Grand Final 2005

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Grand Final 2005

City Show Their Character To Claim Championship

by Jeremy Ruane

Before a packed house some 3500-strong in number, Auckland City twice came from behind to down Waitakere United 3-2 and win the inaugural NZ Football Championship Grand Final at Kiwitea Street on March 12.

And a riveting final it was, too - so good, in fact, that it justifiably ranks alongside the barnstorming 2001 Bluebird Chatham Cup Final - a 3-3 thriller between Central United and University-Mt. Wellington which went to penalties - as one of the most memorable showpiece fixtures in NZ men's soccer's domestic calendar seen so far this century.

This match had a little bit of everything - action, drama, great goals, close calls, controversy, no-holds-barred tackling, even a sending-off. And a twist in the tale which broke the hearts of the beaten side, but which ultimately produced the right result for the season as a whole.

For Auckland had been the team in the NZ Community Trust-sponsored competition, winning its round-robin phase by six points, and seeing off second-placed Waitakere on all three occasions they had clashed in that time.

The league's leading scoring team, City had been beaten in just three matches, and Allan Jones' charges came into the Grand Final boasting a record of seven wins and a draw in their last eight games, including their last six on the bounce.

United, meanwhile, had won five of their last six fixtures, the lone blemish in that run coming on the occasion of their last visit to Kiwitea Street, exactly a month ago. In the ensuing weeks, the visitors had altered their style of play, sacrificing a midfielder for a striker in switching to a 4-3-3 formation.

A surprising casualty of the change was prolific marksman Keryn Jordan, the co-winner of the NZFC Golden Boot, who had found himself starting off the bench in United's most recent matches. Splinter duty was his initial role in this match as well, as coach Chris Milicich opted for the youthful exuberance of Daniel Ellensohn once more.

Both pupil and master were to grace the scorers' list before the final whistle, but they were ultimately consigned to second best by a double-strike from Jordan's fellow South African and Golden Boot co-winner, Grant Young, either side of a Liam Mulrooney goal, the irony of which, on this occasion, can not be overlooked, given how keen both sides were to recruit the midfielder before the start of the season.

A cagey opening few minutes was blown asunder just eight minutes into the spectacle, as City produced the first attack of note in the Grand Final. An impressive interchange of passes saw the ball pinged from Paul Vodanovich to Paul Urlovic to Paul Seaman to Neil Sykes, who ignored Young's darting run into the inside-left channel, instead exploiting the space he had vacated with a gem of a pass.

Urlovic was onto it in an instant, and clear of the defence, he looked odds-on to score. He should have done, too, but found himself beaten all ends up by the advancing Simon Eaddy, who saved well at the feet of the competition's third-highest scorer, Urlovic having struck fourteen goals in round-robin play.

This sparked Waitakere into life, with Jeremy Christie chancing his arm from twenty-five yards. Ross Nicholson, one of just twelve players in the entire league to play in every round-robin fixture, parried it to safety, then blocked at the feet of the incoming Ellensohn just seconds after the opening at the other end of the park.

United quickly settled into their stride, and a dazzling six-player move, rich in crisp passing and movement, would have opened City right up had James Pritchett not tracked back to get in a telling tackle on the edge of the penalty area to thwart one of the game's most impressive performers, Craig Wylie, in the fourteenth minute.

Seconds later, Ellensohn charged forward before slipping a ball in behind City's defence for Allan Pearce to latch onto. His low cross flew just behind the incoming Ben Steward as the youngster raced into the six-yard box, but the danger wasn't over for the home team, as the clearance only reached Christie. He linked with Pearce again, but the striker's cross, this time, came to nought.

After Steward had shot tamely at Nicholson upon cutting in from the left past two opponents, City had the ball in the net in the 21st minute, only for Young to be adjudged offside. This sparked a tidy little spell from Auckland, culminating in a rasping right-footed volley from captain Sykes crashing off the crossbar in the 27th minute.

Four minutes later, the ball was in the back of the net, and this time it did count. Some would consider the shoulder-charge Steward administered on Daniel Mortensen near the touchline to have been illegal, but significantly, referee Peter O'Leary deemed it in accordance with the Laws of the Game.

Steward wasted little time in taking full advantage of the situation, and whipped in a low cross. Darting in to meet it was Ellensohn, who edged out Greg Uhlmann and steered the ball across Nicholson and in by the far post to spark no little amount of exuberance from Waitakere's faithful.

