The captain of Western Springs talked about the upcoming Kate Sheppard Cup final, in which her team will be defending the title against Auckland United this Saturday at 4:00pm at North Harbour Stadium.

- How do you think Western Springs is appoaching to the final?

All in, nothing to lose or I guess everything to lose. With the Cup win last year it’s been really exciting to get back into the final this year, but with a completely new squad really. We’re looking forward to putting our best foot forward on Saturday.. All in!

- Thinking of someone who has never seen you play, how would you describe your team's playing style?

We talked about it at the start of the year actually, just striving to play beautiful football above everything else, so hopefully there’ll be a display of that on Saturday.

- What do you think is your team's greatest strength?

I think we are like a family and that makes us stronger. We are like sisters through and through, we have each other’s backs and support each other through anything. So I think that family morale that we have behind the scenes will definitely set us apart.

- Auckland United won the NRFL Women Premiership without losing a match, won the OFC Champions League, and defeated Western Springs every time they played them this year, so they seem to be strong contenders. How do you deal with that, and what do you think is the key to achieving a good result agaisnt them?

Yeah, for sure. They are certainly an elite team, always have been, but this year in particular even more so. We’ve had some tough games against them this year, some really gritty games and they are a very class team. They know how to score goals and they know how to play a unique and solid style of football. We’ve been working at how to break that down throughout the years during the multiple times we have played against them, and will do the same in our future matches against them. I guess for us going into it, we want to stick to our strengths and what we are best at and, like I said, hopefully that’s a display of beautiful football - close and quick passes to move around players and to break through their defensive lines.

- Western Springs won the Kate Sheppard Cup last year. The last team to win it back-to-back was Glenfield Rovers in 2014 and 2015. What would it mean to you, as the team captain, to win it again?

Yeah, pretty incredible. Winning it once and just being in the final alone, to be fair, is an incredible feeling. I get chills just thinking about walking out with the team this year as captain. Being blessed enough to do that. It’ll be an amazing feeling that words can’t describe. So yeah, really looking forward to it and, regardless of the result, it’ll be thrilling to just be out there in the final.

Get your tickets for the final at Ticketek: https://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/show.aspx?sh=CUPFINAL24&fbclid=IwY2xjawFB6jpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHX7B9etZJ8l10-ohowMronrpEYxiNrFo0lThg6IeO7_QMmVEoTNZ9pUNCg_aem_iHaj6avPAKSa0ydBiTbDDw

Article added: Thursday 05 September 2024