Waitakere United v. Kossa FC, 11/5/08

The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website | home

Kossa Pay A Heavy Price - $US 100,000 A Goal

by Jeremy Ruane

It was the half-a-million dollar match, but in the end, only one team turned up to play.

Waitakere United retained their crown as the champion club of the Oceania Football Confederation at Douglas Field on May 11, sweeping aside Solomon Islands champions Kossa FC 5-0 to clinch a come-from-behind 6-3 aggregate triumph in the 2007-8 OFC Champions League Grand Final, and the minimum financial reward of $US 500,000 which qualifying for the FIFA Club World Cup Finals secures.

Knowing they had to win by at least two clear goals from the outset, the West Auckland club proved thoroughly deserving of the title, solely for the manner in which they went about dismantling opponents who sorely missed the advantage which the heat and humidity of their own climate provided.

Kossa struggled to come to terms with playing conditions more temperate in nature, and ultimately paid a heavy price - come the final whistle, each goal they conceded in this match was effectively worth a minimum $US 100,000, and the first of them took just seven minutes to materialise.

Benjamin Totori, one of the Solomon Islanders in Waitakere's squad, fired what amounted to a twenty-yard warning shot across Kossa's bows just 53 seconds into the match, but his next contribution was simply brilliant!

A Daniel Koprivcic shot was blocked on the edge of the penalty area, but not cleared. Totori swooped on the scene, swerving past one player before scything between three more, only to see his shot blocked.

At this point, the off-balance Totori ended up seated on the ground in the penalty area, the ball having rebounded to his feet, and three of his countrymen standing over him.

Cue some crab soccer skills, which completely outfoxed the Kossa rearguard, and gave the striker time in which to get to his feet and deftly slip the ball under the advancing Severino Aefi before Totori wheeled away in delight, well aware of the individual brilliance he had just produced to provide Waitakere with the ideal start to their quest.

It was a blow from which Kossa never recovered, and but for Aefi's superb reflex save to thwart Allan Pearce just four minutes later, they would have been two goals down to the West Aucklanders, who were all over their opponents like a rash in the first twenty minutes.

Amazingly, they engineered just one other opportunity of note in this time. Neil Sykes, whose set-piece deliveries in this match amounted to virtual invitations to score each time, pinged over a peach of a free-kick in the nineteenth minute, and picked out Pearce six yards out from goal. Unchallenged, he directed his header wide of the mark.

Soon afterwards, Kossa provided their first threat of the game, one which foundered on Danny “Lazarus” Hay. The hardy campaigner played despite the discomfort of a broken bone in his ankle, such was his commitment to the cause, and his contribution on this occasion - the upending of Joe Luwi - earned Waitakere's captain the game's lone caution.

Hay next featured at the other end of the park, flicking on a Sykes free-kick to Neil Emblen, whose header flew past the post in the 24th minute. Within sixty seconds, the last-mentioned played a pivotal part in the goal which put Waitakere ahead in the tie on the away goals rule.

Sykes' delivered a corner to the far post, where Emblen rose high to head the ball across goal - the Solomon Islands champions simply couldn't cope

with Waitakere's aerial supremacy right throughout the match. On this occasion, it cost them dearly, because a glancing back-header from Christopher Bale beat Aefi all ends up from three yards out - 2-0.

Suffice to say, Waitakere weren't satisfied - they wanted to make a statement in front of the three-quarter-filled 4000-capacity grandstand, and a watching television audience around the Pacific, and they did so. Emphatically.

In the 31st minute, Sykes flighted another free-kick to the far post, where Emblen rose high but headed wide. Seconds later, United strung together the best move of the match, with Jonathan Perry, Bale and Jake Butler combining to release Totori down the right at pace.

He raced to the byline before pulling the ball back, a delivery which lured Aefi out of goal. Unfortunately for the `keeper, he wasn't able to intercept it, meaning Butler, who was following in, was odds on to make it 3-0 from twelve yards.

That the scoreline remained unchanged owed everything to the awareness of central defender Tome Faisi, who raced back to cover his goalkeeper's charge out of goal, and was on hand to clear off the line.

It says much for Kossa's inability to penetrate the Perry-Hay-Emblen triumverate which made up Waitakere's rearguard that they were reduced to shooting from distance in an attempt to get themselves back in the Grand Final. But Mahlon Maemania's thirty yard effort nine minutes before the interval gave Richard Gillespie scant cause for concern.

Totori responded in kind sixty seconds later, at the other end of the park. Played in by Koprivcic, he evaded the challenge of Samson Takayama - Kossa's best - and let fly from ten yards.

