Sligo Rovers’ Nando Pijnaker and Max Mata face 30-hour journey home for international duty

Sligo Rovers’ New Zealand duo of Max Mata and Nando Pijnaker will spend over a day travelling home over the weekend as they prepare for international duty with their home country.

Pijnaker is a regular starter for the All Whites, but it’s the first time Mata has been called into the squad since 2019.

New Zealand will play China in two friendlies during this week’s international break, with both games taking place in New Zealand.

It’s a ‘nightmare’ journey for the pair, who will be travelling via the United States, but it will be worth it.

Pijnaker told The Sligo Champion: “It’s a nightmare journey. I think it’s about 30 hours in total. We’re flying from Dublin to San Francisco tomorrow and then through to Auckland in New Zealand.

"It’s a long trip but at the same time it’s an opportunity to play some high level games and also see family and go to my home country. My family will get to come to my games and watch so I’m really excited about that.”

The duo, who are close friends, made their international debuts together in 2019 against Lithuania.

Mata’s recall came after he enjoyed a fine start to the 2023 campaign with Sligo Rovers, and on Friday night he added his fifth goal of the season.

“I’m so happy that he’s coming with me,” Pijnaker added. “We actually made our debut at the same time in 2019, to have him back is even better. So I really can’t wait. And hopefully we can do well there and come back all guns blazing.”

Sligo Rovers will have four players on international duty this weekend. Alongside Pijnaker and Mata, Stefan Radosavljevic will be in action with the Faroe Islands, while Bogdan Vaststuk will travel to play for Estonia having originally been named on the standby list.

Rovers face a week’s break now due to the international break, and go into the break in decent form having drawn with league hopefuls Derry City on Friday night.

Mata fired Rovers into the lead in the first half, with Rovers holding their own until Ciaran Coll fired the hosts back into the game in the second half.

Pijnaker said: “I think you have to look at it as a point gained. You’re never happy to draw a game, you always want to win, but coming here we know they’re a good team so to come away with a draw it’s not bad. Just how the game went, we’re disappointed we didn’t take more from the game.

“I thought we played really well. It was a disappointing way to concede from a corner, hopefully we can sort that out and really push on for the league this year."

The only real negative from Friday night’s game was a potentially serious looking injury to Johan Brannefalk, while his replacement Karl O’Sullivan had to go off at half-time too after also suffering an ankle injury.

The artificial surface at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium has come in for a lot of criticism this season, and not just from opposition teams as Derry City too have seen injuries mounting in recent weeks.

Asked whether he felt the surface was a factor in the two injuries suffered by the Bit O’Red on Friday night, the 24-year-old said: Potentially. I’m not the biggest fan of artificial turf and we had two injuries today due to the turf. It’s unfortunate. I don’t know what you can do about it.”

Six games into the season, Rovers have lost just once in what’s been a good start for John Russell’s side.

Pijnaker believes Rovers can go and push for the league this season if they keep playing like they have so far.

“I think it’s been a very positive start. We have a lot of depth in the team as we saw today, we had a few injuries and players were coming in.

"I think we’re showing positive signs, hopefully we can keep gelling together and improve and get better.

We have good depth in the squad so hopefully we can use all of our squad and really push for the league this year, I think it’s definitely possible, we need to keep playing like we did today.”

Both Pijnaker and Mata have been stand-out performers so far this season for the Bit O’Red.

Getting a full pre-season under their belts have been a big help, too, Pijnaker says, while having the experience of last season has also allowed the pair to hit the ground running this season.

“I’m pretty happy (with how the season is going personally). I always want to be even better. I think there’s still many areas I can improve, I’m pretty happy with where things are but the most important thing is how the team’s doing and we’re showing positive signs.

“I’m so happy that Max is doing well. He’s scoring goals, it’s nice to have someone from your own country with you and to see him doing well is even better. Hopefully we can both keep playing well and help the team to achieve our goals.

“I think it’s been a huge help being here for pre-season and we’ve been able to start the season stronger than we both did last season.

"I think we both came in maybe 1 or 2 weeks before the season started so we didn’t have that time to connect with our team-mates but this year we’ve had that opportunity and I think that shows.”