Illawarra Stingrays striker Sarina Bolden prepares for maiden World Cup berth

The US-born 27-year-old said that despite being their first appearance at the tournament - held in Australia and New Zealand - they would not be there to make up the numbers, rather, they have the lofty ambition of topping their group.

Being in Group A with co-hosts New Zealand as well as European powerhouses Norway and Switzerland, that is a big statement. But with former Matildas coach Alen Stajcic at the helm, you can understand the type of ambition the team would have.

Read more: Olympic put Bulli humiliation behind them by defeating leaders Albion Park

In preparation for the biggest tournament of her life, Bolden played for Western Sydney in the recent A-League Women's season.

Rather than training on her own before the Cup got underway, Bolden wanted to find the right NPL club to play for. That is where Steve Gordon and the Stingrays came in.

Bolden gave thanks to a couple of her Wanderers and now Stingrays team mates for getting her down to the Illawarra.

"When I was at Wanderers I was talking to my teammates that I played with Danika [Matos] and then Aimee Hall, our goalkeeper," she said.

"I was talking to Aimee about joining an NPL team and stuff like that and she said there's one in the Illawarra and I was like, oh really? So that perked my interest. I just didn't know exactly where to go and just logistically that made more sense. And it's nice that Wollongong has got a beach and the university is out there too so it's just got a good aura about it.

"I said was there any way you can talk to the coach and see if I could potentially play if he's interested in me coming on and she talked to him the next day and he said he would love to have me on the team."

Bolden has been full-on football since the ALW came to an end. Whilst playing with the Stingrays, the Philippines team have entered the final preparations for the World Cup, with their first match on July 21 against the Swiss in Dunedin.

The striker will be crucial to any chance of success for the side and she was chomping at the bit to get it started.

"I'm super excited. We've been doing a lot of preparation. The second we qualified everyone was like OK we've got the World Cup on our mind and every tournament, every little friendly that we've had in between since we qualified until now it's been in the back and the front of our minds," Bolden said.

"Obviously it's our debut as a country in both the female and male game. Being part of this experience so far has been amazing and I'm obviously a little nervous but I think that's normal to have a little bit of nerves going into something so big and huge.

Read more: Coniston beat Tarrawanna to keep pace with finals pack

"Our goal for the World Cup is to definitely get out of the group stage first and foremost. That's the big one. We're not just going to think we made it and just have fun. We're really there to win and go as far as we can. I think it would be even better if we could top the group. It's easier said than done. We're up against former champions Norway and then we have Switzerland who are just as good.

"And then you have New Zealand being the host country and it's going to be difficult."

Bolden added that she was proud of how far football had come in the Philippines and that having Stajcic as coach had played a part in that.

"I feel like maybe a year ago or maybe even four years ago when we tried to qualify back then we would have been happy to just be in the World Cup and it would have been a different mentality," she added.

"Obviously we didn't have Alen back then, But I'm sure the mindset would have been that we were just so stoked to even be there.

"But under Alen and his staff's leadership, I think it's definitely shifted our mentality and our confidence in just the way we approach things and now fast forward to the 2023 World Cup, we want to go as far as we can go as opposed to just being participants and just being grateful.

"We are grateful, but we want more and we want to achieve so it's definitely a different mindset going into this."

Read more: The Sunday Round-up: The weekend in Illawarra sport

Our news app has had a makeover, making it faster and giving you access to even more great content. Download The Illawarra Mercury news app in the Apple Store and Google Play.