Derby draw sets up a tantalising sequel

SHANE WENZLICK/Auckland Surburbans

GOAL: Auckland City's Chad Coombes celebrates his opening goal during his side's O-League match against Waitakere United at Fred Taylor Park.

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They've become a cottage industry, these cross-town football derbies: it was only six days since Auckland and Waitakere had met in the domestic NZFC, and yesterday, they were thrown together again in the regional O-League competition.

There were obvious reasons why this wasn't of the high standard that some of these encounters have reached – Auckland, after all, were just 48 hours from flying to Dubai for the Club World Cup.

But this 1-1 draw did set up a game worth anticipating on March 27 next year, when the return leg effectively decides which of these teams grabs the dangling $500,000 carrot of next year's club tournament. The winner that day will be near-certain to thrust past whichever Island team tops the other group and continue the City-United hegemony of Pacific football's most lucrative day out.

But ironically, the days of these sides being thrown together six times a year may be nearly over, with murmurings from the Island nations about New Zealand's two O-League spots. The O-League costs $700,000 a year to run, and cost-cuts and politics could see the Kiwis reduced to one place.

In the past four years of Waitakere-Auckland O-League games, there's been just one win each, the rest drawn. And City's Paul Posa had "no complaints" about seeing another, which kept his side atop Group A and suitably readied for their Middle East jaunt.

His men led just before the half-hour, Chad Coombes rattling home a 25m bullet, but Waitakere equalised three minutes before the break when Benji Totori crossed to the near post and Brent Fisher slid in.

And from then on, Totori became more involved, aided by United player-coach Neil Emblem's decision to switch to a more attacking 4-4-2 formation. Totori had a string of opportunities, but butchered the best, hacking over the bar from inside the six-yard box. "Benji is creating great chances, and one day he will score three or four, but we just needed him to score one today," said Emblem, whose side totted up ten second-half corners.

The PA announcer happily detailed how the crowd could watch match reruns on an obscure cable channel. Why bother? Like buses on an arterial route, there's another meeting coming along on January 30.

- © Fairfax NZ News