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Football: No player assured of spot in World Cup roster, says coach

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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/life/02/01/20220717-aff-womens-ph-thailand-gc-13-(1).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><br/>MANILA, Philippines -- With six months to go before the FIFA Women&#x27;s World Cup 2023 kicks off, the members of the Philippine women&#x27;s national football team are competing for spots in the final roster.</p><p>Filipinas coach Alen Stajcic has made it clear that no one is assured of a spot in the World Cup roster, regardless of how long they have been playing for the national team. It&#x27;s a tough part of the squad&#x27;s journey, Stajcic said, but also one that shows how far they have come in the past months.</p><p>&quot;We now have a pool of about 30 to 35 players,&quot; said Stajcic, who steered the Filipinas to the semifinals of the AFC Women&#x27;s Asian Cup last year in India -- a feat that secured their qualification to the FIFA Women&#x27;s World Cup.</p><p>&quot;The toughest part of this journey is gonna be that 10 or 12 players who have been in the squad and been regulars in the squad are not gonna be selected for the World Cup. Good players, and players who have contributed to the team,&quot; he explained. </p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re getting to that stage of evolvement through a team where they&#x27;re gonna be pushing each other for spots.&quot;</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/01/31/23/ahead-of-world-cup-filipinas-target-sea-games-success">READ: Ahead of World Cup, Filipinas target SEA Games success</a></li></ul><p>Stajcic said his players are aware that they are &quot;renting those shirts&quot; in the national team, and he is pleased that there is now an internal rivalry within the squad for spots in the final roster. This will only hasten the team&#x27;s progress and development heading into July&#x27;s showpiece event in New Zealand and Australia, the coach added.</p><p>&quot;Sometimes in national teams and particularly women&#x27;s national teams, the depth isn&#x27;t good, and players can be in the team for a long time. Five years, 10 years, and they can get a little bit -- I&#x27;m not saying we&#x27;ve got that -- but they can get a little bit lazy and complacent,&quot; he explained.</p><p>&quot;The whole idea is to reverse that. To have competition for spots. And that&#x27;s what you would have seen over the course of the year. Over 30 different players have come into the squad, and all performed really well,&quot; he added.</p><p>The coach is aware that it can make for a &quot;cutthroat&quot; environment, but Stajcic assured that the competition among the Filipinas is a healthy, respectful one. </p><p>&quot;A big part about our team is the culture of the team, and the dynamics within the team are so healthy and positive. The rivalry is so healthy, and that&#x27;s how it should be, and that&#x27;s one of the keys to our success, for sure,&quot; he said.</p><p>The Philippine women&#x27;s national football team is in Group A of the FIFA Women&#x27;s World Cup, together with co-hosts New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland. </p><p>They open their campaign on July 21 against Switzerland at the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2444059" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

With six months to go before the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 kicks off, the Filipinas are still competing for spots in the final roster.

Football: No player assured of spot in World Cup roster, says coach

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Football: No player assured of spot in World Cup roster, says coach

Camille B. Naredo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Feb 01, 2023 05:23 PM PHT

Read More:

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Philippine women's national football team

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FIFA Women's World Cup

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