Emma Pijnenburg: Wellington Phoenix Women midfielder previews the second leg of the semifinal against the Brisbane Roar

It’s a major weekend for the Wellington Phoenix women. 

90 minutes are standing between the team and the A-League Grand Final – the Nix sitting at a one goal deficit heading into the second leg of the semifinal against the Brisbane Roar. 

Midfielder Emma Pijnenburg joined D’Arcy Waldegrave to discuss leg one and look ahead to tomorrow’s clash. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldegrave from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Let's get amongst some more football a the Way Henix.
It's the Wellington Phoenix women's side, semi final number two
now trying to make it to the big dance. We're
joined by Emma Pinenberg out of that team gek Off.
It's a two thirty on Sky Sport for that one
and she joins us. Now ninety minutes away from making

(00:34):
the Grand Final. This is big up against the Brisbane
Raw They are two to one behind after the first
leg and we're joined now by Emma Pinenberg the midfield
to talk about it. Mordena, Emma, good morning. I've got
to ask I'm great. I've got to ask about the
excitement levels. It was a close run thing last week. Well,
the first ten minutes was crazy for the Way Hennix,

(00:56):
the Wellington Phoenix women. But now you've got a chance
at home to come back and maybe beat up on Brisbane.
Energy levels over the last week have they been waning?
I've been lifting. How have you been feeling?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Obviously after the last game we were pretty disappointed not
to win, but we also know that it's only it's
only half time essentially out of the two games, so
there's still a lot to play for, so the energy's
still been pretty high looking forward to to this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
How much time do you spend on the tape rolling
back to that raw game and working out what didn't work?
Because it's something that Bib Priestman coach does, it's something
you guys do as individuals. How do you look at that?

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, everyone watches the game back themselves, and then obviously
we do the team review and there's probably been a
bit more than usual because we are playing the same
team twice in a row, so it's all still very relevant.
So yeah, lots of reviewing.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
What did you find? What did you find? Your eyes
see when you rewatch that game?

Speaker 3 (01:56):
So here, like you said, the first ten minutes were crazy.
We put them under a lot of pressure and then
so I think we turned them well at the start,
and then we probably lacked the composure as the game
went on. So we should have adapted that and then
tried to keep the ball a bit more.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Is it a hard thing to reflect on saying like
critical of yourself that you should have keeped your composures?
Is that is it and it you really want to scratch.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, it's one of those tricky things because it's not
really about like your technique or like something you can train.
It's kind of like a mentality thing and like a
momentum thing. So it's kind of it can be difficult
to to train and to coach, so it's about being
like connected on the field and knowing what we're trying
to achieve.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Is this purely experiential? You can only understand this until
you've been through that.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Yeah, I guess so. And I think that's why having
a lot of experience in the team is quite useful.
Like Book nine obviously won this last year, has been
through this, so having players that have been through a
lot can really carry the team through those moments.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
How much to you talking about carrying things carry the
pressure of expectation being you could be the first Phoenix
team to actually end up in a Grand Final. Does
that interfere with your preparation much?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
It's pretty special, But to be honest, they haven't been
thinking about it as pressure, like as an expectation. It's
more just like a really cool opportunity actually, and like
seeing there's a lot of people like around the city
that are talking about this team, like young girls coming
to watch, even young boys as well. So it's just
been really special to see the community getting behind it.
And yeah, it definitely feels more like an opportunity than

(03:43):
an expectation.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Must be a wonderful feeling to have when you see
the upsurge and interest behind this team, as you see
it from the young girls, from the young boys, from everybody.
You don't really want to push that to one side.
You probably want to treasure the pride you're feeling.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, yeah, it's very special. Like when we do kind
of these promo things and go to goals and talk
to the kids, like, it's really cool to see how
much of them or how many of them like know
us and are following the league and are excited to
come and watch us. It's really cool.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yourself, what do you need to apply ahead of this game?
You must have your own personal way of preparing for this,
aside from what the team wants. What do you do
and the lead up to such a big match and
the couple of days beforehand.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
I think it's it is a big occasion, but still
trying to treat it like another game, and you still
go through the same review process, like as a midfielder
talking to my other midfielders, to Jaralah's next to me
on the field, like what do we need to adapt
from the last game, and then just do that and
training as much as you can, maybe virsualize things, just

(04:53):
kind of what you'd normally do for a game.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
The three years you spend over in Europe and Holland,
what kind of advantage I think that's given you playing
in that pro league from well a relatively young age
when you arrived there. Can you take much from that
experience and help your team or plant that down for
yourself Ema.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, I think like any any different experiences that you
can have and then bring into a new environment is
important that you'll take away different things from different places.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
That leads very technical, tactically, very good. So hopefully I
can apply that composure from that I learnt there into
these games. They'll be very good for us this weekend.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, Well, composures obviously the key. You can't get overly
excited in saying that. You also can't forget the gravity
of the situation and use some of that to help
propel you forward. And that is the difficult balance, then
I will never have to an experience as a broadcaster
not a player. Does it get any easier to delineate

(05:56):
to make that difference and work on the positives?

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, that's it is a balance. I guess it's like
an amazing occasion. But if you too carried away with
that then you, yeah, you lose your composure. So it
is very difficult, but maybe just the perspective that you
have on it, like trying not to feel the pressure
too much and to just really enjoy it, like it's
an amazing occasion. It's a semi final that is where

(06:22):
we want to be, so trying to look at it
in that positive way and just being really connected as
a team is very important. To have each other's back
no matter what happens.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Well, the calm that you have obviously from your professional
time over in the Netherlands and finally your time spent
with the football ferns, I think it's going to pay dividends.
Really looking forward to tomorrow afternoon you get in there
and you cause a rucket semma.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Well too.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Thank you for more from the Your Sport Breakfast with
Darcy Watergrave. Listen live to news talks that'd be on
Saturday mornings, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.