Auckland City 1
Waitakere United 1
In another typical O-League arm wrestle, Auckland City snatched a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser to finish 1-1 with Waitakere United at Fred Taylor Park yesterday.
No surprise that 90 tense minutes of football with so much at stake failed to find a winner. Nine OFC Champions League stand-offs between the arch rivals have now produced seven draws, either 1-1 or 2-2 and only two wins - one each.
This was more of the same, although until very late in the game it appeared destined for a scoreless draw.
It was game which was never allowed to flow by pedantic Tahitian referee Averii Jacques, who booked five players including three City players for fouls on Waitakere danger man Roy Krishna.
Alex Feneridis was the first player in Jacques' book. Ironically, the lanky midfielder had the telling last say when he fired home the stunning goal that broke Waitakere hearts 2m 35s into the added three minutes of stoppage time.
And, despite the attention he received from the City players, it was Krishna who had scored the go-ahead 82nd-minute goal to give the large, and expectant, crowd something to cheer about.
City's Daniel Kopricvic, back at a ground he used to call home, had the first clear scoring chance but his 34th-minute attempt was blocked by a flying foot from goalkeeper Danny Robinson. Just before the break Adam Dickinson fired a shot straight at Robinson.
Set play - mainly from freekicks (United won the paltry corner count 6-2) - was disappointing with too many balls played too close to the respective goalkeepers. Scoring chances from open play were not much better with few real shots in anger.
After Adam Dickinson got his head to an Ian Hogg cross and headed weakly wide, Stu Kelly fired a shot out of nothing on to the upright and watched as City again failed to break the deadlock. Waitakere went close on a handful of occasions with substitute Mike Gwyther and then a volley of snap shots from close range. Captain Jason Rowley had a weak header gathered by City goalkeeper Jacob Spoonley.
Krishna carved inside from wide on the right to open the scoring with a typically well-angled effort while Feneridis claimed his last-ditch equaliser when Spoonley ran forward to fire a freekick from wide on the halfway line into the United goal.
Jack Pelter headed clear but only as far as Feneridis, lurking outside the penalty area, from where he volleyed home just inside Robinson's right hand post.
"I think we deserved a point," said City co-coach Ramon Tribulietx. "In the first half we were the better team. Basically, we played the same way we did last week. We knew they would play long which meant we had to concentrate on defending set pieces."
In the other group B game, AS Magenta made most of home advantage to beat Tahiti's AS Tefana 1-0 in Noumea.
The next round will be early next month with Auckland City and Waitakere United playing in Papeete and Noumea respectively.
In ASB Premiership action, Canterbury beat YoungHeart Manawatu 1-0 at home to move into second place. Scoring twice in the second half, Hawkes Bay United beat Otago 3-2 at Park Island.
