JOYCE Onrubia came off the bench to score a last-gasp goal as Kaya-FC Iloilo came from behind to force a 1-1 draw with Iran’s Bam Khatoon FC last Wednesday night and stay alive in Group C of the AFC Women’s Champions League at the BG Stadium in Pathum Thani, Thailand.

With the clock winding down and the Kaya-Iloilo booters facing elimination, Onrubia took Anicka Castaneda’s cross pass inside the box to slot in the equalizer in the fourth minute of added time for the team’s second point.

The draw was quite a relief for the charges of coach Lelet Dimzon, who trailed 0-1 at the break after Zahra Ghanbari converted a penalty kick in the 39th minute when Anna de Los Reyes took down Mona Hamoudi from behind inside the penalty area.

Melbourne City dumped Thailand’s College of Asian Scholars 3-0 in the other group up to remain on top with its second straight win, with Kaya-Iloilo running second with two points while Bham Khatoon and CAS were tied for third and fourth with a point each.

The Kaya-Iloilo booters take on Melbourne City in their last game tomorrow, with a win guaranteeing them a spot in the knockout quarterfinal stage.

Helping them is Australian Filipinas coach Mark Torcaso, the 2023 A-League Coach of the Year, who is familiar with the Melbourne City style after facing the squad when he was coach of Western United.

The national men’s football team will kick off its campaign against Thailand today, Friday, in the opener of the four-nation King’s Cup in Songhkhla, Thailand.

The winner will face the victor of the match between Tajikistan and Syria for the championship trophy on Monday.

IN a first for Philippine football, the coaches of the national men’s and women’s squads are collaborating and cooperating to boost and encourage each other’s sides as they swing into action in international competitions.

“Groundbreaking” was how Australian Filipinas coach Mark Torcaso described his newfound partnership with newly-hired national men’s mentor Albert Capellas of Spain as they sat with each other in the press conference organized by the Philippine Football Federation last week.

“That is the message we (and Capellas) wanted to come across, of having a connection and being together since we have been here for a week while living in the same condo,” Torcaso said as the two national team tacticians showed mutual respect.

“I have something to share and he (Capellas) has something to share. We can learn a lot from each other,” added the former A League Coach of the Year, who joined Capellas as the Filipino booters competed in the Merdeka Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

They said this was a chance to pick each other’s minds before their respective sides compete abroad, with the men’s team set to compete in the King’s Cup in Songkhla, Thailand starting this Friday and the Filipinas vying in the Pink’s Cup from Oct. 26 to 30 in Antalya, Turkey.

Torcaso, who took over the coaching reins from compatriot Alen Stajcic and made his debut with the Nationals in the Hangzhou Asian Games in China last year, said this will be the start of their preparations for their three consecutive international meets.

He said the Filipinas might be able to defend the AFF Women’s Football Championship crown again in the middle of 2025, possibly in the Philippines anew, followed by the 33rd Thailand SEA Games in Bangkok in December and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Australia the succeeding month.

PFF national teams director Freddy Gonzalez, who also manages the Pinay footballers in an interim capacity and was at the same briefing, said the goal is for both national teams to play more often in the country while establishing greater rapport between their players.

“It’s high time that our national teams play in the Philippines more than once a year,” he said.  

PLAYING in hostile territory, the women’s Kaya FC-Iloilo squad held Thailand’s College of Asian Scholars to a scoreless draw last Sunday night in their opening Group B Match in the inaugural AFC Women’s Champions League at the BG Stadium in Pathum Thani, Thailand.

Playing in their first match in the newly formed continental club meet for women, the Kaya-Iloilo booters under former national coach Lelet Dimzon more than held their own against the Thais to pick up their first points in the group.

Midfielder Charisa Lemoran nearly gave the visitors the go-ahead goal off a penalty kick in the 30th minute from the right fringe of the penalty area, with CAS goalkeeper Yada Sengyong going full stretch to tip the ball over the crossbar.

The hosts nearly scored the first marker three minutes later when Kanyannat Chetthabutr slipped past defender Maya Alcantara to flick the ball over goalie Inna Palacios, but it was too weak and bounced once inside the goal box before hitting the crossbar, enabling Palacios to finally save it.

Dionesa Tolentin also had a fiery volley saved by Senyong in the 39th minute as the two sides wound up in a 0-0 stalemate at the break.

CAS continued to press in the second half but lacked the proper finishing while Palacios was able to foil back-to-back strikes in the 75th and 77th minutes, the first one off a right corner kick to smother a header and then on a follow-up strike.

Australian club Melbourne City nipped Iranian club Bam Kathoon 2-1 earlier to take the lead in the Group where the top two sides after the single-round series advance to the quarterfinals.

After a two-day respite, the Kaya booters face Bam Kathoon tomorrow while CAS takes on pacesetting Melbourne City.

They are likely to get some tips in their last game against the Aussies on Saturday from Filipinas coach Marc Torcaso, who may know the weaknesses of the side given his extensive experiences with the Women’s A-League Down Under.

RUGBY chief Ada Milby was proud of the golden double attained by the Philippine Volcanoes men’s and women’s squads in the just-concluded Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Trophy tournament in Kathmandu, Nepal over the weekend.

