Folks, it’s Champions League season. Eastern Suburbs as we speak are hanging out in Papua New Guinea for their group stage endeavours, in the process becoming the fourth New Zealand club to compete in this tournament. Auckland City, Team Wellington, and Waitakere United, obviously the others. Auckland City will have their group stage games in a couple weeks but Suburbs are hot into it right now... which means we’re also into a month of limited gameweeks in the Premiership. Just the three games this week, only two of them next week.

Suburbs came away with a 2-1 win first up in their Champions League campaign against local club Hekari United. Kicking off at 3pm PNG time was no easy task, this was one that’d definitely have to be considered in the ‘gruelling’ category... though remember that there are a fair few players in this ES team that have played recently at youth level for Aotearoa which means having experienced football in The Islands and the unique challenges that they offer up. And they named almost their top strength team too. The only difference from their last week’s Premmy XI was that Tyler Lissette played off the bench and Christian Gray started in his place. Otherwise all the regulars. The Drake Bros. Adam Thomas. Adam Thurston. Marty Bueno. Et cetera.

And it was Bueno, in such good form lately, who gave them the lead relatively early on. Suburbs had already had a couple half chances in asking Hekari gloveman Ishmael Pole to do a bit of unorthodox keeping but when Reid Drake broke the offside trap cleverly to get on the end of a ball over the top from Alec Solomons there was nothing that any Hekari defender could do about Bueno tapping home from Reido’s gentle square pass across goal. Just what they needed to settle into the club’s first Champions League game, 19 minutes gone.

Excellent goal keeping at both ends ensured that the next goal would be a little while in coming, and Danyon Drake clearly wanted a tad more help from his mates when it did after he pulled off a glorious slide tackle outside the area to deny Ati Kepo... only for his brother Kolu Kepo (the Kepo Bros up against the Drake Bros, how about it?) to get to the loose ball first and chip it over Drakey to make it 1-1 with only minutes to go until half-time. But minutes were enough time for Martin Bueno to pounce on a loose ball and restore Suburbs’ lead going into the break. That bloke couldn’t stop scoring goals if he tried.

That was a blow for the home side but even worse was a second yellow card for midfielder David Muta in the 53rd minute which reduced them to ten men and basically allowed Eastern Suburbs to control the tempo of the game and thus help (somewhat) to negate the heat the rest of the way. The thing that teams learn very quickly in Oceania competition is that it’s perfectly fine to win them ugly. Suburbs closed it out over that second stanza to claim an important first up victory and they face Galaxy FC (Vanuatu) at 3pm on Wednesday, another debutant in the competition but a strong one having beaten defending champs ‎Hienghène Sport 4-1 in their opening match. Peep at that OFC livestream if you get the chance.

So on to the Premiership footy now and Southern United hosted Waitakere United on the turf in Dunedin for our first kick off. Southern didn’t change a thing from their draw with Hamilton Wands last time out and Waitakere would probably have done the same after winning their fourth in a row last time but Luke Searle was suspended so in came Clark Foulds instead. All nice and sturdy... which is more than you could say about the Waitak defence when Garbhan Coughlan skipped past Flynn O’Brien with a sweet move and then crossed to a strangely wide open Cody Brook for the opener after just three and a half minutes. Southern already in front, looking nice and relaxed to be playing in front of their home crowd where they’ve generally played so much better than some (6-1 loss to Team Welly) of those pesky (5-0 loss to Tasman Utd) recent away games (6-0 loss to Eastern Suburbs).

But back home again and with an early lead, they were looking sharp. Things had been much improved with a dogged defensive effort last week and they continued on that same note, getting back towards that typical Southern United identity of recent years. However Waitakere soon began to settle into some significant possession with Sam Burfoot knocking it around and before long they were level. 1-1 thanks to Robert Tipelu. The dude’s built like an armoured tank so when a corner kick was deflected back into the air, he powered through to head it home from close range. First of the season for Tips, who has played every game so far and looked so solid at the back. He’s only 20 years old too. (Btw, NZF credited Triple G Gariga with the goal but the livestream pretty clearly showed Rob Tipelu scoring it so not sure what’s up with that).

Neither side would create too many clear cut chances in this one and the pattern of the game would remain pretty similar until half-time. Yet into the second half the home side began to change that. A big boot down the middle from a Liam Little goal kick saw Coughlan pull off one of his usual party tricks in manipulating his body well to win the ball in the air, turning and running into space and feeding Cam MacKenzie who put it away beautifully. Southern have had an over-reliance on local youngsters at times but MacKenzie has been one of their great finds this campaign.

