The team hosts the Coastal Spirit, from Christchurch, at the Caledonian Ground in the quarterfinals of the national women’s knockout cup.
Dunedin Tech brings form into the game, having won all 11 of its league matches, as well as its two knockout cup matches this season.
However, it faces its toughest test so far against a former cup champion and the front-runner in the Mainland competition.
That test has been made even harder due to ground closures disrupting training sessions and several players being unavailable. But coach Graeme Smaill said the players were looking forward to the game and had been doing their best to overcome the challenges.
"The girls are really looking forward to it," he said.
"It’s one of those games that all the local teams look forward to, getting through to that quarterfinal against the Mainland opposition."
The team had played the Coastal Spirit in previous years, but had not been able to knock it off.
It was a top team with a settled line-up boasting several former New Zealand age-grade players.
That gave Smaill something to go off and he expected it to look to apply pressure in a 4-3-3 formation.
"They’re a team that likes to retain possession. They look to counter-attack and generally they have pace up front.
"They have a strong core in the middle of the park and they try to win the ball as high up the pitch as they can, and they use their pace up front to try to get in behind you.
"So I’m assuming that’s what they’ll be like again this year."
Dunedin Tech was not going to let that change its approach, though, looking to bring an attacking mindset itself.
"We’re going to be positive . . . We’re not going to sit out there and contain them and worry about what they’re doing.
"We’re going to go out there with our game plan, which is we want to be positive and press them as high up the pitch as we can and win the ball as high up the pitch as we can and try and score, try and out-score them.
"But we’ll have to see what happens on the day."
The match is to kickoff at 12.30pm.
The Chatham Cup is also at its quarterfinal stage, although no southern teams remain in that competition.
