Sarina Bolden is one of the most lethal forwards in the history of Philippine football. The 5-foot-8 striker scored 14 goals in just 22 international appearances as a Philippine Women’s National Football Team member.
Her latest milestone with the national team came in the 2022 AFF Women’s Championship as she scored three goals to help the Filipinas seal a semifinals ticket in the tourney through a 4-1 win over Indonesia.
“Really special. It’s not every day you get a hattrick at home in your home country, the Philippines, so I’m really proud of that.
“I’m really proud of my teammates for not giving up, bouncing back like what coach (Alen Stajcic) said but I know we could do more,” said Bolden.
This was the second time the Chifure AS Elfen Saitama standout scored a hat trick wearing the Philippine colors. Her first time occurred in a 5-0 win over Malaysia in the group stage of the 31st Southeast Asian Games at the Binan Football Stadium in Laguna.
Bolden has become the Philippines’ most potent forward with a scoring rate of 64 percent. She has become one of Stajcic’s main forwards and the Australian mentor is pleased with her contributions to the national team in its incredible rise these past few months.
“Obviously, I’m happy for her on an individual level but as I said I’m more proud of the team. I don’t really care who scores the goals over the last three or four matches. I think we’ve had different scorers for every goal so I don’t go home and count who scored the goals,” said the erstwhile Central Coast Mariners head coach.
“It doesn’t matter to me as long as we’re in good positions and ready to capitalize on the work that we do. On an individual level, it’s always a great thing for Sarina. I put a little bit of pressure on her to be our leading goalscorer. She’s our number nine, she’s our talisman, and I think she’s a fantastic contributor to our team,” she continued.
“Like I just said to her the other day, she’s got so much more in her tank. I think she can really be one of the world-class players in our group if she keeps working hard and keeps improving.”
For her part, Bolden is eager to not get ahead of herself. There is still a lot to play for in this tournament. The former Loyola Marymount University student-athlete may have had five goals so far in the current campaign but she is hungry for more.
Indeed, scoring goals in itself are addicting more so to do it in front of your home fans. It is not every day that the California native and her teammates can play in front of such strong home support and they are eager to make it count.
“I couldn’t do it alone. Those were great balls that were played into me. Like what coach has been preaching: composure, composure,” said Bolden. “I could have had two more, five, six, seven, but you know I’m happy with the ones I did finish and I’m just hungry for the ones I missed.
“Again, I couldn’t do that without the team, couldn’t do that without the staff that we have motivating us, supporting us, and reminding us to stick to our principles. It’s just a really great feeling and again I feed off that crowd. We all feed off that crowd so it’s really more special doing it in the Philippines.”
Ever since she started to represent the Philippines in 2018, Bolden always had the aura of a star goalscorer around her.
It is about time that she is gaining the prominence her status deserves in the world of Philippine sports.
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Catch the entire 2022 AFF Women’s Championship live on SMART Sports and Puso Pilipinas from July 4-18.
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