Fil-foreigners to try out for PH Malditas

THE Philippine Malditas women’s national football team is going the the Azkals’ way with the arrival of two Fil-foreign players from the United States and Germany.

Team manager and coach Ernie Nierras said yesterday that Fil-American Heather Cooke and Fil-German Cristina Keuter will join the tryouts for the national women’s team in the next few weeks.

The 22-year-old Cooke, whose father is a US naval officer and whose mother is a Filipina, is one of the best defensive players of the Arunderl Soccer Association Chesapeake Charge, which made it to the Division I quarterfinals of the Women’s Professional Soccer League in the US.

While attending college at the Loyola University in Maryland, she was a four-year women’s soccer letter winner, an All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference First Team honoree and a recipient of the Ernest Lagna and John R. Moller awards.

The 21-year-old Keuter, whose father is German and whose mother is a Filipina from Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, is a member of the SC Fortuna squad in Cologne.

“They are not yet shoo-ins to the team. But I will see them soon during the team inspections,” said Nierras, who is conducting regular tryouts and practices at the pitch of the University of Makati.

Nierras said the Malditas have been inactive for the last 18 months, but are set to see action in the Group Stage of the ASEAN Football Federation Women’s Championship slated Oct. 15 to 25 in Laos. Peter Atencio

Manila Standard Today