Filipinas goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel has humbly deflected the credit to her teammates, attributing their stunning 1-0 victory over New Zealand in the FIFA Women’s World Cup on Tuesday afternoon in New Zealand to their collective effort.
Despite making all the saves on the Kiwis goals, McDaniel emphasized that her teammates also played a significant role in securing the national women’s football team’s first-ever victory on the world football stage.
“This is just what I have done; this is what the team has done and what the country has done. It was a team win,” said McDaniel, who was hailed as Player of the Game in the victory.
“It is amazing (the Player of the Game trophy), but hopefully this is not the last accolade we will win,” she added. “Hopefully we will keep it next to the World Cup trophy when we get it.”
McDaniel admitted that facing and defeating New Zealand was a challenging task, particularly considering the host team’s morale-boosting 1-0 victory over Norway at the start of the World Cup last week.
“We really put our heads down and we knew what was really coming at us. New Zealand would be coming hard from their momentum of their win against Norway, but we put our heads down and came in focused. We had a goal in mind and we achieved it,” she said.
McDaniel also pointed out that there was a testy moment in the game when New Zealand’s Jacqui Hand knocked down a potential game-tying goal, only for it to be disallowed due to being offside.
“We collectively held our breath for a minute or two. Such an incredible goal by them, but we are grateful that it was called back and we had to move forward,” said the Filipina-American keeper.
“We had to settle down and knew that would keep coming, and we had to make sure that it would not happen again,” McDaniel concluded.
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