Soccer: City coast to victory over Tahitian side

Auckland City captain Ivan Vicelich. Photo / Greg Bowker

Auckland City will play Vanuatu champions Amical in the two-leg O-League final with the winner guaranteed a place in the end-of-year Fifa Club World Cup.

As dress rehearsals for that showdown, Saturday's final-round matches could not have been more different.

At home to Tahitian side AS Tefana, City were always in control and coasted home 5-0 to maintain their unbeaten record and end the regular season six points clear of long-time rivals Waitakere United, whose makeshift side came from a goal down to beat New Caledonia's AS Magenta 2-1.

The victory capped a good week for City, who were named by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHs) as Oceania's Club of the First Decade of the 21st Century. IFFHS is an organisation recognised by Fifa that chronicles the history and records of Association Football.

Amicale, looking for momentum heading into the final, left the Solomon Islands as 1-0 losers after Joses Nawo's second-half goal snatched the winner for Koloale, who took second place just a point back.

In the other group A match, played in Port Moresby, defending O-League champions Hekari United came from behind to draw with Fijian champions Lautoka.

City's win was the fillip they were looking forward to ahead of what promises to be a testing trip to Vanuatu in a fortnight.

City captain Ivan Vicelich headed home a Stu Kelly corner for the 28th-minute opener. Daniel Koprivcic blasted in a rebound from close range just before the break for 2-0.

Andrew Milne made it three after 58 minutes as the chances kept coming for the home side in the second half as Tefana lost their way a little in having five players booked including one for a dangerous Stephane Faatiarau tackle on Ian Hogg in the 90th minute.

Hogg converted the resultant penalty before Koprivcic, in stoppage time, coolly slotted his second.

"It's another good performance, we controlled possession and dominated the game," said co-coach Ramon Tribulietx. "We can't really ask for more from our players. We've finished unbeaten in the group which is a great achievement, especially considering we were missing some key players at the start of the season.

"Now with everyone on board and looking ahead to the final, we need to maintain our high standards because it's always difficult to go up to the islands and play."

Opposing coach Laurent Heinis was disappointed to have finished at the bottom of Group B.

"I think the end result was not a fair reflection of the game," said Heinis. "We matched them for most of it but gave away goals at important times. But Auckland deserved to win and showed again that they are the best in this group."

Waitakere, still pointing to the injury time Jacob Spoonley long range free-kick, the defensive blunder and Alex Feneridis' goal which earned City a 1-1 draw at Fred Taylor Park in mid-November as the turning point of their campaign, saved some face with their second place in group B.

The rag-tag mob masquerading as Waitakere after coach Neil Emblen had been forced to search for enough available players struggled at times but in the end deserved their win. Emblen, who gave away the soft penalty which led to Magenta's 30th-minute goal (and claiming "I could not move my leg quick enough to get out of the way") said it had been a difficult task.

"We were a bit lax going into it as the players all had different agendas," said Emblen. "In the end I was pleased [goalscorers] Ryan de Vries and Allan Pearce performed well.

"It could have been 5-4 either way and at least we kept the momentum going. It was important to finish second in the group but that late goal we conceded here against Auckland City was the pivotal point of the O-League season."