Sara Isobel Arrieta Castañeda (born December 5, 1996)[3] is a Filipino footballer who plays as a midfielder for the Philippines women's national team.

Youth and collegiate career

Castañeda has a younger brother and sister, Anicka Castañeda.[4] She took up the sport of football at age 5, after witnessing her brother play for the Makati Football Club. She attended De La Salle Zobel for her high school studies and was part of her school's football team. During her high stint, she was awarded the Athlete of the Year twice.[5]

Castañeda later played for the football team of her college, De La Salle University.[5] With her team, she competed in 2016 in the UAAP Season 78 football tournaments and scored in the final against UP Lady Maroons but lost with 1–2. She became after the tournament Rookie of the Year.

International career

Before her stint with her college, Castañeda has already played for the under-16 and under-19 Philippine national football teams. She made her debut for the senior team at age 18 in May 2015 at the 2015 AFF Women's Championship.[5] She also participated in the 2016 edition.

Castañeda helped the Philippines qualify for their first AFC Women's Asian Cup since the qualification stage was introduced. She scored 4 goals in the 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualifiers in 2017 including the equalizer in the 1–1 tie against Bahrain that secured the Philippines qualification for the 2018 edition of the continental tournament.[6]

Despite Castañeda's contribution to the qualification, she had to secure a berth for the Philippine squad that will participate at the final tournament of the 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup. By February 2018 she was removed from the national pool[6] but was later reinstated.[7] She was included in the final-23 roster for the 2018[8] and 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup.[9] In the 2022 tournament where the Philippines qualified for their first ever FIFA Women's World Cup, she was mostly utilized as a substitute.[9]

International goals

Scores and results list the Philippines' goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	April 3, 2017	Pamir Stadium, Dushanbe, Tajikistan	United Arab Emirates	4–0	4–0	2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification
2.	April 5, 2017		Iraq	3–0	4–0
3.	April 7, 2017		Tajikistan	4–0	8–0
4.	April 10, 2017		Bahrain	1–0	1–1
5.	November 4, 2018	Hisor Central Stadium, Hisor, Tajikistan	Singapore	7–0	9–0	2020 Summer Olympics qualification
6.	November 8, 2018		Tajikistan	2–1	3–1
7.				3–1
8.	April 9, 2019	Grand Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar	Palestine	6–0	7–0
9.				7–0
10.	17 August 2019	IPE Chonburi Stadium 1, Chonburi, Thailand	Timor-Leste	2–0	7–0	2019 AFF Women's Championship

References

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