Soccer: Kingz get pass mark in first NSL season

By TERRY MADDAFORD

It was four years in coming, but well worth the wait.

In finishing just two places - five points - out of the playoffs, the Football Kingz can look back on their inaugural Australian National Soccer League season with justified satisfaction.

Sure, there were trials and troubles off and on the field but overall few could quibble at a top-eight finish in a 16-team championship. And but for a poor defensive effort it could have been much better.

Only the 14th-placed Canberra Cosmos, who gave up 64 goals, fared worse in the defensive stakes than the Harry Ngata-led Kingz, who conceded 59. Countering that, however, was their attacking record. Only top qualifiers Perth Glory (with 60) and Wollongong Wolves (72) scored more than the 57 managed by the Kingz.

If top goalscorer Aaron Silva (11 goals) had been given more than his 19 starts there might have been more from his golden boot.

Silva's future with the club hinges on talks this week and whether he will accept a pay cut to play. With Fred de Jong out of the reckoning, Silva's signature is vital.

The club's other Chilean, defender David Moya, has been released and could head to Australia. Moya deserved better than the six starts - and only three full games - he got. Sadly, he and Silva were embroiled in the player payment debacle which soured the pre-Christmas period.

Contract negotiations - all players will have had talks with the club by the end of this week - are crucial.

Some, including Australians Marcus Stergiopoulos and Levent Osman, have gone. Others, including Ivan Vicelich and Che Bunce, have had offers, but according to the chairman, Chris Turner, are keen to stay.

The new season kicks off on October 15. Turner and coach Wynton Rufer will have the squad in place well before that.

Hopefully, off-field issues, too, will be settled by then.

The Kingz have brought professional football to New Zealand for the first time. With it has come, especially in the latter part of the season, unprecedented support, television/media interest and awareness which in turn (and coupled with the All Whites in the Confederations Cup and the World under-17 championships) led to an increase in junior registrations.

The Kingz gave their players a pathway to international football and invaluable exposure.

The barbs have been fired in other directions, including the changing of venues and a lack of consistency in results and player selection - only twice did the Kingz manage to win two in a row and not once did the same team start in successive matches.

There was also concern at the apparent lack of ambition by Shane and Wynton Rufer who saw the playoffs as not necessarily important.

The club was obviously hindered by financial uncertainty and the need for Turner virtually to administer the club via his cellphone. Hopefully, the arrival of Sky Television as major backers will be reflected in an all-round improved performance.

Getting Fifa to agree to an extension of their initial two-year stint is the most pressing problem.

Generally, though, this was a sound first-up effort and the platform for something better next season.