Semifinal previews in store for league
Stuff’s football writers look at five talking points ahead of this weekend’s matches in the national men’s league.
MEET THE 1440 CLUB
With 16 rounds in the bag and two more to go, seven players remain in the hunt to achieve the remarkable feat of playing every possible minute – Auckland City duo Enaut Zubikarai and Cam Howieson, Team Wellington duo Scott Hilliar and Justin Gulley, Bill Robertson of Hawke’s Bay United, Aaron Spain of Canterbury United, and Liam Little of Southern United.
So far they’ve all played 1440 minutes, but will they all finish with 1620 under their belts? Howieson, who has just come through 249 minutes of OFC Champions League action, is the most likely to miss out, while Gulley, Hilliar and Zubikarai are in the same boat, but aren’t as easily replaceable in their positions.
SEMIFINALISTS ON SHOW
On Sunday, Auckland City host Eastern Suburbs and Canterbury United host Team Wellington, two matches that pit the top four teams against each other. Will those pairings and venues be repeated in two weeks’ time? Two wins for the home teams would make it increasingly likely.
City will have some well-rested imports at their disposal who didn’t play any part in the OFC Champions League, and will be favourites against Suburbs, who have just lost their leading scorer, Andre de Jong, to Australian club football, but the other match is anyone’s guess. Team Wellington have to travel, less than a week after arriving back from their Champions League duties in the Solomon Islands, which could prove costly.
CANTERBURY ON THE CHARGE
Canterbury are the form team in the league, having won five in a row, but all of those came against teams that didn’t make the playoffs. Can they continue their run against stronger opposition, starting with Team Wellington this week and Suburbs the next, followed by one of them again or Auckland City in the semifinals?
A sixth straight win would be a record for Canterbury in this competition, but they will have to beat Team Wellington for the first time since 2015 to get it.
CITY’S CLEAN SHEET STREAK
They may have been playing in a different competition, but Auckland City have kept their remarkable clean sheet record alive. It has now been nine games since anybody scored past their keeper, Zubikarai, and if they keep that going for another four games, they will almost certainly win the title.
This Sunday they face a Suburbs side that barely fired a shot last time the two teams met, at the end of January, and will find it even harder to do so now that their leading scorer, de Jong, has departed. Zubikarai has only had to make six saves in his last seven games, but once the playoffs start, one goal could be all it takes to dash City’s dreams.
THE BATTLE FOR FIFTH
With two rounds to go, there are 12 points separating fourthplaced Canterbury United, who have 32, and fifth-placed Tasman United, who have 20.
Five teams remain in the hunt to finish fifth – Tasman; Southern United, who are two points back; Waita¯ kere United and Hawke’s Bay United, who are another two points back; and the Wellington Phoenix reserves, who are a point further back than that. Only Hamilton Wanderers, already doomed to the wooden spoon, can’t make it.
With Waita¯ kere hosting Hawke’s Bay, the Phoenix reserves hosting Tasman, and Southern hosting Wanderers, in Saturday’s only game, the order could change completely by the end of this weekend.