And having retaken the lead they were keen to add to it. Brook laid one across to Jordan Spain but his attempt went over the top. Coughlan had a few fall his way. MacKenzie had another notable effort. But they couldn’t get the sealer which left the door open for a Waitakere team that have specialised in late drama this season (they’re not the only ones either). But that’s what Liam Little’s for, the keeper making a couple nice saves as Southern claimed a win that shakes up the top four race yet again. Waitakere miss the opportunity to put some daylight between them and the pack in third, while Southern are now only three points out of the top four despite everything they’ve been through lately. 11 of their 16 points have come at home and that doesn’t include an overturned win at home as well (their one away win was also against Waitakere). With four games left, Southern still have homers against the two Wellington teams... and their trip to Hawke’s Bay the week after next shapes to be a crucial one.

Southern at Home*: 4 W | 2 D | 1 L | 16 GF | 8 GA | +8 GD | 11 PTS

Southern Away: 1 W | 2 D | 4 L | 9 GF | 23 GA | -14 GD | 5 PTS

*(including the Tasman game as a 4-0 home win here, though of course it was overturned as a default 3-0 loss... but we’re talking about performances here not technicalities so the impression stands)

Then it was off to Eden Park where the Wellington Phoenix reserves hosted Hamilton Wanderers in the curtain raiser for the A-League game... which was a lot closer to Hamilton than it was to Wellington but oh well, so it goes. The WeeNix didn’t have the luxury of a stacked team since the fringe top side lads were busy warming up for that game... but they were at least spared Liam McGing in central defence and Callan Elliot at right back. Zac Jones got a start in goal after three games off. Luis Toomey came in for Steve Sprowson. Also Riley Bidois came in for the injured Byron Heath (dislocated knee cap according to Paul Temple on the telly, which sucks). And Ben Old got the start with Ahmed Othman moving forward and no Ben Waine. Still a strong team, to be fair.

As for the Tron Wands, they made a tasty looking signing midweek with OFC legend Henry Fa’arodo coming over to join the lads, although he wasn’t ready for this one. Otherwise it was only Joe Nottage coming in for JC Mack (who played off the bench) that was any different from the draw with Southern. Joe Harris has been a really useful addition to that defence while Jama Boss is settling into that front three alongside Derek Tieku and Tommy Semmy and the Tron Wands seem to be finding some real continuity with their lineups, finally. Except that those wins have dried up at the same time so hmm.

The WeeNix tend to like to build things up in possession while the Tron Wands prefer being able to hit teams on the break with all the pace and quality they have up top. But here it was a bit of the opposite as the Nix were the team playing on the break and Hamilton looking to build things up. Early on that saw the teams cancel each other out but the Wanderers slowly began to put the squeeze on and particularly when they could attack from out wide. Except that just before the half hour they showed that other trend of theirs which is an untimely sloppiness at the back and they just didn’t have the numbers there to deal with Callan Elliot’s overlapping run and he stroked one into the bottom corner to give his team the lead, a lead which they’d hold into the break despite Wanderers upping the tempo and demanding Liam McGing and Ronan Wynne at CB to do a bit of defending on the back foot.

This was a weird game, actually. A tough one to get a read on as neither team quite seemed comfortable. The Tron Wands were for sure the better team across the second half but creating actual chances to show for it was harder than it seemed... and all the while they never quite got control of the midfield which left them exposed to the counter attack. Ten minutes into the second half they’d get back on level terms. A driven cross from the right wing by Joe Harris as he ran past Jama Boss (nice ball wide to get it to Boss by Brad Whitworth too), that cross caught a deflection off McGing and then another deflection of keeper Zac Jones for an own goal. Rightio, 1-1 then.

But Hamilton Wanderers couldn’t find that winner. Their best moments tended to come through Tommy Semmy running at poor wee Callan Elliot from the left but he didn’t quite make the most of those chances and despite some decent lead up play perhaps they were lacking that one main striker to put them all away. Derek Tieku pretty much said something like that afterwards, admitting that they did well enough to win but they didn’t take their opportunities. The WeeNix did though. With just minutes remaining and the Tron Wands having already thrown on a few attacking subs, they picked up the ball in a dangerous area through Elliot and it fell to Ben Old. Oldy threw in some twinkle toes to gracefully skip past a couple defenders and although his shot was saved... it fell to Riley Bidois who poked home his third of the season. 2-1 to the WeeNix, who clung on when they had to and then pounced when they could. That’s how you do it.

That actually pushes the WeeNix five points clear of Canterbury United on the table... the same distance between themselves and fourth place now (not that the WeeNix are eligible for the semis). They very nearly snatched something against the odds and against the run of play against Auckland City last week and only lost to a late penalty against Team Welly the week before so this was no coincidence. As for the Tron Wands, only the Dragons have scored fewer goals than their 18 in 13 games. Even Tasman have three goals more than them... although those three goals were default goals to be fair. But after four straight wins to begin the Kale Herbert Era, they’ve now only gotten one point from the next four games. Defeats against Suburbs and ACFC are excusable, a draw against Southern maybe too... but add in this defeat and they’re officially in a little bit of a funk. They’ve got two games against Waitakere coming up before they close with Tasman (H), Hawke’s Bay (A) & Canterbury (H). All very winnable for them which keeps the top four in their sights... if they can start scoring some goals and that’s a rather large if.

