Peru fretting about Win would secure playoff spot for Southern height of NZ striker

WIN and secure a playoff spot.

Lose, or draw, and leave the season hanging in the balance.

That is the equation for Southern United in the national women’s football league with two rounds to go.

Despite having a bye this weekend, the competition leader appears to be in control of its own fate.

Thirteen points looks to be the magic number to clinch a playoff berth — a number Southern can reach with a win over Capital next weekend.

Southern leads the league with 10 points and is followed by Auckland on nine, Northern and Canterbury United on seven and Capital on six.

The two key matches remaining — as far as the 13 points are concerned — are the ones involv

ing Auckland.

It travels to Canterbury, before hosting Northern.

If Auckland were to win both games it would go top with 15 points, leaving Northern and Canterbury unable to reach more than 10.

For Northern or Canterbury to reach that 13, it would involve them winning both remaining games. That would involve them taking three points off Auckland, which would leave it with either nine or 12.

Of course, a loss, or a draw, against Capital would complicate things for Southern.

It would not be a lost cause, although it would leave it relying on other results.

Auckland, Northern and Canterbury all have better goal differences, on six, five and four respectively, to Southern’s one.

That means Southern is keen to avoid a tie, which is a possibility via the Auckland situation.

A loss would also open up the possibility of Capital sneaking a spot.

It can still reach 12 points with wins over Northern and Southern.

That would also limit those opponents to a maximum of 10 points, which would push Capital into the top three.

A draw could yet be enough for Southern — although that would be playing with fire.

If Northern and Canterbury were to beat Capital and Central respectively, and then each draw with Auckland, it would leave a fourway tie on 11 points.

That would again mean Southern would it lose out on goal difference, which would be a heartbreaking finish to what has been a brilliant season.

However, virtually any other combination of results from those games would see it through.

Perhaps an ideal situation would be for Northern to beat Capital, knocking Capital out of contention.

That would mean Southern would come up against a team playing for pride, rather than one playing for its life.

Either way, this is an inform Southern team playing the best football it has in years.

Winning is the easiest route through and this is a side more than capable of doing that.

There has been a change to the original schedule of the Southern United men for this weekend’s home game against Hawke’s Bay United.

The match will now kick off at 11am on Sunday at Sunnyvale, as opposed to 2pm on Saturday.

The youth team will play at Tahuna Park on Saturday at 2pm.

The game times were swapped in order to work in with flight availability between Dunedin and Napier, alongside the availability of Sunnyvale Park on Saturday.

Southern’s round 16 match against Team Wellington at Sunnyvale Park has also been moved to 2pm on February 11.

ALIMA: New Zealand’s towering striker Chris Wood is set to start tomorrow’s decisive World Cup playoff match against Peru and the homew side is concerned about the size of its opponents all over the pitch.

The five Kiwi defenders who started Saturday’s 00 firstleg draw measured an average 1.84m, while the four Peruvians who played up front against them were on average 10 cm shorter.

‘‘The fact is that this game is going to be as hard and complicated as the game was in New Zealand because it’s not easy to play against the walls that make up their defence,’’ Peru striker Jefferson Farfan said.

The Peruvians have been fretting over the appearance of the 1.91m Wood, who came on with 15 minutes remaining in the first leg and caused problems for the visiting side’s defence.

But Farfan, who is 1.78m tall, was candid about the task of facing such burly opponents.

‘‘They’ll surely be prepared in Lima but we have to go out there to break down that defensive line any way we can,’’ the Lokomotiv Moscow player said.

‘‘It won’t be easy but we’ve fought so hard to have this chance of qualifying for the World Cup that we can’t not take advantage.’’

New Zealand expects to have Burnley striker Wood on from the start after a hamstring injury restricted him to a substitute appearance in Wellington.

Peru is still without the suspended Paolo Guerrero as it attempts to reach the finals for the first time since 1982. — Reuters