No happy returns for Pep to Barcelona
lively in pre-season. Tasman head into their first game against Canterbury United on the back of two preseason defeats against the competition’s two worst teams from last year.
CANTERBURY UNITED
Beaten 2015-16 placing: semifinalist (Fourth) Coach: Willy Gerdsen Squad: Danny Knight, Kris Schulz, Tom Batty; Andreas Wilson, Brock Messenger, Dan Terris, Felix Komolong, Jackson Brady, Nick Howarth, Tom Schwarz; Aaron Clapham, Aaron Spain, Andre de Jong, Colin van Gool, Gary Ogilvie, Roddy Lockhart; Daniel Thorns, Juan Chang, Matt Wiesenfarth, Nikolai Molijn, Stephen Hoyle
Key player: Canterbury have struggled with their finishing in previous seasons and will hope 23-year-old Englishman Stephen Hoyle is the man to solve that problem. He was the league’s third top goal scorer last season with 10 strikes for WaiBop United and showed his quality in preseason, netting against Auckland City.
The lowdown: The challenge for Canterbury is how do they rise from a decent side to a great one and contend with the likes of Auckland City, Team Wellington and Eastern Suburbs. Coach Gerdsen has retained the bulk of last year’s side and will be optimistic of another top-four finish. The Dragons have a dependable midfield with talented youngster Andre de Jong and the proven Aaron Clapham and Gary Ogilvie. Can Hoyle and American striker Matt Wiesenfarth consistently translate chances into goals up front?
SOUTHERN UNITED
2015-16 placing: Eighth Coach: Paul O’Reilly Squad: Liam Little, Tom Stevens; Cam Higgins, Conor O’Keefe, Craig Ferguson, Jude Fitzpatrick, Niall Malone, Ross Howard, Sam Cosgrave, Stephen Last; Andrew Ridden, Ben O’Farrell, Danny Ledwith, Harley Rodeka, Luis Paiva, Michael Hogan; Eric Molloy, Andy Mulligan, Sam Collier, Tennessee Kinghorn
Key player: Any of their five Irish imports, with Eric Molloy, who scored two goals from the right wing in Southern United’s warm-up preseason victory over Tasman United, an early shout.
The lowdown: New coach Paul O’Reilly has boosted his southern side with five Irish imports as they look to improve on their last place finish in 2015-16. The introduction of Molloy, Stephen Last, Danny Ledwith, Conor O’Keefe and Andy Mulligan will have boosted a side otherwise made up of local players from around the region. Finishing outside the bottom two for the first time since the 2011-12 season will be the first target for the southerners. Lionel Messi scored his second hat-trick in as many Champions League games to give Barcelona a 4-0 win over Manchester City as Pep Guardiola and Claudio Bravo endured harrowing returns to the Nou Camp.
A slip by Fernandinho allowed Messi to round former team-mate Bravo and open the scoring in the 17th minute and the keeper completed a miserable night by getting sent off in the second half for handling outside the area after losing the ball.
The magical Messi hammered in his second from the edge of the area after turning two City defenders and pounced on a Luis Suarez layoff to complete his treble in the 69th minute yesterday.
Barca substitute Jeremy Mathieu was then dismissed for two bookable offences. Neymar had a late penalty saved by substitute Willy Caballero but the Brazilian made amends by scoring the fourth goal in the 89th minute.
Guardiola stood by his tactics – and his humiliated goalkeeper Bravo – after the defeat.
’’There were two ways to approach the game. We could have sat back and we could have won or lost doing that but I don’t know how to play that way and I don’t want to play that way,’’ Guardiola said.
‘‘The more these Barca players have the ball, the more damage they do. It’s difficult to play against these players when you have 11. With 10, it was over.’’
The coach gave his backing to Bravo, who has been criticised for some of his shaky performances in England since signing from Barcelona in the summer.
‘‘Of course he knows what he did. He has a lot of experience, but he was the first one to apologise in the dressing room,’’ he said.
In other games, Mesut Ozil bagged a second-half hat-trick as Arsenal turned on the style to thrash Ludogorets 6-0 and move to the verge of the knockout rounds.
Vincent Aboubakar headed a late goal to give Besiktas a shock 3-2 win away at Napoli after the Serie A team had twice come from behind and missed a penalty.
Bayern Munich dispelled any doubts about its commitment by ending a three-match winless run with a comfortable 4-1 victory over PSV Eindhoven.
Borussia Moenchengladbach capitalised on two defensive errors by Kolo Toure to beat Celtic 2-0.