04 - Sarina Bolden - Finding her Balance and Choosing to Play for the Philippines

Sarina Bolden is a forward for the Philippine Women's National Team. She started playing for the Philippines in 2018 and now with 12 appearances and 5 goals. She played collegiate football with Loyola Marymount University in the US with 71 appearances and 18 goals. Her career highlights include ranking 5th in total career goals and also 5th in LMU’s football program history with 135 shot attempts! She currently plays club football with Chifure AS Elfen Saitama in Japan's WE League. You may know her for scoring the game-winning penalty kick against Chinese Taipei that secured our qualification to the biggest party of all, THE FIFA WOMEN'S WORLD CUP!  This episode was recorded early in the morning. We talked about how she's doing in Japan, finding her balance, and what she's currently working on in preparation for the World Cup. I've uploaded a video clip of her showing what's inside her bag on the Facebook page and maybe upload it on youtube as well. I'm currently working on the videos and I'm a one-man show so please bear with me. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I did recording it!   PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS: 02:40 - Life in Japan 06:18 - College Playing Career, attending the U23 USWNT and PWNT Camp 08:40 - Choosing the Philippines 10:22 - Securing the Passport 12:39 - Asian Cup 2018 15:37 - Playing for the Philippines 18:20 - Meeting Coach Allen 22:20 - Collegiate Soccer vs National Team Training 23:50 - Communication 25:45 - Asian Cup 2022 28:35 - Mindset 33:35 - Future Plans 35:00 - Preparing for the World Cup 37:00 - Questions from Listeners - What's Inside your Bag? 40:36 - Questions from Listeners - Special Bond with Q 41:50 - Questions from Listeners - Why she's not in the PWNT - AU Camp 44:18 - Female Football Player Inspirations 46:20 - Possibility of Playing against World #1, USA. 49:30 - Message to Stakeholders and Players INTRO CLIP and Photo owned by AFC - Asian Cup 2022