Let The Ladies Lead: PH Futsal Revival begins with the Pinay5

After the recent success brought upon by the Philippine Women's National Football Team, the Philippine Futsal program sets its eyes on reviving its footing in the country with the Pinay5 Futsal kicking things off through a series of international friendlies against Guam.

Ahead of their meeting on Saturday, October 15, 2022, at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, Pinay5 Futsal Head coach Vic Hermans, Pinay5 Futsal player Jamielyn Nanez, and Guam's head coach Ross Awa and player Arisa Recella were present at the pre-match conference after their respective training sessions.

Composed of players who had success in the recently-concluded UA&P Futsal tournament, the Pinay5 Futsal team will see players from the likes of Tuloy sa Don Bosco, the University of Makati, and other provincial clubs.

The decorated coach Hermans said, "I'm very happy that Guam can come over to try our first games together." Coming in with a lot of promise in growing the program in the country, Hermans also said, "This is the beginning of the very long project that we want to do in the Philippines."

Knowing the challenges of fielding a squad amidst the pandemic, coach Hermans recognized the struggles the team had to endure. The Philippines were already on a trajectory of being able to employ a working program for futsal but suddenly, the pandemic put a halt on all of these.

"We know we have a long way to go. I hope that I can help in the upcoming years to come and help Philippine Futsal go back to the AFC competitions."

Despite knowing the challenges, Hermans knows these things can be done so long as they follow their plan and make sure that it's being implemented right. "Next year, I hope we can already compete in the AFC. While there's nothing for the girls on the calendar, for the men's, we have a competition next year and I hope we can prepare."

Excited for her first international stint, Nanez was lost for words ahead of their friendly match against Guam. "Masaya na na-eexcite," were the only words she could muster to express her excitement for the upcoming matches.

Not a natural at first in the game of futsal, Nanez started playing football before finding happiness inside the futsal court. "Hindi talaga ko futsal player. Football player ako pero nung sumali kami sa Allianz Cup (Allianz National Youth Futsal Invitational), mas na-enjoy ko na yung futsal."

On the other hand, Guam is also looking to begin its national futsal journey and using the upcoming international friendlies as a springboard to the growth of the sport in its country.

"This is our first time establishing our futsal national team for the women's so we're going to take it one game at a time and see how we go on Saturday and see what we need to do to improve for Sunday's match," said Guam's head coach Awa.

Finding its similarities with the Pinay5 Futsal, coach Awa discussed the challenges they faced when the invitation came in on quite short notice. "The women's outdoor league was actually finishing off when we got the invitation. We started putting up this team together towards the tail-end of August."

Compared to the Philippines, Coach Awa had the benefit of following Guam's own futsal league where he was able to hand-pick the players to represent their country against the Philippines.

Preparation was a bit rough as well for Guam as coach Awa bared that like in the Philippines, they also didn't have a proper futsal court that they could train into and had to talk to several government entities to use their gymnasiums and just make ends meet.

The Pinay5 Futsal team is expecting fans to flock their way to the Ninoy Aquino Stadium as admission is free and there are a lot of things that will happen apart from the actual friendly matches.

Both games will be starting at 4:30 PM but the gates will open at 2:30 PM to allot some time for ticket and vaccine card validation. For those who can't physically attend the matches, you can still watch it via live stream on the Philippine Football Federation's Facebook page.