“We are immensely proud of both our women’s and men’s teams for their performances and dedication,” Milby, the Philippine Rugby Football Union president, said.

“Winning double gold at the Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Trophy is a historic achievement for Philippine Rugby, and it reflects the hard work of the athletes, coaches, and support staff to make it happen,” she added.

The men’s Volcanoes, mentored by Samoan Darryl Suasua, swept their matches, capped by a 27-12 romp over Chinese-Taipei in the finals.

This feat was duplicated by the women’s Volcanoes, with Hong Kong native Samantha Scott at the helm, climaxed by a thrilling 7-5 win over Sri Lanka on a last-minute penalty award. 

Their achievements enabled both squads to get promoted back to Division 1 in both categories in 2025 and augurs well for the country’s preparations for the 33rd Thailand Southeast Asian Games when rugby sevens returns as a medal sport. 

“We are excited to see the continued growth and success of rugby in the Philippines,” Milby, a member of the women’s squad that bagged the silver medal in the 2019 Philippine SEA Games, noted.

NEWLY-HIRED national men’s football team coach Albert Capellas of Spain aims to bring a winning attitude and build his squad around three core values to jar the Pinoy booters out of the doldrums so that they can be a force to reckon with anew in international play.

“Our way of playing is based on three core values. Without these three values, we cannot achieve our aims,” Capellas said in his first face-to-face press conference with local media last week together with Philippine Football Federation president John Gutierrez and national team manager Freddy Gonzalez.

“The first one is honesty. That in everything we do we can look each other in the eye that we have to do the right thing (on and off the pitch),” said the former Barcelona B coach, who was among those who nurtured Spanish midfield maestro Andres Iniesta, a two-time Euro and 2010 World Cup champion.

“The second is commitment. Everybody must have the commitment to do their best for the national team, the players, the staff, the people in the federation. Everyone must be committed so that we are able to achieve the aims that we are working for,” he said.

“The third and final one is courage. We have to make decisions in the way we want to play, in the way we want to organize. In a national team when you have to make changes, you need courage,” he stressed.

Capellas said he does not prepare for a match or an opponent with a defeatist outlook, saying: “I am coach that I never lose a game before a game, maybe after. But I always think before a game that I always have the chance to win the game.”

With the offensive-oriented football he has in mind, the Spanish tactician said he wants players “who are smart, fast thinking, who can handle the pressure. Players who have a high technical level. 

“We want to play more from the back and build up. We want to press more and bring the ball closer to the goal to create scoring chances. We want to avoid playing long balls without making sense. We want better ball position. We want to run more.”

Given these rigorous demands, Capellas said that “it is now up to me to find the right players to achieve this. And I already have scouted a lot of them and some quality with the way we want to play.”

The early fruits of Capellas’ tinkering showed in the Pinoy booters’ closely-fought match against Tajikistan in the battle for third place in the Merdeka Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last month, narrowly losing 3-4 in a penalty shootout after battling their fancied foes to a scoreless draw in regulation.

He said he is more of a one-match-at-a-time mentor that doesn’t look far ahead so declined to say something about the Nationals’ participation in the Mitsubishi Electric Cup, the AFF Men’s Football Championship, in December.

“I won’t speculate about what will happen in the Mitsubishi Electric Cup but what I am more concerned about is our next opponent, Thailand,” said Capellas of the powerhouse host Thais, whom they face on Friday at the start of the 50th King’s Cup in Songkhla, Thailand.

They are scheduled to leave tomorrow for the four-nation tourney also featuring Tajikistan against Syria on Friday, with the winners of each match battling for the championship on Oct. 14. 

THE Philippines will host the inaugural FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup from Nov. 21 to Dec. 7, 2025, International Football Federation president Giovanni Infantino announced last Saturday.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to announce that the inaugural FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup in the Philippines has been confirmed with the opening matches taking place on the 21st of November with the 16 participating teams competing for a place in the finals 7th of December 2025,” Infantino said in a 30-second videotape sent to Malaya-Business Insight.

“Congratulations Philippines,” added the Italian chief of the world football body after the announcement of the specific dates of the competition that was awarded to the Philippine Football Federation led by John Gutierrez during the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand last May.

Gutierez said they had already identified a site In Iloilo and the Philsports Arena in Pasig City as the initial venues of the maiden edition of the FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup and are still looking for other potential sites.

“We took a look at some of the potential venues in Cebu but none could come up to the FIFA standards, so we are looking for others,” said Gutierrez during a press conference held last week.

He added the country will host the AFF Women’s Futsal Championship next month with the aim of hyping next year’s big tournament and as part of the PFF’s efforts to groom the national women’s team under Dutch coach Victor Hermans for the challenges that lie ahead.

With the Philippines ensured of a spot in the meet, two other Asian countries will vie for the remaining slots for the continent in the AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup scheduled from May 7 to 18 next year in China.

Qualifying tournaments will be held in Africa, with two slots up for grabs, Central America and the Caribbean (two), South America (three) and Europe (four) contesting 12 other slots, with New Zealand booking a ticket for having topped the Oceania meet.

A reliable PFF source said hosting the FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup would cost around P800 million, so the local body is now looking for sponsors and supporters, including the Philippine Sports Commission, to help bankroll the project.