Auckland looked to restore parity before the break, with Urlovic going close twice. Straight from the kick-off, a delightful move down the right culminated in Young playing the ball inside for Urlovic, who saw Eaddy produce a fine one-handed save low to his right to turn this shot to safety.

Then, five minutes before the interval, a Mortensen cross was met well by the striker, whose challenging header under pressure arced onto the roof of a net which Waitakere kept intact for the entire first half.

Their bid to keep a twelfth clean sheet this season was quashed just three minutes into the second spell. Seconds after Young had wriggled through four challenges to get to the byline and drive in a low cross which Theary Thou thumped clear, Auckland, now attacking the clubrooms' end, forced a corner.

Sykes' delivery picked out Riki Van Steeden at the near post, and he guided a header into the goalmouth. Lurking barely a yard from the line was Young, who rammed the equaliser into the roof of the net, much to the delight of City's supporters.

After a thirty-yard effort from the hard-working Chris Jackson had dipped late in its flight and clipped the top of the crossbar, the game swiftly developed into a real cat-and-mouse affair. Where previously joie de vivre had reigned supreme, now there was an element of fear at every turn, the players realising that the next mistake could prove fatal.

Twenty minutes from time, the fear factor paid dividends for Waitakere, who took the lead again. It wasn't a mistake which led to the goal, but a piece of individual brilliance from Pearce, who found himself on the right and did well to engineer some space in which to whip in a telling cross to the near post.

Cue half-time substitute Jordan, who swooped like an eagle on unsuspecting prey to deftly steer the ball home between a defender and Nicholson and restore United's advantage - 2-1, and the pressure very much getting to Auckland, as evidenced by the sending from the bench of assistant coach Craig Alexander in the 74th minute.

But having shown the discipline necessary to prove their

championship-winning credentials over the course of twenty-one rounds, the round-robin winners weren't going to take this setback lying down, and they piled forward in search of an equaliser.

Twice they had the ball in the net in the remaining minutes, only for the offside flag to curtail the celebrations of Van Steeden and Urlovic. But in between times, the home team got back on level terms through one of their substitutes, Mulrooney.

Nine minutes from time, the midfielder had joined an attack in which Young and Urlovic were looking to prise open United's rearguard. They succeeded, with the South African's flick being allowed to bounce by Thou, a mistake which the marauding Mulrooney made the most of by darting through to steer the sphere home under the advancing Eaddy.

2-2, and all to play for in the remaining minutes, for as well as the championship, taking part in Oceania's qualifying series for the FIFA Club World Championship was an additional carrot being dangled enticingly in front of the winning team.

United's chances came in a thirty-second spell five minutes from the end, as Nicholson blocked a tight-angled close-range effort from Jordan for a corner, then looked on as the striker's acrobatic volley flashed narrowly past the upright from Wylie's delivery.

Back came City, and in the first minute of stoppage time came the goal which, after having drawn level twice in the contest, finally saw them with their noses in front for the first time in the contest.

As with their first goal, it came from a set-piece, Sykes' corner this time delivered deep to the far post. There lurked Vodanovich, who guided his header towards Young.

The striker controlled the ball, then, in seeming slow-motion - no-one in white was within three yards of him - turned and slammed the sphere into the top corner of the net from inside the six-yard box, a mortal blow from which Waitakere couldn't recover, time, for so long their friend in this match, having now become their enemy.

As Young and his colleagues celebrated, white-clad players slumped to the ground in stunned disbelief, Wylie and Jordan among them. The scorer of the second goal, who, while celebrating it, took great delight in tearing down a banner proclaiming his diving prowess, knew full well that his fellow country-man, who turned 34 nine days ago, had struck the decider at the death, and for Waitakere, there was no way back this time.

So it proved, the sound of the final whistle, coupled with the strains of "We Are The Champions", sparking a mass evacuation of the ground by

Waitakere's supporters, as they left the stage to their jubilant Auckland rivals - fans and footballers alike - who began celebrating a fourth local derby victory, a championship triumph and a trip to Tahiti (and, if successful there, Tokyo) in some style.

Auckland: Nicholson; Mortensen, Vodanovich (booked, 73), Uhlmann, Van Steeden (Mathews, 79); Pritchett (Coombes, 70), Seaman (booked, 33) (Mulrooney, 64), Smith, Sykes; Urlovic (booked, 44), Young

Waitakere: Eaddy; Rowley (booked, 90), N. Christie, Thou, Wylie; J. Christie (booked, 44), Jackson, H. Edwards; Pearce, Ellensohn (Jordan, 46), Steward (booked, 35) (Griffiths, 62)

Referee: Peter O'Leary

National League