Wairarapa United outplayed, but not outclassed

Central league leaders Miramar Rangers beat Wairarapa United 4-1 in their Chatham Cup elimination soccer match played at Miramar on Saturday but the hot favourites didn't get everything their own way.
Three goals in the first 25 minutes suggested that Miramar Rangers were going to demolish a Wairarapa United side which, at that stage, were giving their star studded forward line headed by national under-23 skipper Jeremy Brockie too much latitude on attack.
A Seule Soromon goal after Waisake Sabutu and Pita Rabo had launched a counter attack from well inside their own territory did give Wairarapa United supporters something to celebrate but Miramar Rangers added another goal to their tally to lead by an ominous looking 4-1 at the halftime break.
That the second half was scoreless was evidence of the more assertive attitude adopted by Wairarapa United in both attacking and defensive situations. Rather than sit back and allow Miramar Rangers to dominate proceedings they actually took the battle to them and created a number of good scoring chances as a result.'
Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley said that second half effort showed what could be achieved when teams were positive in their approach.
"We had paid them (Miramar Rangers) too much respect in the first half, we let them run at us and you can't afford to do that against teams of their calibre," he said. "The second half was a complete turn round, we competed strongly all over the park and made them look pretty ordinary at times."
So physical, in fact, was the nature of the game in the second half that fiery exchanges broke out on occasions and Miramar Rangers, which elected to retain their starting XI through most of the game, had a player sent from the field with about ten minutes of play remaining.
Rabo, Sabatu, and Soromon all had outstanding games for Wairarapa United as did defender Sakeo Valevou and central midfielder Guiseppe Cugliari.
It will be back to Capital premier division competition play for Wairarapa United next weekend with Keinzley saying overall victory there was still a possibility, especially if they could repeat Saturday';s second half performance on a regular basis."Play like that for a full game every Saturday and there wouldn't be a premier division team capable of beating us," he said.
The Wairarapa United seconds moved to third in the Capital third division competition by beating Wellington United 3-2 in their match played on Saturday at the Pugh Sports Bowl in Masterton.