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There was plenty of nail-biting and what-ifs but in the end form held true as the top four teams in the New Zealand Football Championship held their places over the weekend and now go into the first leg of home-and-away semifinals in a fortnight.
Waitakere United, already confirmed as winners
by a record number of points despite the reduced match schedule, came back from 0-2 to finish 2-2 with YoungHeart Manawatu in Palmerston North; Auckland City, led by a hat-trick from returning striker Grant Young (his first goals of the NZFC season), walloped Canterbury United 5-0; and Team Wellington beat Waikato FC to slam the door on their play-off hopes.
The semifinals in a fortnight see the two top teams, Waitakere, who are away to Port Vila Sharks in O-League action this weekend, and Auckland travel for first-leg matches against Team Wellington and Manawatu respectively.
The second legs will be played a week later with the winners meeting in the March 29 televised Grand Final.
Like Waikato, Hawkes Bay United had their hopes dashed yesterday but not without an anxious wait.
Kicking off an hour before the other three matches, Hawkes Bay beat Otago United 2-0 with a second-half Seule Soromon goal followed five minutes from time by an own goal.
Jonathan Gould and his players then had to wait and hope Waitakere would beat Manawatu, which would have eased the Bay into the semifinals with a better goal difference.
Those hopes were buoyed when Danny Hay and Kayne Vincent scored five minutes apart after Jason Hayne and Gustavo Saralegui had given the home side a handy 2-0 lead after 50 minutes.
Led by a 31st-minute strike from Golden Boot Luis Corrales, Team Wellington raced to 3-0 before Steven Holloway, in the 81st minute, got one back for Waikato at Newtown Park. Andy Barron re-established the three-goal advantage five minutes later to cap a strong second half to the season.
Jonathan Raj sparked Auckland City to life with a deft header from a Ki-Hyung Lee left wing corner inside four minutes at Kiwitea St. It was all downhill for Canterbury from that point.
Young, coerced back as cover for the injured Keryn Jordan and Paul Urlovic, scored in the 12th, 35th and 40th minutes and Milos Nikolic from the penalty spot in between, to secure City's eighth win of the season and their anticipated second-place finish.
