Alas Pilipinas head coach Jorge Souza de Brito hinted at stretching out his rotation ahead of their crucial match against Iran in the 2024 AVC Challenge Cup for Women on Saturday.
De Brito said he plans to start the game with the same composition featuring Jia De Guzman, Dawn Catindig, Angel Canino, Eya Laure, Sisi Rondina, Thea Gagate, and Fifi Sharma.
However, he also revealed that he is looking at maximizing his bench players to give the starters some rest.
“Exactly. We can’t make many changes, we’re trying to. What the guys are doing, it’s so important because even if they don’t change, they know exactly what they hold inside and outside,” said De Brito.
“The team tomorrow, they’re gonna see. Maybe more changes suited for the players, they cannot play three game days in sequence.”
The Brazilian head coach explained that it’s important for the team to utilize their bench in a short tournament like this. De Brito also said that he is confident that whoever he will field will provide the same intensity and compete at the same level as the starters.
“Maybe we have to do this. We start the same. Don’t tell them (jokes). We’re going to start the same. But we need to make the changes. We need to move,” said De Brito.
“It’s important to play a competition day after day just using the same guys. I’m sure that the guys that will replace them will be ready to play. They will do the same. They guys can be really, really good, have a good game again,” he added.
The Philippines started the tournament strong, bouncing back from a 0-1 deficit against a towering Australia side to open its campaign with a four-set, 22-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-21 victory last Thursday.
Alas Pilipinas then followed it up with another strong performance against India, 22-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-18, for a dream 2-0 start, which put them at the top of Group A.
The Nationals look to close in on a spot in the semifinals later today at 7:00 p.m. against the Iranians.
“Every time that we’re gonna play here, I’m sure that they’re gonna show something better than the day before. Even if the guys are a little bit tired, they have the specific ingredients that we need,” said De Brito.
“They are really committed to play. They are really happy. Because they didn’t just…a lot of fans are supporting them and they want to show up every single day better.”
