By his recollection, Amani Aguinaldo was in Thailand, in an apartment provided by his club team there, watching on TV as the Philippines’ women’s national football team kicked off their first game in the Women’s World Cup last year.

“I want something like that for the [men’s] team, for the future of the Philippines,” Aguinaldo, the 29-year-old center-back, the captain of the national squad, thought to himself then.

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“To be honest, I was inspired,” he told the Inquirer on seeing the women’s team on football’s biggest stage. “It’s something to strive for. As a player, those are things that you see and that you dream about.

“And since I joined the national team, it’s one thing to play for the national team and one thing to win something with the national team.”

Aguinaldo was among the players who showed up during the kit reveal of the men’s squad. Puma, the official kit provider of the team, unveiled home and away sets that were designed to honor the Filipino culture and resilience, drawing inspirations from the sunrise (home) and the monsoons (away).

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“I like them,” Aguinaldo said.

The men’s team will wear the kits during the 2024 Asean Mitsubishi Electric Cup, the prestigious regional tournament that has a special place in the hearts of Filipino football fans.

It was in 2010 when the men’s team, then known as the Azkals, defeated Vietnam in a group stage match that would eventually be known as the “Miracle in Hanoi.” That win revived football’s popularity in the country.

Aguinaldo is hoping a strong performance will do the same thing for this batch of Nationals.

“To be the team that actually wins it—because I don’t think the Philippines have won the Mitsubishi Electric Cup, right?—I think it will be amazing,” he said. “I think it will bring football back [into] the Philippine sports scene. And this is a wonderful opportunity for us to prove that we’re here.”

Opens vs Myanmar

It’s a long way to go to win the title. As Aguinaldo said, seven-time winner Thailand sets out “to win the [Cup] every single time.” But it’s the start of a journey that he wants the men’s team to take.

“For the last, I don’t know how many years, it’s a thing that I’ve been wanting to achieve with the national team,” he said. “To actually win something, to win a tournament. To let all the Filipinos know that football is alive in the Philippines.”

The Philippines opens its bid on Dec. 12 against Myanmar and right now, the final roster has yet to be drawn.

“From our last camp in Hong Kong and then the couple of sessions that we trained here in Manila, I would say that the team’s philosophy is almost ingrained into the players,” Aguinaldo said. “And I think that it would not be hard to adjust to the coach’s philosophy, to the team’s philosophy going into the Mitsubishi Cup. So I think we’re prepared.”

Aguinaldo said the tournament will also be a perfect stepping stone to supercharge the men’s program.

“We need … more games together, definitely,” he said. “So I think the Mitsubishi Cup will be a good place, not only to make our team better … but to really get to know our philosophy. Like, this is how the Philippines play their football. The young players will see, okay, we need to adapt to this style of play.”

Then the time to chase bigger dreams can begin.