Lionesses captain Siti Rosnani unfazed by stiff competition at upcoming Asean Women’s C’ship

SINGAPORE – Having grabbed the last spot for the 2025 Asean Women’s Championship, Singapore captain Siti Rosnani Azman remains unfazed at the prospect of facing tougher opponents.

The Lionesses finished third at the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Women’s Cup last December to clinch the final berth for the eight-team competition, with the draw, venue and dates to be announced later.

At a press conference on March 4 at the Jalan Besar Stadium, where insurer MSIG was unveiled as the first title partner since the tournament’s inception in 2004, Rosnani said: “Apart from the excitement, pressure will start to kick in because I’m pretty sure that this competition is not going to be an easy one.

“We managed to qualify through the first round (AFF Women’s Cup), but the second one is going to be a harder one.

“We will be competing against countries that have already been to the World Cup, but we’ll give our best no matter what.”

The championship, which will also be known as the MSIG Serenity Cup, will see qualifiers Indonesia, Cambodia and Singapore joining the top four sides from the last edition in 2022 – defending champions Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam – and Australia.

While Australia fielded an Under-23 side when they made their competition debut three years ago, an AFF spokesman said in response to queries from The Straits Times that will not be the case this time around.

ST understands there could also potentially be prize money for the first time, but the spokesman did not elaborate, saying only that details will be announced at the official draw, where teams will be separated into two groups of four.

The Thais, Vietnamese and Filipinas are the only South-east Asian sides to have qualified for the Women’s World Cup previously, with the latter two flying the region’s flag at the last edition in 2023 co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

AFF president Khiev Sameth hopes the MSIG Serenity Cup can help more South-east Asian sides reach World Cup standard.

Noting that the Philippines pulled off an upset to beat New Zealand in 2023, he added: “I think we can use the Asean Championship as a pathway and I hope that more Asean teams (will) play in the next Women’s World Cup.”

Philippines captain Olivia McDaniel hopes that the biennial tournament will help “build the sport throughout South-east Asia”.

She added: “I think it’s so important (that) more teams get to be able to have the opportunity to go to the World Cup. It’s just going to make it even more competitive and just grow the sport even further.

“And for the young ones to be able to see people that they look up to, on the biggest stage in the world, maybe it’ll inspire them to dream a little higher and be able to see themselves on that stage one day.”

The Lionesses have never made it out of the group stage in the history of the Asean Women’s Championship.

They have also suffered several heavy defeats in recent years. They conceded 17 goals in two matches against North Korea at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September 2023, and let in 11 goals in two friendlies against Bangladesh three months later.

While they thrashed Macau 9-0 in a friendly in July 2024, with star forward Danelle Tan scoring a hat-trick, their performance at the AFF Women’s Cup was unconvincing.

After beating Laos 1-0 and drawing 1-1 with Timor-Leste in the group stage, they lost 3-0 to eventual winners Indonesia in the semi-finals, before pipping Timor-Leste 1-0 in the third-place play-off to grab the last ticket for the tournament.

But Rosnani believes that the team have learnt from their experiences.

She added: “The intensity of the games and the results that we managed to get in each competition show how far we have come and what are the things that we need to improve on together as a team.”