THE early fruits of the Philippine Football Federation’s revived futsal (indoor football) program will be on display when the newly-formed national women’s futsal squad, now known as the Pinays, plays Guam in a pair of friendly matches on Oct. 15 and 16 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
“The matches against Guam will be our first test (to determine) where we stand in regional and global futsal and what we need to do moving forward,” PFF futsal head Kevin Goco said yesterday in the Philippine Sportswriters Association online forum.
Joining Goco in the public sports program supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., Milo, San Miguel Corp., and Amelie Hotel was Dutch PFF futsal technical director and noted FIFA instructor Vic Hermans, who will coach the squad.
“We in the PFF want to be in the best position possible to realize the opportunities that are available in the sport,” Goco stressed. “These friendly matches are a first step in building the national futsal program.
“We’re going to work on the men’s side as well but as a matter of strategic priority, coach Vic said let’s start with the women since the gap between us in Southeast Asia and Asia is not that huge.”
He said the national women’s futsal team members were culled from a pocket tournament among Metro Manila teams held from July to August at the University of Asia Pacific futsal court in Pasig City.
Hermans, who has been a FIFA futsal instructor for three decades and handled the national futsal teams of Indonesia and Thailand, said the core of the squad was taken from the Don Bosco Tuloy Foundation, Makati, Don Bosco Makati and Cainta teams that saw action in the competition.
