Women’s Asian Cup: The Philippines’ Australian coach Mark Torcaso welcomes repeat challenge of facing Matildas

The Philippines’ Australian coach Mark Torcaso has promised his side will “fight to the death” and declared his side are more prepared for their Women’s Asian Cup opener than their previous 8-0 hiding by the Matildas. Back in October 2023, The Philippines walked into the belly of the beast and found themselves on the wrong side of a Matildas annihilation. In front of 59,155 fans at the Optus Stadium cauldron, Australia cruised to victory, the zenith of their post-Women’s World Cup high. But as The Philippines return to the same venue to face the same opponents, Torcaso said the right lessons had been learnt from that fateful afternoon. “Playing in the opening match does provide us challenges with playing in the host, but also probably one of the best teams in the tournament,” he told The West Australian. “We’re going to go out there and give it our absolute best — we’re going to fight right to the death and give our fans back at home the opportunity to see our really good young players on show, as well as our experienced girls.” That match was just Torcaso’s second match in charge of the team, and the coach admitted the experience caught everyone off guard at the time. “That, for us as a coaching staff, was one of the very first tournaments that we were in as a group and seeing the way things happen at national team level and being put on the big stage straight away was something that at the time was very overwhelming and very new,” he said. “At that point in time, there were a lot of things we were stepping into that were fresh. But the one thing we’ve done is grown as a group over the years to understand major tournaments, major competitions, even just international matches and understanding the processes around it, understanding our team. “Definitely, there’s been a lot of learning from my perspective over the two years. You only really find your feet once your players find their feet, and that doesn’t take a year, that takes a couple of years.” Torcaso said there was an eerie sense of deja vu when the draw landed The Philippines a trip back to Perth to face Australia at Optus Stadium. “There was a meme of me putting my head down and putting my hand to my head,” he said. “We joked about it, myself and (Matildas coach) Joe Montemurro, because we’ve known each other for a long time, saying ‘what are the chances we’re going to get ourselves in the same group?’ And it actually happened.” The Philippines participated in the last Women’s World Cup, won gold at the South East Asian Games in December and know a quarter-final berth in Australia will guarantee them a shot at qualification for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. “I’m here to do a job for the Philippines, and I’m excited to be here on home soil but we’ve got a goal,” Torcaso said. “We want to give as many of our players this exposure in major tournaments so we can be competitive, not just for now, but for the long term as a country, in World Cups and in Asian Cups and and not just be a team that comes just to compete.”