When striker Sarina Bolden first suited up for the Philippine Women’s National Football Team in the AFC Womens’ Asian Cup 2018, she enjoyed a dream start to her career by scoring the winning goal against host nation Jordan in the group stage. However, that was as good as it got as the losses soon piled up in the tournament.
Fast forward four years late in the 2022 edition of Asia’s biggest competition and the circumstances are incredibly different. Now, Bolden and the rest of the team are gearing up to compete against South Korea in the semi-finals after securing the golden ticket into the FIFA World Cup 2023 hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
“I would say the system has changed in like belief — Belief that we are a team that can compete for all the way down to the 90 plus minutes, and I think a lot of that contributes to the coaching staff that we have today,” said the 25-year-old forward, who plays Chifure AS Elfen Saitama in the WE.League. “They have given us a great foundation, great principle, great standard that we hold ourselves to.
“So, those are great things to fall back on when we are unsuccessful when a team scores a late goal in the second half. We can believe that ‘Hey, we’ve been practicing this stuff time and time again. We believe that we are the better team and let’s not freak out, let’s not lose this belief that we can do it.’ This is soccer and these things happen, but the better team prevails if we are able to execute and, for me, believe that we are gonna win.”
This campaign has been a roller-coaster one for Bolden. Unable to play in the team’s tournament opener against Thailand due to COVID-19 protocols, she then missed a penalty against Indonesia in the third group stage assignment, only to score a goal in the same fixture. Her most important contribution to the national cause, though, came in the quarter-finals clash against Chinese Taipei.
With the Philippines holding on to a precarious 1-0 lead thanks to Quinley Quezada’s goal, Chinese Taipei Zhuo Li-ping’s wonder strike at the 82nd minute changed everything. It can be difficult to recover mentally after that but somehow, the Filipinas found a way to hold on until the penalty shootout.
(C) AFC
“After the ball went in, my first thought in my head was I’m gonna scream at whoever let that happen. But then I took a moment with the defense and said, ‘Okay, whatever just happened happened, but we need to move on and we need to keep our heads up. It’s important for us because in practice we always talk about ‘everyone’s going to make mistakes in the game’,” said Loyola Marymount product.
“No one’s going to be completely perfect and there are things that just won’t go our way. So, we reacted very well and kept our guard up, and we kept fighting. That’s really one of the reasons why we stayed so hard in that game and pressed so hard.”
Penalties were then needed to find a winner between the two nations and Bolden would play a key role in sealing the victory. After goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel saved two opposition spot-kicks and converted her own, it was up to Loyola Marymount alumna to score hers and send the Philippines through. In such a high-pressure situation, she could have opted to recuse herself after missing against Indonesia but she chose courage and manifested destiny in the end.
“I don’t know if you watched the last game that we had versus Indonesia, I had a penalty kick in that game and unfortunately missed it. So just having that experience. and even before I took mine, Hali Long, our team captain kind of spoke to me and said briefly l, ‘You just need to pick a spot and you need to commit to it. Because, I didn’t commit to it, so that’s what you need to do’,” said the 5-foot-8 attacking player.
“With that in my head and obviously the pressure and weight of the moment, giving that a little bit of thought and then focusing on what I needed to do — just hitting it with conviction, which is like the word of the month of campaign, in the left corner. That’s kind of what got me through and when I took the PK, I wasn’t focusing on anything other than the ball and just finishing it. I was happy I was able to score, and here we are!”
Things can change very quickly in football. From being cellar-dwellers four years ago, Bolden and her teammates have proven that the Philippines can potentially become one of the top contenders for international glory in the continent – and it all starts with belief.
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