We caught up with this years winner of the Tusk Teamwear Scholarship, Emily Brown, and her thoughts on this years UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Emily Brown, winner of this years Tusk Teamwear scholarship award speaks to us after an extremely successful season with the Women’s Football team. Following their triumph in the Welsh Premier League, Cardiff Met LFC gained the honour of representing Wales in this years UEFA Women’s Champions League. We spoke to Emily about the draw for the group stages and what she has planned for the next academic year following the awarding of her scholarship.
Q – Are you and the girls happy with the EUFA Champions League draw?
A – Following the draw on the 26th of June, we found our group is to be hosted in Portugal and we have drawn Clube Atlético Ouriense (POR), Standard Femina de Liège (BEL), and ASA Tel-Aviv FC (ISR). The girls are pretty happy we are going somewhere nice and hot of course.
In terms of our opposition, within the group there is a team from our last qualification group two years ago; Tel Aviv and obviously having played against them before we know a bit about them and how they play. Even though we didn’t have a successful result against them last time, we have more tactical knowledge about them and an insight into how we can expect them to play.
Q – What will you and the team be doing to prepare during the coming weeks?
A- Before we go away to Portugal we have a 6 week training programme. We will train twice a day, four days a week and a friendly every Sunday. It’s a very intense programme put together by Dai Watts and the S&C Team at Cardiff Met. The training will focus on getting fitter, faster, stronger as well as improving technically before we go away. We know we will have to be at the top of our game to be in with a chance of qualifying from our group and the specificity and intensity of the training we will be doing is planned to ensure that this is the case.
Q – Following the Champions League, how will the Tusk Teamwear Scholarship benefit you for the upcoming academic year and football season?
A – The scholarship provided by Tusk Teamwear has allowed me to enrol onto the Strength and Conditioning Masters at Cardiff Met for next year. From the scholarship I gain both financial and academic support, allowing me to continue playing football in BUCS as well as the Welsh Premier League, while simultaneously furthering my education.