2013 OFC Champions League Grand Final

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City Scale The Heights To Win Fifth Oceania Crown

by Jeremy Ruane

Auckland City claimed a third consecutive OFC Champions League title - and their fifth in all - at Mt. Smart #2 on May 19, seeing off arch-rivals Waitakere United 2-1 to book a trip to Morocco for the FIFA Club World Cup Finals in December.

Having seen their cross-town rivals claim the domestic triple crown - ASB Premiership, ASB Premiership Grand Final and ASB Charity Cup - this season, City were hell-bent on preventing Waitakere from hoarding all the silverware out west, and set about the task with a vengeance from the first whistle.

Throughout the opening half-hour, United were chasing shadows as City dominated possession and bossed the game in a manner one rarely associates with New Zealand football, given the tendency to play long balls forward at almost every opportunity.

Ball retention and precise passing were Auckland's twin fortes throughout this opening period, engineering their first opening from a short corner in the eighth minute.

Alex Feneridis exchanged passes with Albert Riera before delivering a cross which Adam Dickinson inexplicably missed. Fortunately for City, Chris Bale was racing in behind him, and hit the ball flush on the volley, forcing a fine blocking save by Danny Robinson.

When Bale next let fly, on the quarter hour, his volley flew high, wide and far from handsomely past Robinson's goal. But from the resulting goal-kick, United quickly gifted City possession, and paid the price.

Manel Exposito, who took to the field in honour of his grandmother, who died suddenly during the week, weaved his way in off the left flank before unleashing a cross-shot which took a wicked deflection off a defender to send the ball goalward-bound.

Robinson's reflexes were razor-sharp, and he kept out the ricochet, but unfortunately for the custodian he succeeded only in diverting the ball into the stride of Dickinson, who slammed home the opening goal in the sixteenth minute.

Waitakere were still reeling from that setback when the uphill task facing them steepened significantly further four minutes later. Exposito was again the outlet for City's attack, and this time when he crossed, Dickinson was his target, with Daniel Koprivcic lurking beyond the targetman lest he dummy the ball.

Dickinson had no such intention, however, controlling the ball before rolling it into the stride of Feneridis. From twenty-five yards, and with the sun right behind him, the midfielder let fly with a fulminating half-volley which sizzled past the partially unsighted figure of Robinson en route to the top corner of the net - 2-0.

It was a double blow from which Waitakere struggled to recover. The largely anonymous Roy Krishna fired United's first shot in anger in the 22nd minute, but Tamati Williams was little troubled by the effort, one of only two of note which the West Auckland outfit engineered during the opening half.

The other, five minutes before half-time, halved the deficit. Auckland had continued to dominate possession after their double-strike, but Waitakere slowly but surely worked their way back into the game, and when Jake Butler lobbed the ball over the defence, Krishna nipped in behind to beat the offside trap before setting up Chad Coombes for a tap-in - 2-1, game on.

The second half began in much the same fashion as the first, with Auckland enjoying the majority of possession. Exposito unleashed a twenty-five yarder at Robinson, before working a one-two with Koprivcic which saw the Spaniard dash deep into

Waitakere's penalty area before rattling the stanchion by the near post as he attempted to beat the OFC Champions League's Golden Gloves winner.

United enjoyed the bounce of the ball in the 58th minute, a Coombes back-heel ricocheting off a retreating City player straight into the stride of Krishna as he dashed down the right. His shot rattled the side-netting next to Williams' near post.

Sixty seconds later, fortune wasn't so kind to Waitakere, as Tim Myers committed his second bookable offence of the game. Having earned the ire of referee Peter O'Leary for a rugged foul on Koprivcic just after the half-hour, the challenge which felled substitute Darren White prompted an instant flag from referee's assistant Jan-Hendrik Hintz, followed soon after by the yellow card once more, then the dreaded red.

It was a blow which United could ill afford, as City's passing game is perfectly suited to exploiting numerically challenged opponents on the counter-attack, an approach they were swift to employ.

Within four minutes of the dismissal, only a timely Aaron Scott tackle prevented Exposito from taking full advantage of having caught Brian Shelley in possession, while seconds later, Takuya Iwata sent Exposito scampering down the left before steering the ball inside for Dickinson, who burst into the penalty area, only to blaze the ball wildly wide of the near post.

United rode their luck again in the 66th minute, as City again hit them with a counter-attack. White rampaged down the right before driving in a low cross which Robinson could only parry - not ideal when Exposito and Feneridis are closing in with the chance to score the clinching goal in a match worth $US 500,000 - the FIFA Club World Cup Finals qualification prize-money - to the winners.

Thankfully for Waitakere, Scott was again on hand to avert the danger, although his clearance, while effective, wasn't exactly how its prescribed in the textbook - the ball cannoned off Exposito for a goal kick, yet it could so easily have ricocheted into the gaping goal …

More City pressure materialised in the form of a Feneridis corner in the 69th minute. His delivery picked out Ivan Vicelich, who was almost unbeatable in the air in this match, a late first half clash of heads notwithstanding. On this occasion, City's captain sent an unchallenged header flashing past the far post.

Had United conceded then, there would have been no way back for them, but they clung to the hope that another goal would at least earn them extra time, and were given hope when Krishna had an effort ruled out by the offside flag as the game entered its final twenty minutes.

Try as they might throughout this period, however, Waitakere could find no way through the Vicelich-inspired Auckland rearguard. Short of throwing the kitchen sink at City - and no doubt that was contemplated - the ten men tried everything they could think of to fashion an equaliser.

But City, urged on by their ever-vocal supporters, rebuffed them at every turn, and when the final whistle sounded, there was jubilation aplenty among those of a navy blue persuasion - Auckland were Oceania's champions yet again.

Auckland: Williams; Pritchett, Vicelich, Bilen, Iwata; Feneridis (booked, 42) (McGeorge, 87), Riera (booked, 45), Bale (Milne, 90); Capricci (White, 55), Dickinson (booked, 90), Exposito (booked, 64)

Waitakere: Robinson; Scott, Cunneen, Shelley, Myers (booked, 32, 59 - sent off); Coombes, Butler, Mathews (Morgan, 76); Pearce (Palmer, 52), Krishna, de Vries

Referee: Peter O'Leary

Auckland City