Philippine Sports News and Updates

The Filipina women's soccer team will join the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Women's Championships to start Wednesday in Yangon, Myanmar, reported the official Philippine News Agency Sunday.

Composed of a mixture of veterans and newcomers, the team is set to leave on Tuesday with high hope of using the 11-day, eight- nation tournament to toughen their skills in preparation for the 24th Southeast Games to be hosted by Thailand Dec. 6-16, said the report.

"This will be a major test for the team," said Cathy Rivilla, who is co-managing the team along with Ernie Nierras.

"We are confident of a strong finish and with the good draw that we got, we are positive to reach the semifinals and hopefully the finals," added Rivilla, who is also the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and International Football Federation (FIFA) match commissioner.

The Philippines is due to meet Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam in the preliminaries, while the second group are composed of Thailand, Singapore, Laos and the host squad.

The Filipinas have already beaten the Indonesians and the Malaysians in their previous meetings.

Top two teams from each group will advance to the crossover semifinals with the winners moving on to the title match.

Source: English People's Daily Online