Filipina5 falters vs. Morocco, bows out of FIFA Futsal World Cup

November 25 ------ THE Philippines failed to sustain its dream start to fall to Morocco, 3-2 to bow out of contention in the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2025 at the Philsports Arena.

The Filipina5 scored the first two goals of the contest from Inday Tolentin and Catherine Graversen in the fourth and eighth minute respectively but couldn’t hold on to the lead after conceding the next three, all in the first half. With its second straight loss, the Filipina5 were ousted from progressing in the next round even before their final game of the group stage against Australia, which earlier booked a place in the quarterfinals with a 3-2 win over Poland in Group A play.

Tolentin went down as the first goal scorer for the Philippines in a FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup game after a free kick, sending the 1,771 fans in a frenzy. Celebration continued for the Filipina5 fans when Graversen struck in transition four minutes later, and the team looked on its way to build momentum.

Morocco, however, recovered two minutes after the Graversen goal with Nadia Laftah sneaking past Katrina Guillou in front of the net. Sliham Tadlaoui and Jasmine Demraoui scored the next two goals in the 14th and 17th and Morocco played on the defensive from there.

Filipina5 goalkeeper Samantha Hughes also helped in keeping the deficit at one with Morocco having 15 attempts at goal blocked, but her teammates weren’t able to manufacture the needed goals. Head coach Rafa Merino admitted the Filipina5 weren’t able to adjust emotionally to the early lead. “Scoring that fast in the beginning wasn’t in our plans. We didn’t know it’s going to happen. We were not ready in an emotional level. It affected the players in a way,” said the Spanish coach through an interpreter.

Morocco coach Adil Sayeh admitted that they looked at the match against the Philippines as the most crucial one in their quarterfinal bid after their 6-0 defeat against Argentina to open the tournament. “We knew that it’s going to be a hard game because we are both coming off a loss. It was a tough game. We played against a very good team,” said Sayeh.

The match was witnessed by a couple of members of the Filipinas team that played in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2022 including Sarina Bolden, who was recently called-up for the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.

Source: spin.ph