Soccer: Big two in race for the top of the pile

Waitakere United player Roy Krishna. Photo / Richard Robinson.

Auckland City will hope to continue their rich history of success when domestic soccer's biggest league kicks off this weekend - but they'll have to do so with a host of new faces.

While Waitakere have retained most of last season's squad, including coach Neil Emblen, City go into the new-look ASB Premiership season, starting with tomorrow's game at Waikato FC, with an untried coaching duo and a handful of new players.

The Auckland clubs have won the six New Zealand Football Championships between them - four titles for City and two for United - and, with that, the chance to contest the O-League and, until last season, the Fifa Club World Cup.

City's Ramon Tribulietx, one half of last season's successful partnership with coach Paul Posa, has been retained by the ambitious Kiwitea St-based franchise. He has been joined in a co-coaching role by stalwart Aaron McFarlane. The pair have regular performers including Jacob Spoonley, Ian Hogg, James Pritchett, Daniel Koprivcic, Adam Dickinson, Adam McGeorge and Alex Feneridis back, but are without long-servers Grant Young, Chad Coombes, Paul Urlovic, Greg Uhlmann and Keryn Jordan.

On paper, City appear to be short on striking options, which will put the onus on Koprivcic, Dickinson, Feneridis and others such as Luis Corrales and new signing Phil Edginton to step up.

City have pulled off a major coup in signing All Whites defender/midfielder David Mulligan from Wellington Phoenix. He and others including the experienced Stu Kelly, Pritchett and Corrales will be the platform from which McFarland and Tribulietx will be looking to launch their bid for both Premiership and O-League honours.

Waitakere have lost Brent Fisher and Benjamin Totori but have retained Roy Krishna, who will be expected to lead the attack with Allan Pearce and youngsters Dakota Lucas, Ryan de Vries and newcomers Mike Gwyther and Sean Lovemore.

While Emblen has included himself on the roster, he wants to give his young players their chance. Aaron Scott has opted to stay with Waitakere rather than linking with nearer-to-home Waikato and will use the season to relaunch his international career. He showed encouraging pre-season form.

Scott will be part of a rearguard likely to include Tim Myers, Jack Pelter, Jason Rowley and Neil Sykes, who has hinted this season is likely to be his last. After a season with Team Wellington, Chris Bale will be back at the heart of the Waitakere midfield alongside last season's player of the year, Martin Bullock.

Waitakere will get an early indication of their chances when they play Team Wellington at Fred Taylor Park on Sunday. Team Wellington have a new-look team but will still rate a chance. Coach Stu Jacobs will be looking for a better start than last season, when they struggled to win anything before finding their form and charging into third place and the play-offs, where they went within a whisker of making the grand final - beaten on away goals after finishing 4-4 with Waitakere over the two legs.

Canterbury United, who went all the way to the final last season after finishing last the previous two seasons, will again be a force under enterprising coach Keith Braithwaite. While Braithwaite would have been more than happy to see star midfielder Aaron Clapham, who deservedly got game time for the All Whites against Honduras and Paraguay, head off to an A-League club, he welcomes the chance to have the player back in red and black and as the cornerstone of his bid for success.

Canterbury capped their season with a brave effort against City, winning 3-0 at home and taking the tie 4-2 on aggregate. They led Waitakere 1-0 early in the final before losing 3-1.