Soccer: Fiery Coombes sees the light

Chad Coombes used to lose his cool too often. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Sometimes he sports a green dot on his palm. At others, team-mates yell: 'green light'.

It's all done to remind Chad Coombes to calm down. He is, by his own admission, a combustible player and too often he, metaphorically at least, resembles a red light.

Last weekend, for example, he was sent off against Canterbury United. It wasn't the first time in his career.

"I hate myself for doing it," Coombes admits of his rash mistakes.

"I don't know why I do it. Sometimes I can't stop myself. Maybe one in 10 games I'm a muppet but I have curbed it quite a lot recently."

Coombes, though, is hoping for a green light of a different kind when the All Whites 23-man World Cup squad is named in May.

The 26-year-old has suddenly emerged as a real contender after he and Auckland City team-mate Jason Hayne received late call-ups to play Mexico in Los Angeles earlier this month.

It came out of the blue for the pair but revealed some of Ricki Herbert's thinking around the final bits of his 23-piece puzzle.

"I feel I have my nose in front," says Coombes, who played almost 60 minutes against Mexico at right wing-back. "As Ricki said, I haven't done my chances any harm. It's mine to lose."

Today looms as a major chance for Coombes to further his claim for a spot in South Africa when he plays in front of Herbert and All Whites assistant Brian Turner in a crucial O-League match against Waitakere United.

It's also a chance for other World Cup hopefuls but the presence of the All Whites coach isn't the only incentive for players, because the stakes could hardly be higher in domestic football.

The winners of today's game progress to the O-League final. The winner of that receives a minimum US$500,000 from Fifa for qualifying for the annual Club World Cup and New Zealand teams have always represented Oceania (Auckland twice, Waitakere twice).

Last year Auckland City collected US$1.5 million for finishing a highly-credible fifth. The players received about a 40 per cent cut of that.

"You can't really think about the money in these games," Coombes say. "If nothing else, we don't want them to win.

"I love playing against Waitakere and I've scored in the last two games against them. We also hate them and don't want them to go [to the Club World Cup instead of us]. We want to be the best team in Auckland and New Zealand."

Although Waitakere need only a draw to qualify for the O-League final thanks to a superior goal difference, Auckland have held the upper hand in recent times and haven't lost to the westerners in the past five games.

They also haven't lost in domestic and O-League football for 12 months.

That run has coincided with Coombes' rise in New Zealand football. He shot to prominence with his spectacular goal against Al Ahli at last December's Club World Cup which helped Auckland qualify for the last six.

"That was pretty crazy," Coombes admits of his strike from outside the box.

He was then called up to the All Whites 24 hours before they left to play Mexico. "That was pretty crazy, too."

He has lined up a handful of trials with English League One and Two outfits this winter but something bigger is on the horizon.

"This is my big year," Coombes says. "My break came in December and I have been riding the wave ever since.

"I hope it surges again later in the year."