Auckland City have been undefeated all season. Canterbury United travelled all the way north to try and do something about that despite being on a five game losing streak themselves. It took all of about fifteen minutes before this one was settled. ACFC didn’t even worry about going full hundies, resting Adam Mitchell on the bench and only playing Clayton Lewis and Logan Rogerson as subs. Tom Doyle came back in at centreback alongside Angel Berlanga and Brian Kaltack while Enait Zubikarai retained his spot in goal although Conor Tracey was healthy enough for a spot on the bench this time. Dylan Manickum started for the first time in four weeks. Myer Bevan and Cam Howieson remain City’s only players to have started every game.

For the visitors they continue to have an overflow of centrebacks but other positions are a bit sketchy. Specifically up front with Calum Ferguson missing again, their Scotch/Canadian striker, while Abdul Khalifa dropped back to the bench with Luke Tongue back into the eleven, their other change from last week being Tom Schwarz swapping in for his brother Dan. The sad thing for the Dragons is that they haven’t even been playing terribly, they just lack that one extra something to put them over the top and it’s cost them in so many close defeats... although Auckland City aren’t big fans of close games. The WeeNix pushed them way to tightly last week as they squandered too many chances in front of goal. Spoiler alert: that was not an issue here.

This match was top versus bottom in the standings and it looked exactly like that. Auckland City wasted no time in taking a seventh minute lead as Emiliano Tade whalloped one past Danny Knight and although George King did draw a save out of Zubi soon after, the Navy Blues quickly set up camp down the other end again with a run of corner kicks which eventually saw Brian Kaltack tap one home at the far post following Dylan Manickum’s initial effort. First goal of the season for Kaltack, an element of his game that he hasn’t really been able to flex too much with ACFC but there you go. Canterbury haven’t scored multiple goals in a game since making their New Year’s resolutions so to be down by a couple within fifteen minutes... that’s a killer and it probably showed in their body language too. When things aren’t going well every goal you concede feels that much more of a monumental hurdle.

Speaking of monumental hurdles, it didn’t get any better. Myer Bevan ignored a wide open Tade in the 32nd minute to shoot from the angle himself instead but, classic striker that he is, he lashed it in to make it 3-0 anyway. That’s his 14th goal of the season and he scored it in a week when his two closest rivals for the Golden Boot Martin Bueno (10) and Ahinga Selemani (9) were both on Premiership byes (thanks to Eastern Suburbs’ Champions League stuff). Stretching his lead out just as Auckland City stretched their own lead out when Jordan Vale scored in the 35th minute with an excellent strike – Vale has been one of the undercover stars of ACFC’s season so far – and then before the welcome relief of the half-time break Alfie Rogers scored a fifth for Auckland City. So to recap... 5-0 at half-time to the Navy Blues. Bloody hell.

Jose Figueira brought on Albert Riera for some rare minutes at the break, sparing Cam Howieson the second half after he’d already picked up a booking and with the Champions League in the near future. Howieson’s booking was his fifth of the season so he’ll miss the game against Tasman next week. Myer Bevan is also one yellow away from a suspension, by the way. Those two everpresent starters might not be so for much longer. This was only Alby Riera’s third appearance of the season but with three games in eight days to be played in Tahiti in two weeks they’ll need him up to scratch.

City could have been cruel and pushed for double figures. Instead they eased off and the second half was a bit of a lifeless affair outside of half decent chances for Jake Richards and Tom Schwarz as the Dragons tried to salvage something, anything, from this match... which they eventually would thanks to a wonder goal from Aaron Clapham just showing that he’s still got some magic in the boots. He hasn’t quite been the influential force of old for the Dragons this term but he’s always been one of their better players and always one of the ones you know is desperate to do his best for the badge.

5-1 would be the final score. A win which means that Auckland City have now gone all fourteen games undefeated so far this season and 49 games all up in regular season Premiership footy going back to a 3-1 defeat against Team Welly in the opening round of the 2017-18 season. Of course, that’s a little misleading considering they also lost in the semi-finals to the TeeDubs last season and the fact that it was a playoff game doesn’t make it less prominent it makes it more prominent so that 49 game streak shan’t fly in The Premmy Files... but it shows you just how dominant this team continues to be in this league. Not sure it’ll be much easier for the Dragons next week either as they host Team Wellington in the televised game.

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