Soccer: Anxious Auckland City wrap up title

City's James Pritchett (right) shrugs off Waitakere's Shannon Cole at Trusts Stadium yesterday. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Auckland City gave their fans a few scares before beating Waitakere United 2-1 at Trusts Stadium yesterday to clinch the New Zealand Championship for the second year in a row.

They earn one of the country's two berths in the Oceania qualifying in May for the rich World Club Cup in Japan in December, where the Oceania team will have to play off against the winners of the J-League for a place in the main draw.

Auckland have next weekend off while second-placed Manawatu, who beat Otago yesterday, play third-placed Canterbury, 2-1 winners over Waikato, in round one of the play-offs.

In the other game fourth-placed Wellington, who beat Hawkes Bay 4-2, play Otago. The play-off winners also have a spot in the Oceania qualifying.

"There'll be no time off for the players," said Auckland coach Allan Jones. "They'll be back training on Tuesday. We'll be playing to win the play-offs but we'll also be preparing for the Oceania games.

"It wasn't pretty out there today but ... all credit to Waitakere, they gave it a good go."

Jones will not be with the team if they make it to Japan. He becomes national women's coach at the end of May after three years with City.

The weather conspired to ruin the quality of the game yesterday. Heavy rain left standing water on parts of the ground and strong gusts of wind made passing something of a lottery.

Waitakere, who had an outside chance of making the playoffs, almost scored after four minutes when Prince Quansah brought a good save from goalkeeper Ross Nicholson.

At the other end Keryn Jordan fired wildly over the top and Paul Seaman elected to pass when a shot was on. Jordan made amends in the 28th minute when he converted a penalty awarded for an off-the-ball foul.

Ten minutes later he made it 2-0 after Jonathan Smith had put him clear with only the goalkeeper to beat.

Waitakere scored just after halftime, Quansah firing in a cross that Jonathan Perry turned into his own goal. And there was further anxiety for the visitors as Daniel Ellensohn had his shot blocked with only the goalkeeper to beat and Shannon Cole eluded Nicholson only to hit the post.

Manawatu went into the round two points adrift of Auckland and knowing only a win over Otago gave them a chance of the title. Goals by Campbell Banks in the 35th and 75th minutes matched strikes by Craig Dale and Francesco Caruso before Ben Totori scored the winner in the 90th.

Canterbury lagged behind Michael Gwyther's 44th-minute goal for Waikato until the 90th minute when Stu Kelly scored. He collected the winner late in stoppage time.

Wellington's win over Hawkes Bay moved them ahead of Otago and earned the home fixture for next week.