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A-League Finals Football Arrives At Last For Phoenix Women
Wellington Phoenix coach Bev Priestman is struggling to contain her excitement as the team's first-ever visit to the A-League women's playoffs loom loom into view.
The Phoenix will face Brisbane Roar in the first leg of their semi-final on Sunday, a month to the day since their final regular season match against Adelaide United.
"I can't wait," Priestman said.
"These are the arenas you want to be in. You want those games where every minute matters and every decision matters.
"For players those moments are what you live for. You want to be those settings.
"I've got out of bed this week with a bounce, I'm raring to go and this is where I come alive and I feel alive."
Priestman said the month between games has felt like torture, especially waiting until last weekend to learn the Roar were their opponents.
"What we do very well is prepare a group and we've done a lot of work on penalties, closing a game, chasing a game and all those sorts of things.
"Now it's just on the team in front of us and tidying up some things.
"We played a game [last Friday] and it was very clunky given some of the players hadn't played for three weeks.
"But at the end of the day it was really good for us. It was a really beneficial game and it's dialled the team in a lot now going into this week."
She and the team are viewing the two legged semi-final as a 180-minute game.
While she said a win is the preferred result, she wants to make sure Brisbane don't establish a sizeable advantage on their home ground.
"This team we're not known for shipping a lot of goals, so I don't want anything special I just want us to do the basics really well and be united to go into a very hostile environment," she said.
"And if we do those things I think we've got enough in the team to get a win and absolute worse case a draw.
"We have to take care of the details and switch on in the moments. That's a good halftime."
Priestman has welcomed back Football Ferns fullback Lara Wall from a calf injury and there is mixed news for Emma Pijnenburg and Pia Vlok after they sustained injuries while on international duty.
Pijnenburg is "looking really good" after playing against Auckland United last Friday, while Priestman has her "fingers and toes crossed" for Vlok.
As a result, young midfielder Mikaela Bangalan has been promoted from the Phoenix academy and is in line to make her debut.
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