Pienaar gospel music hits right note for Merseyside derby

It is a joke that tickles Pienaar who, like the rest of his fellow South Africans, is hoping to cheer the Springboks to World Cup victory tonight after enjoying the biggest date of his English career a few hours earlier.

Pienaar will meet up with fellow exiles Benni McCarthy and Aaron Mokoena and treat his Blackburn pals to the city centre big-screen experience. He certainly will not be hiding his true colours.

"I'm preparing well for both games — I've just bought a South Africa jersey in Italy," said Pienaar, tired but excited after a roundabout route return from his country's midweek 2-0 defeat in Sienna.

"If we beat England it will give the whole country such a lift. I didn't see the 36-0 win but I watched the Twenty20 cricket win against England. I support all our teams.

"Aaron and Benni are coming over and we'll cheer South Africa together. But I don't want to watch the game with a bad heart after losing. That wouldn't be very nice.

"We're going to a sports bar. I know I'll get some stick if we've lost — and if we have, I might stay at home. I won't feel like going out for a couple of days, I can't stand losing."

Pienaar, staking a claim to a midfield place after arriving on a season's loan from Borussia Dortmund, has already shown his Goodison fan club he can put his foot in as well as place a wellcrafted pass.

But before the phrase 'dogs of war' is dusted off, consider this: who among Joe Royle's famous warrior midfield would have psyched himself up to tackle the old enemy by listening to gospel music?

While his team-mates prepare with a universal dressing-room blast of R&B or House, Pienaar will be grooving to a different beat that raises his spirits and re-affirms the beliefs that have carried him thus far.

"I listen to gospel before the game." he explained. "It's modern, the gospel of my generation. My mother Denise is a Christian, that's how I got into it. She taught me to believe. I never sang in the choir, I don't sing myself.

"I just have it on my iPod. There's always music going on in the dressing room but I have my own. It calms me. You must have faith in yourself, believe you can go out and win. It inspires me."

Not that the heavenly choirs could tempt 25-year-old Pienaar into turning the other cheek. "You always want to win derbies. You're all living in the same city and you want to be able to keep your head up," he said.

"At Dortmund, our derby was against Schalke. It was the second last game of the season and if Schalke had won they could have been champions. We beat them 2-0. I was involved in a few things!

"Derbies are physical. When you get on the field it's either you or the man or the ball. Sometimes it's the man. But not to hurt someone intentionally. It's just no one wants to lose a derby. We play for our pride."

Pienaar has never had it easy. "In our part of Johannesburg, gunfire at night was normal," he said.

"Sometimes you'd think 'firecrackers' then realise it was a gun."

But the past year has sorely tried him. Coming to terms with German football after the subtleties of Ajax was difficult enough but then losing two of the people closest to him — not to violence but to cancer — presented him with a test of faith.

"I was close to signing for Manchester City but didn't think I was ready physically. I'd just come back from a lot of injuries. I went to the Bundesliga to see if I could play in a competitive league," he explained. "But it was hard because I came from Ajax. People expect a lot of you but after six years the football was totally different. I was always fighting with the players, I was more used to being involved with the ball.

"I had a lot of ups and downs in the last year. I lost my cousin to cancer and my best friend to cancer also. In a month, both of them. Also I had a car crash but thankfully I wasn't hurt apart from the shock.

"They were always close to me, we grew up together. To lose them was really sad. We're just living on borrowed time, it's not ours. But what happened has given me more strength to do it for them."

Pienaar's mother will not be at Goodison today — "she says it's too cold for her over here" — but he knows that without her sacrifice he would be a long way from the heart of English football.

"She's my toughest critic, she'll watch on TV then ring and tell me I was poor, but she made sure I didn't get involved in anything when I was young in Johannesburg. I was called 'Mama's Baby' when she called me in," he said.

"My dad passed away when I was young. My mum brought us up, me and my brother and two sisters. She worked for a printing company but had to stop. Breathing the chemicals was affecting her health."

Pienaar looks after his carefully. If there are to be celebrations tonight, it is strictly juice or water.

"A win for Everton would be perfect, and South Africa — it's a must-win. It will be great if we can win both."

Oh, happy day.