Powered by the hat trick of Alex Pino, the Philippines crushed Malaysia, 6-0, to secure its ticket to the semifinals of the 33rd Southeast Asian Games women’s football competitions Thursday night.
The Filipinas set up a Final Four duel with host Thailand and completed history for Philippine football by ensuring the presence of both men’s U22 and women’s side in the SEAG’s semis for the first time ever.
Needing to win big in their last Group B fixture at the National Sports University IPE Stadium to boost their chances of advancing, the Filipinas launched wave after wave of attack in search of goals.
After 45 minutes of trying, the Pinay booters finally put one on the board with Pino sending it home off a rebound. Pino led an intensified assault in the second half, scoring in the 54th and 59th (penalty) as Jessica Cowart (67th) and Arianna Isabella Markey (86th) and Anicka Castaneda joined the goal-spree.
With the romp, which followed up their 1-0 verdict over defending champion Vietnam, the Filipinas finished the group with six points and a goal difference of +6.
With the Vietnamese’s 2-0 victory over Myanmar over at the Chonburi Daikin Stadium, a triple tie at No. 1 ensued. It was broken via GD and Vietnam, with +8, emerged on top and the Philippines’ +6 took the second seeding over the Burmese’s +2.
“We had momentum from the Vietnam game. I believed if we’re composed and in control in the final third we would score many goals as we did today,” said coach Mark Torcaso, whose troops sface Thailand, the Group A topnotcher on Dec. 14.
“I’m very excited for this group of players there’s a lot of very, very talented players for the future of this country,” citing Pino, who became the first player to score thrice in a SEAG match since Sarina Bolden in 2019 in a semis-clinching 5-0 shutout of Malaysia in Binan