The way Australia name their sporting teams is based on animals found in......drum roll....Australia
Rugby Union - Wallabies
Rugby League - Kangaroos
Soccer (mens) - Socceroos (PS: since kangaroos is already taken, they used the words "soccer" and "roos" slang for kangaroos to form their nickname
Soccer (womens) - matildas (they used the feminine form to link it with socceroos)
Soccer (junior boys) - Joeys (a baby kangaroo)
Soccer (junior girls) - young matildas
Hockey (womens) - Hockeyross (again they used the word hockey and roos to form their nickname). This team is more famous than the men's team
Hockey(mens) - Kookaburras (a native bird of Australia). They were already running out of other choices for nicknames..so they used this name..unfortunately, there is no connection with the nickname to the women's team.
I am rather pleased that PFF chose malditas (for the time being at least).
Sometime last year, I was concerned when I was reading pinoy sports articles calling them Lady Azkals. Which could be or is politically incorrect.
Asklas is our term for street dogs that loiter most streets in PHI. In modern slang it also annotates someone or something without a pedigree or status. Also, the term for a female dog is a B*tch.
So, had we used Lady Azkals as a nickname, it would have been inappropriate - considering that most member countries in the AFC are islamic countries and they have strict cultural / religious beliefs specific to pigs and dogs. And more so, any references to those animals should not be referred or linked to women.
Interesting though, how the foreign media will interpret or translate the word malditas in their respective languages when the WNT plays international games.
"Do or do not. There is no try" (Master Yoda)