Sofia Harrison is back in Fuquay-Varina after playing for the Philippines in the Women's World Cup. She was part of the country's first win in the tournament.
So last year in September, we actually played New Zealand in a friendly in Fullerton California and we lost 2 to 1. Um But throughout that game, I definitely thought that we, you know, could have won. And so going into this World Cup match for, for me personally, like I didn't really see it as, you know, like they're the hosts and more the underdogs. It was kind of just, you know, like winning redemption and wanting to, to be able to beat them this time around. It was, it was unbelievable. Uh We had uh Filipinos coming from everywhere. We had a huge Filipino community in New Zealand to begin with and each, each game we had our uh support grew more and more uh for our last game against Norway. I believe the total count was under 35,000 and about 80% of the fans there were Filipinos. So it, it felt like it felt like it was a home game for us. So that was, that was definitely cool to experience. And when we were singing our national anthem, you could, you could hear it loud and clear like in the stands. So it it was, it was just really special. The main sport in the Philippines is basketball. And so football or soccer hasn't really been seen as a, you know, a popular sport there, but over the past year or two, since, you know, all of the success that we've had for the women's team, I think the, the sport has definitely grown. Um, you know, our, the grassroots programs have improved and a lot more kids, you know, girls and boys have been looking up to us and have been inspired by us to, to want to play football. So it's, it's definitely a special, special thing to be a part of and to, to see that growth in the youth.
