Auckland City 2 - Team Wellington 0
Waitakere United 6 - Canterbury United 2
Yet another chapter in the long-running Waitakere United-Auckland City saga looms after the perennial rivals took huge strides towards booking places in the April 10 ASB Premiership grand final.
The Auckland teams saw off southern rivals in vastly different first leg semifinals yesterday.
Ahead 4-0 after scoring four in eight minutes in the opening 14 minutes at Fred Taylor Park, Waitakere United slammed the door on the plucky Canterbury United side who failed to repeat their Thursday night heroics which earned them a 1-0 must-win over City.
In scoring two late goals but only after slipping 6-0 behind, Keith Braithwaite's Canterbury salvaged something but even allowing for those away goals counting double if needed to find a winner, it is highly unlikely that will be the case.
City did not find it as easy at David Farrington Park needing two goals in the last 12 minutes to shut-out 10-man Team Wellington 2-0 and take a handy lead into their second leg on March 27.
A shell-shocked Braithwaite could only shake his head in dismay as his team forgot about the basics of defending to hand the minor premiers a gift four goals between the seventh and the 15th minutes.
"No excuses. I'm lost for words," said a bemused Braithwaite. "For the first five minutes I thought we looked okay but then, all of a sudden, whoosh. They were clinical in their finishing and conceding four goals so quickly killed it off.
"We knew it would be a big ask but no one expected that," he said.
Schoolboy defending - and that's unkind to schoolboys - gifted goals to Ryan de Vries, Dakota Lucas, Aaron Scott - his first in three seasons - and de Vries again to end any even faint hopes for the visitors.
The only blights in that first spell, in which Lucas grabbed a second, to stretch the lead to five by the break, was referee Chris Kerr's decision to yellow card Tim Myers and Lucas for tackles which only he could have seen with any malice.
Golden boot Allan Pearce added the sixth on the hour but defensive woes crept in and the home team gave up goals to Nick Wortelboer (82nd minute) and Tom Schwarz (84th).
"I'm delighted in the way we played in the first half when we stuck away the majority of chances we created," said Waitakere coach Neil Emblen. 'That put us in a great position. In the end sloppiness crept in and that cost us."
Team Wellington produced a stubborn defensive performance to frustrate City after they had striker John Sutherland sent off by referee Mirko Benischke after 23 minutes.
The visitor's nerves were calmed when substitute Corrales, broke his former team-mates' resistance in scoring 12 minutes from time. Exposito completed the snatch and grab victory in the 90th minute.