Henderson Creek runs behind the Trusts Stadium complex of which Douglas Field is central from a footballing viewpoint, and the ball was last seen heading towards it at a great rate of knots! Not a good look, and the shot was worse still!!

Two minutes before half-time, Kossa's hopes of success were effectively dashed as a Sykes free-kick saw Aefi and Emblen collide as the pair leapt to dispute possession in the penalty area.

The defender was winded, but the damage sustained by the goalkeeper was game-ending - a suspected dislocated shoulder prompted the introduction of replacement custodian John Morgan, who would find himself rather busier than he'd hoped to be during the final forty-five minutes of the match.

But not before Kossa danger man James Naka had unleashed a thumping twenty-five yard volley, which careered narrowly past Gillespie's right-hand post three minutes into the second spell - a less than gentle reminder to Waitakere that a goal from the visitors would force the home team to score twice to secure Oceania's place at December's FIFA Club World Cup Finals inside ninety minutes.

United heeded the warning, and went about making sure that an additional half-hour wouldn't be necessary. But their initial efforts met with stout resistance from the Solomon Islanders, although the home team was guilty of profligate finishing on a number of occasions also.

Morgan stood his ground well to thwart Pearce's progress in the 49th minute, as he latched onto a Koprivcic pass, while the supplier on that occasion spurned a glorious chance five minutes later, after swooping on a wayward back-pass.

Why Koprivcic opted to pass instead of shoot defied logic, unlike Hay's willingness to do the same

thing - he is a defender first and foremost, remember! The recipient of the captain's lay-off was Totori, who also failed to let fly when the chance presented itself.

Justice was served in the 56th minute when Naka's feeble free-kick gave Gillespie no cause for concern. The set-piece should never have been awarded by Australian referee Ben Williams, the only person in the ground who considered Sykes' ball-winning challenge on Luwi to be unacceptable in nature.

Back came Waitakere, with Butler and Perry combining on the right to present Pearce with a headed chance from eight yards. Like Jason Hayne's shot on the run two minutes later, the ball flew straight at Morgan, who took two attempts to save the latter effort.

The departure of both Hay and Totori to injury saw the NZFC champions lose their way briefly, but a vital tackle by replacement captain Emblen on Luwi in the 68th minute galvanised the troops, and sparked an instant Hayne-led counter-attack. Koprivcic was the recipient of the winger's cross, but drove his low volley across the face of goal and just past the far post.

Back came Kossa - the game was in the balance at this point - with Luwi and Reg Davani teaming up on the left to present Naka with a chance. From fifteen yards, he unleashed a rising drive on the volley which brought the very best out of Gillespie - a fingertip save to turn the ball over the bar.

A goal then would have set up a grandstand finale, with all the pressure on Waitakere to come from behind on aggregate to win the title. But said pressure evaporated in the 72nd minute, as United took the outright lead in the two-legged contest for the first time.

Seconds after Commins Menapi had been thwarted by Faisi's timely challenge, Sykes - who else? - whipped in a vicious corner which found Pearce rising in between defenders. The ball flew off the crown of his head into the top far corner of the net, and with that goal, Kossa's spirit was broken.

To prove the point, they succumbed to a fourth goal six minutes later. Pearce broke down the left and crossed to the far post, beyond Hayne. The winger gave chase, gathered the ball and curled in an inviting left-footed cross to the far post.

Arriving on cue was Pearce, who volleyed home stylishly to make absolutely certain that Waitakere would be heading back to Japan at FIFA's expense in December - a great finish!

And there was more to come. After Naka had rattled the side-netting with Kossa's last attempt to restore some respectability to the scoreline, they conceded a fifth goal five minutes from time, and came close to conceding a sixth three minutes later.

In the latter incident, Sykes fired over a cross to the far post which saw Menapi and Perry both in close attendance. Morgan somehow ended up with the ball in his hands, not that he knew a great deal about how.

He knew all about it three minutes earlier, however, as Waitakere went nap! Butler burst forward from midfield and worked a one-two with Koprivcic before steering an unerring drive beyond the despairing dive of Morgan and into the bottom left-hand corner of the `keeper's net - 5-0, a fitting way for Waitakere United to declare themselves OFC Champions League winners for the second year in succession.

Waitakere: Gillespie; Perry, Hay (booked, 21) (Bazeley, 62), Emblen; Hayne, Bale, Butler, Sykes; Totori (Menapi, 64), Koprivcic (Rowley, 93), Pearce

Kossa FC: Aefi (Morgan, 45); Wale (Sade, 74), Faisi, Takayama, Nee; Omikirio, Maemania, Ngava, Naka; Luwi, Davani

Referee: Ben Williams (Australia)

Representative