Soccer: Never mind the dog - catch the ball

By BOB PEARCE

Forget the dog - Julio Cuello will be catching soccer balls at Ericsson Stadium in Auckland tonight.

The Argentine goalkeeper, who featured in a controversial advertisement for the Football Kingz involving a falling dog, will make his debut for the team in their Australian Soccer League game against Newcastle.

He has been unable to contend for a place until now because no clearance had been obtained from South America.

The clearance has arrived just in time for him to take over from Chris Marsh, who has returned to Dunedin to sit his final university exams.

As backup the Kingz have also signed Simon Eaddy from the University-Mt Wellington club.

Coach Shane Rufer was reluctant to change the line-up who earned a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Eastern last week, but niggling injuries have restricted Michael Cartwright and Aaran Lines in training and they will need to pass fitness tests.

"I have made it clear to the players that they won't be playing unless they're 100 per cent fit," Rufer said.

Likely replacements would be German Andy Bluhm and Aucklander Jeff Campbell, who made a good impression in his limited opportunities last season.

Unavailable still is co-coach Wynton Rufer, who is resting a calf strain, but in any case has been in Zurich on Fifa business and celebrating Pele's 60th birthday.

All White midfielder Mark Burton has been training with the Kingz, but has not yet agreed terms or received a clearance from his last club, in Germany.

Newcastle, then known as the Breakers, were seventh in last year's league but were subsequently kicked out after internal squabbling. They have been resurrected as Newcastle United by businessman Con Constantine.

The new club has inherited some fervent fans, with 15,123 turning up at Marathon Stadium last weekend to watch Newcastle go down 0-2 to Brisbane.

Two players to watch in the attack are John Buonavoglia, who is reckoned to be the fastest player in the league, and Fijian international Esala Masi, strong in the air and with a lethal shot in each foot.

A familiar name in the defence is All White Chris Zoricich.

The surprise of the league so far has been the performance of last season's bottom team, Sydney United, who top the table on goal difference from Marconi and the Melbourne Knights.

Last weekend's eight matches drew a record total of 58,800 people, topping the 54,153 set in the 1996-97 season.

The Kingz drew a crowd of between 5000 and 6000 for last week's game. They will hope for even more at 7.30 tonight.

Kingz: Cuello, Levent Osman, Jonathan Perry, Riki Van Steeden, Harry Ngata, Michael Cartwright, Chris Jackson, Ivan Vicelich, Aaran Lines, Tim Stevens, Paul Urlovic, Aaron Silva, Dennis Ibrahim, Gerard Davis, Andy Bluhm, Jeff Campbell.

Newcastle: Brad Swancott, Andy Roberts, Chris Zoricich, Todd McManus, Travis Dodd, Brad Wieczorek, Antony Surjan, Peter Tsekenis, Mark Wilson, John Buonavoglia, Esala Masi, Glenn Sprod, Daniel McBreen, Vasko Trpcevski, Peter Juchniewicz.