Fresh off a memorable unbeaten and victorious Deloitte Women’s Premier League (WPL) campaign, the Lion City Sailors Women’s team are raring to take the next step as they face some of the region’s best at SingaCup’s inaugural Women’s Football Championship (WFC) 2022 between 17 to 21 October 2022. 

Starting off with a match-up against Philippines’ Kaya FC-Iloilo on Monday, 17 Oct (German European School, kickoff 7.30pm), Yeong Sheau Shyan’s charges will then play Indonesia’s Persib Bandung Putri two days later (Bedok Stadium, kickoff 7.30pm) before ending the tournament against Thailand’s Phranakorn FC on Friday, 21 Oct (German European School, kickoff 7.30pm).

The three teams are set to give the Sailors a huge test of their abilities. 

Kaya are led by highly-decorated former Philippines Women’s national team head coach Let Dimzon, while Persib are the reigning champions of Liga 1 Putri, the top tier of women’s football in Indonesia, a title they won in 2019. Phranakorn – a new club that will join the Thai Women’s League next season – are no pushovers either, they have several former senior and youth Thai internationals in their ranks. 

Sailors Women Head Coach Sheau Shyan is looking forward to the opportunity to see where they stand against some of Southeast Asia’s best. 

“These teams come from countries where the level is much higher than what we have here, so the girls definitely have to step up their game and perform much better than how they did in the WPL,” emphasised the 44-year-old, who is also the head coach of the national Under-16 girls team and assistant coach to the Under-19 girls. 

“I foresee the strongest challenge to come from Phranakorn FC, but the other two teams are equally as good as well. It’ll be a good test to see how well we work together as a team to break down these quality sides. 

“We’re a bit short of numbers due to some injured players, so there’ll be some new faces joining the team for this and it’ll be interesting to see how they complement the rest of the team.”