Soccer: Auckland City stroll to victory

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More harm than good can often be done in meaningless matches - players can get injured, pick up silly cards ruling them out of matches or teams can lose denting confidence.

None of that happened for Auckland City yesterday. They went into their match with Tahiti's AS Tefana having already secured their place in next month's O-League final and dominated to end the group matches as the only unbeaten side (three wins, two draws). Not only that, not one player was cautioned or injured and David Mulligan had returned from China where he went for trials and looks sure to be available for the important matches.

Auckland kept their noses dry, however. They fielded a largely second-string team to protect some players in danger of missing the two-legged playoff final with Vanuatu's Amicale if they picked up another caution and substituted others like skipper Ivan Vicelich, James Pritchett and Stuart Kelly early.

The only thing that would have made the day perfect was if cross-town rivals Waitakere United had been upstaged by AS Magenta and finished at the foot of the Group A table. Waitakere won 2-1, thanks to a late goal by Allan Pearce, and finished third of the four teams.

Auckland are building nicely and would fancy their chances of capturing a rare double. They have been beaten just once in their last 17 games in all competitions and will take a 2-0 lead into the second leg of their ASB Premiership semifinal against Team Wellington next weekend.

They should be able to defend that, even though they will be without Vicelich and Mulligan who will be on international duty with the All Whites, and are odds on to meet Waitakere in yet another final.

There is one prize, however, co-coach Aaron McFarland covets the most.

"O-League, without a doubt," he said emphatically. "Winning the ASB Premiership would be great but the O-League is the most important thing to this club."

McFarland watched his side build a 2-0 at halftime yesterday courtesy of goals to Vicelich and Daniel Koprivcic, and they added three more after the break through Andrew Milne and an Ian Hogg penalty before Koprivcic rounded things off with a neat goal on the stroke of fulltime.

They were rarely troubled by Tefana, although goalkeeper Liam Little made a couple of smart saves. It was a good display but the absence of any meaning, Tefana's shortcomings and the autumn sunshine produced a flat atmosphere.

"Scoring five goals at any stage is good," McFarland said. "We really want to cement that style and cement good habits. There's nothing worse than losing a game like this and dropping your standards."

FULL TIME
* Auckland City: 5
* AS Tefana: 0