Injury problems a concern for United

Injury problems are a concern for the Wairarapa United under-19 soccer team leading into their national tournament in Napier next week.
Both strikers Ryan Athow and Anton Ross are struggling with their fitness as are midfielders Aaron Spierling and Anaru Te Rangi.
Athow from Masterton Athletic is the sole "guest player" in the Wairarapa United side while Ross, Spierling and Te Rangi were part of their premier men's team which won the Capital premier division competition and then earned promotion to the central league.
Coach Phil Keinzley said the quartet all received their injuries during a lead-up tournament hosted by the Upper Hutt club a couple of weeks back.
Wairarapa United managed to win two of their six matches there but Keinzley said the loss of so many of their key players clearly had an adverse effect on their performance.
"These are the guys you expect to lead from the front, we certainly weren't the same team without them," he said.
Keinzley knows that for Wairarapa United to make a decent impact in Napier they will need to be at full strength for they have drawn a difficult pool which includes Papakura, Fencibles (Auckland), Dunedin Technical, Manuwera and North Wellington
Dunedin Technical have won the national title for the past two years and will be among the favourites again while the Auckland region is always one of the strongholds of age group soccer in this country. Therefore Papakura, Fencibles and Manuwera are also likely to pose a formidable challenge.
To make it to the semis Wairarapa United will either have to win their pool or be the best-performed second-placed side over all four pools.
Last year they were beaten out of the latter spot only on goal difference.
Keinzley sees experience as being of the main attributes for Wairarapa United with Ross, Spierling, Te Rangi and Kota Maeno expected to show the benefits of having played regularly against quality adult opposition.
"They know how to handle pressure and hopefully they can use that knowledge to our advantage," he said.
THE FULL WAIRARAPA UNITED SQUAD IS: Ryan Athow, Daniel Ingham, Leighton Calkin, Yuseke Maeno, Kota Maeno, Gin Kwon, Mitchell Scaife, Jackie Chan, Anton Ross, Aaron Spierling, Anaru Te Rangi, Nik Keinzley, Thomas Hemi, Adam Taplin, Andrew Traill and Keiran McGruddy.
Meanwhile, Wairarapa United have received a nil response to advertisements asking for expressions of interest from people prepared to coach any of their five men's or five junior boys teams during the 2009 season.
"We haven't had a single application, not one," Keinzley said.
"We'd like to get things pretty well set up by the end of the year and time is running out."