Alyssa Winham: Wellington Phoenix women's player ahead of the team's clash against Canberra

The Wellington Phoenix women's side are set to face off against Canberra United.

Alyssa Winham joined Piney to discuss.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from newstalk ZEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I caught up with Phoenix midfielder Alyssa Winnhem during
the week to see how the build up has been
towards such a big match for the team.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah, it's been really good. I guess with the international break,
we've kind of had two weeks leading up to it,
so we've been focusing on them since the start of
last week. So it's been really good. I think the
girls are super focused and it's nice to have Flea
and Iah back. But yeah, we played against the reserves
and the weekend and they played as Canberra and we
had a really good result, so let's hope we can
do that again.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Just on Annelie and me and I being away and
then not getting the chance to play any games, what
have they said about the experience of being away and
then having those games taken away from them.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Yeah, I think they're both kind of said it was
a pretty crappy experience for them traveling all that way
and then no games, and I think they only trained
twice and then they came back and it just wasn't
a great experience. But we're grateful to have them back
earlier because they were supposed to meet us over there,
so it's nice. We had them today and then tomorrow
and we fly to moth so it's nice to have
them this week.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Nice all right, So Canberra, it seems a long time
ago since you played them at home. I think it's
when Natalie's doground on the pitch. How do you assess
their threats and how how do you assess your ability
to get the result you need on the weekend?

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, I think we played them round two and we
kind of dominated that game but just fell short one. Now,
so that was a really tough loss we had to take.
We reflected from that. We literally dominated the whole game.
I think they have a lot of threats up top.
They're a very direct team, so they just go straight
and behind, but they're very good at what they do.
So we've been working hard on that and how to

(01:46):
stop that and then how we can kind of attack
against that, and it's been looking good at training.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Awesome, So goals obviously are needed. This weekend hasn't been
the best couple of games for goal scoring. Have you
worked specifically on the attacking third?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, I think that was kind of the point playing
our reserve team as well, just to kind of get
that confidence. I'll just take break, just breathe, And we
had like a number of different goal scorers across that game,
so that was good for the confidence. And now they're
kind of like flowing and that training and everything seems
to be flowing well.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
In a very consistent season for you. You've played pretty
much every game, a lot of them from the start.
How do you sort of assess where you are at
the moment in terms of if you can pee yourself
to the last season or even the season before.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah, I think I've developed a lot, both on and
off the pitch. I kind of say that every time,
but I think I've probably matured a lot. I'm very
grateful for the time that I do get. I've started
obviously a lot of games this season. I think Temps
has put a lot of trust into me, So I'm
very grateful for that. And I think the more I
play with confidence, the better I am. And each time

(02:48):
I've been on the pitch, like that's what I've been
trying to do, just bring what I bring and just
be different and creative. And I think I'm happy with
how I've done this.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Season cool and how much would it mean to be
able to bring to get the result on the weekend
and then have the final game of the season at
homes to Sunday with a chance to make the players
for the first time.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
I think since I've been here from the start, like
it's like so important and it kind of means the
world to us. So I think we've been really dedicating
the season to just making the top six no matter what.
And now that unfortunately it's kind of downe to like
the last little wire. Everyone's just like putting in a
big shift to really dedicate ourselves to this big game
and hopefully when we play Western at home, like it's

(03:29):
a big show and everyone will be there and it'll
be so cool and we get the win in top six.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
That was really weird.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
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