change. One of the reasons we&#x27;re doing this is to promote that change and provoke that change. Sometimes, the message isn&#x27;t nice, but we have to provoke change,&quot; he added.</p><p>Arrarte, who will coach the Under-20 women&#x27;s squad, acknowledged that the talent pool at the moment is &quot;a little bit fragmented&quot; but expressed a willingness to work with the organizations concerned. </p><p>&quot;There needs to be more girls playing in leagues, in competitive competitions to be able for them to take that next step into bigger, into the next stage, which is international football,&quot; he said. &quot;We gotta work collectively.&quot;</p>

National team coaches saw plenty of 'really good' players when the PFF held tryouts for its women's under-17 and under-20 team in the United States last week.

Football: Plenty of potential among young Filipinas, say coaches

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Football: Plenty of potential among young Filipinas, say coaches

Camille B. Naredo,

ABS-CBN News

Published January 29, 2023 05:54 PM PHT

Read More:

football

Philippine Football Federation

PFF

Alen Stajcic

Nahuel Arrarte

Philippine women's national football team

PWNFT

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