Philippines advances to women’s football semifinals
By Adrian Stewart Co

The Philippine women’s national football team, the Maditas, booked their spot in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games women’s football semifinals after a 5-0 drubbing of their Malaysian counterparts last week at the Biñan Football Stadium in Laguna.
Striker Sarina Bolden opened scoring in the 25th minute. Fellow striker Alisha del Campo then doubled the lead with a header in the 39th minute.
Towards the end of the first half, Bolden secured a hat trick with goals in the 42nd minute and in stoppage time, giving the Philippines a 4-0 halftime lead.
By the end of the second half, forward Eva Madarang topped off the manita with a final goal three minutes into stoppage time.
“We were confident that we [could] win this game but we were not sure how Malaysia would play,” said Malditas head coach Let Dimzon. “Since napag-aralan na namin ‘yung mga players, the more that we have chances, mas maraming chance na maka-score kami (Since our players studied, the more chances we got, the more chances we had to score).”
The Philippines next faces either Vietnam, Thailand, or Indonesia, which will be determined today.
The semifinals are set to begin on Thursday, December 5./ASC, WDJ