The Taiwanese womens team flew out to Guam yesterday in advance of their opening round of qualifiers for the EAFF Finals that would be played in 2028. The tournament run by the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) occurs every three years, with lower ranked teams in the region required to play against each other in a mini-tournament. Once all the games are played, a single qualifier emerges to take their place along with the three top ranked teams in the region, which for the 2028 edition are Japan, China and North Korea.

The EAFF qualifiers will feature five teams; South Korea, Guam, Macao, Northern Mariana Islands and Taiwan. Two other East Asian sides– Hong Kong and Mongolia– appear to have not sent teams to the qualifiers.

For the Mulan, their ‘group’ will consist of two ‘home and away’ style games against the Northern Mariana Islands. Should they get past the lowly ranked underdogs, they will likely play South Korea in the qualifier finals.

Newly hired national team coach Patrick De Wilde has opted to take a nineteen player roster, which is one woman short of the twenty-player max limit. There are few surprises in the call-ups, with the team being very similar to the side called up for the AFC Finals in the spring. However, it will be interesting to see if the Belgian coach opts for different tactics to his predecessors.

GK: Wang Yu-ting, Cheng Ssu-yu
DF: Chiang Chi-lan, Huang Ke-sin,  Pan Yen-hsin, Pan Shin-yu, Su Sin-yun, Teng Pei-lin
MF: Chen Ying-hui , Hsu Yi-yun, Lin Yu-syuan, Tseng Yun-ching, Saki Matsunaga, Wu Kai-ching,  
FW: Chen Yu-chin,  He Jia-shiuan, Li Yi-wen, Liu Yu-chiao, Su Yu-hsuan

Photo Credit: CTFA