Soccer: Clubs meet in classic final

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Nick Hyde's feet have hardly touched the ground in recent weeks.

But after tomorrow's national club soccer championship grand final he will be able to sit back to reflect and contemplate.

He can reflect on an amazing season with his University/Mt Wellington club side and the Rangitoto College First Xl he coached to national honours for the first time, and he can contemplate a career move from the school to an Adelaide radio station.

"Australia beckons," said Hyde, as he prepared for a last training session with his clubmates ahead of the Ansett national club championship final against Napier City Rovers. "After four years as sports coordinator at Rangitoto College it is time to move on."

The school won the Lotto Sports premier title in Christchurch at only their second attempt after finishing 12th in 1999.

With his school team playing 12 games in 20 days at the end of the season, Hyde's life was something of an adrenaline rush.

Reaching tomorrow's final is the opportunity for Hyde and the Clive Campbell-coached University/Mt Wellington side to round off a season which has promised much.

The pacesetters virtually throughout, the famous club has the chance to add to an already glittering array of honours.

Among the crowd at last Sunday's 3-0 semifinal win over Manawatu United were many of the Mount's stars of past triumphs, including Dave Taylor, Bill de Graaf, Glen Adam, Warren Fleet and Tony Sibley.

There might be some significance in that scoreline, too.

In the two games between the finalists thus far this season, Napier won 3-0 at home and the teams drew 3-3 at Bill McKinlay Park after the Mount had led 3-0 at halftime.

For 25-year-old Hyde, named man of the match after last Sunday's victory, this is the chance to cap a senior career with the club after a spectacular start seven years ago.

Following his switch from East Coast Bays - where New Zealand Soccer chief executive Bill MacGowan had just taken the coaching reins and had no place for the young Hyde - to Mt Wellington, Hyde was called in as a substitute for a midweek game.

"It was my 18th birthday. I scored with my first touch and finished up with a hat-trick," Hyde recalls.

Since then, he has followed the well-trodden path of many strikers by dropping back to play in the midfield and then further back to join the defence.

He has adapted well and has been one of the more consistent performers at the Mount this season.

Living these days in Torbay, Hyde is looking forward to playing at the nearby North Harbour Stadium, his first game at New Zealand soccer's home ground.

The match promises to be a classic encounter between the silky skills of Napier and the more direct approach of the Mount side.

Napier, now over the stormy times under departed coach John McKenna, have the brilliance to beat anyone.

Imports Ricky Ravenhill and Paul Jackson have added class to a side also boasting former internationals Mark Paston, captain Martin Akers and Perry Cotton.

Midfielder Jimmy Cudd, outstanding in the win over Dunedin Technical on Thursday, has been a revelation.

With the very real possibility that the winners will go on to represent New Zealand in next year's Oceania qualifiers for the world club championship, the stakes are higher than usual.

Both clubs - first and second after round-robin play - have been able to select from squads with no players missing through injury or suspension.

Given their late-season run, Napier would, under normal circumstances, go into the game as slight favourites.

Just how much Thursday's replayed semifinal has taken from them might, in the end, make all the difference.

In the curtainraiser, Metro (Auckland) meet Dunedin's Caversham to find the last qualifier for next season's national league.