Source: Radio New Zealand
Makala Woods of Wellington Phoenix celebrates a goal with Brooke Nunn (left) and Lucia Leon (right). www.photosport.nz
A sense of calm is permeating throughout the Wellington Phoenix women’s camp, knowing they have home advantage in the second leg of their A-league semi-final this weekend.
The Phoenix women will have to overcome a one-goal deficit when they host Brisbane Roar, if they want to make club history and progress to their first ever A-league final.
They will be home in Porirua for this Sunday’s return leg, trailing Brisbane Roar 2-1, after their opening encounter across the Tasman.
American forward Makala Woods said they had not found it difficult to move on from the disappointment of losing the first leg in Brisbane on Sunday.
“I think it’s just the name of the game, we’re in finals football,” Woods said. “We have some experience… and we have really calm players at the helm so I think with the people we have, the coaching staff, our personnel, I think we’re going to be okay.”
Woods said they were confident they can turn things around.
“Everyone’s very calm, we’ve been through the game plan, we’ve reviewed it, we know what we need to do. I don’t think we walked away happy with it but I think we handled the chaos very well so coming home to a bunch of fans, we do really well at Porirua Park, we’re a really hard team to score on at home so I think we’re going to be okay.
“We’re good when we’re cool, calm, and collected, that’s where we thrive and we also do really well in adversity so if I’m Brisbane I’m worried because we’re a team that’s shown that we come back and we come back hard.”
Wellington Phoenix women’s fans at Porirua Park. Elias Rodriguez / www.photosport.nz
It’s expected that as many as 6000 fans could fill Porirua Park on Sunday and Woods had a message for Brisbane Roar.
“Good luck with our fans, I think we have the best fans in the league, they ride behind us no matter what the weather, the time, the score, all the way to the last minute… they’re going to be loud, they’re going to be cheerful so good luck. They’re important I think they’re going to get us through that game just as much as we are, it takes a village.”
Woods said coach Bev Priestman had instilled a lot of confidence in the side, ahead of their do or die match.
Priestman has coached on the biggest stages, including guiding Canada to Olympic gold in 2020 and Woods said she thrived on finals pressure.
“You know having multiple legs, home and away, that quick turn-around. Knowing that Bev has that experience, she’s very good at her job, she brought us this far, we just have that trust in her.”
Wellington Phoenix women’s coach Bev Priestman. Marty Melville / PHOTOSPORT
Auckland FC beat Melbourne City in their elimination final in Auckland on Saturday, thanks to winning a tense penalty shootout to progress to the semi-finals of the men’s A-league.
Woods said they had to be prepared for any scenario – “so shootout, extra time, throw-ins, corners, whatever it is, you just have to be prepared.”
The last time the Phoenix women hosted the Brisbane Roar in March, they handed them a 3-0 defeat at Wellington’s Hnry Stadium.
“It’s just about playing our game… we saw what happened last time Brisbane came to Wellington and I think that just shows that we played their game [in the first leg] and they executed their game plan very well and we didn’t for ours. So I think it’s all about focusing in on us and doing what we do best.”
Woods said everyone was excited. “We all just want to play, we want to get back on that field, we want another week together, we’re not ready for this ride to be over.”
Kick-off at Porirua Park on Sunday is at 2:30pm. Melbourne City lead Melbourne Victory 1-0 in the other semi-final.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand