Rovers v Western Suburbs
Napier
Deep down Patrick Pilz knows he has what it takes to play at the elite level of soccer in New Zealand.
Not long after he arrived from a "small town" of Guetersloh, Germany, in January 2007, Pilz got used to people telling him he should go for the Hawke's Bay United trials.
"I wanted to spend more time with my partner and enjoy the beaches in summer," the 31-year-old says after he and Anke Friemel packed 20kg backpacks at a town between Dortmund and Hanover, with a population of about 100,000, to start a life in New Zealand.
"It wasn't easy leaving behind family and friends," the Bluewater Napier City Rovers player says ahead of tomorrow's 2pm kick-off against Western Suburbs at Park Island, Napier, in their Lotto Central League match.
Today the couple have two children, Marie, 4, and 7-month-old Hayley, so Pilz's unbridled passion for soccer will remain as they continue to take the game of life in their stride. A roofer, who specialises in flat bitumen and rubber-type apexes, Pilz and partner Friemel settled in Wellington for six weeks before making a beeline for Napier, where he was soon playing for Port Hill United Soccer Club in Marewa.
"I was a striker at Port Hill but [premier coach] Tim Claudatos put me into the midfield where he said my skills were better, especially in having an eye for long balls to strikers," he says of a club where he won the ComputerCare Pacific Premiership golden boot titles twice and Club Player of the Year between 2007 and 2011.
He left for the Rovers last year to challenge himself and enjoy a higher level of football over winter, when beaches don't beckon.
While he'll be coming off the bench tomorrow for the Central League defending champions against Suburbs, of Wellington, Pilz reconciles his disappointment with a steely determination to keep knocking on coach Grant Hastings' door.
"You do the best at training and so it's up to the coach.
"You always want to play but if you're not starting then you just have to work harder to earn the right to play."
With the loss of nine players from the title-winning team last winter, Pilz says it'll be tough for the Rovers to retain the bragging rights.
"I'm pretty sure we'll be up there in defending the title."
With his father, Reiner Pilz, playing in the Guetersloh league, the younger Pilz's introduction to soccer was inevitable. He played competitively from age 5 until he was 19, making the various provincial age-group teams along the way.
However, the desire to hang out with friends won for about five years, so Pilz hung up his boots to slip on oversized three-quarter shorts as a point guard in a basketball team.
"It was something different and I wanted to play with my mates."
Hastings said Bill Robertson is back in the Rovers' equation as centreback and captain, after playing the frustrating waiting game with Waitakere United in their O-League campaign.
"He'll start but our back four have been doing well so it'll come down to some very tough decisions," he says. Matt Gould will also remain between the sticks ahead of season-starting goalkeeper Jonty Underhill.
While Underhill remains in the bigger picture, Hastings says Gould's relative experience gives him the edge.
"Matt shows more confidence in the [18m box] but Jonty's certainly getting better at it."
Reflecting on last weekend's first win of the season, 2-1 against Petone, Hastings says the Rovers' statistics suggest they should have been 4-0 at halftime.
"In the second half we got caught on the ball so we need to develop a 20-metre passing game," he says, emphasising it won't be just for the sake of passing but because the game's about which team can put the ball into the opposition's net more.
The Lloyd O'Keefe-coached Western Suburbs boast seasoned Ole Academy players in the mix.
O'Keefe says several players have come from former Waikato United coach Declan Edge who runs an academy in Hamilton, affiliated to the Ole franchise based in Porirua. They include son Harry Edge, nephew Jesse Edge, Ryan Thomas and Somali striker Mohamed Awad. Add to that Bay-born Wellington Phoenix fodder Tom Biss, who signed with Suburbs last week.
"Bissy comes in to join other New Zealand under-20 boys," O'Keefe says, before adding that Awad and Thomas won't be playing tomorrow because they are catching up with family in Hamilton.
"Mohamed's just a fantastic player," says the coach, surprised how Awad missed the eye of national age-group selectors.
The Wellingtonians have won two games (Lower Hutt 1-0, Wellington United 3-0) and drawn one (1-1 Upper Hutt) and are perched on the second rung of the league ladder with seven points on GD, while the Rovers have a win, draw and loss for four points.