2025 Men’s National League – Week 4


Wellington Olympic vs Auckland City

No matter what struggles or successes either team might be going through at the time, the ol’ Mediterranean Derby between the Greeks of Wellington Olympic and the Croatians of Auckland City is always a tasty proposition. This is the Kiwi Classic. The two most dominant clubs of recent years. Wakefield Park was the venue although travel setbacks meant that kickoff was delayed an hour, probably because of some wicked Wellington wind which also had a heavy influence on the game itself.

Nothing fancy for Wellington Olympic who’d started 3/3 despite not really getting out of second gear yet. Gavin Hoy jumped into the eleven in their only change from last week. Auckland City though... they had made all sorts of alterations. Paul Posa had a plan for this one... beginning with Nikko Boxall making his first appearance of the term as the Navy Blues picked a back three to match that of their opponents. That meant Riley Dalziell and Regont Murati as wing-backs. Mike den Heijer started his first game of these Nats alongside Mario Ilich in a double pivot. Dylan Manickum was also selected to start. Dealing with Olympic means being able to cover their pace and directness across the whole width of the pitch (thanks to their incredibly attacking wing-backs – Noah Boyce and Jack-Henry Sinclair doing the job here) and also the way their midfield pounces on those second phases. Two defensive mids and the ability to go five across the back made a lot of sense... but of course the idea is only as good as the execution.

Turns out the execution was pretty good too. Sinclair had the first serious chance for Welly Oly as he sliced inwards and ripped a shot into the sidenetting, however it was tough to find space like that very often against a very organised ACFC. Nathan Garrow got way outside his penalty box to help that cause, while Christian Gray was doing fine mahi as the middle CB. That required an adjustment from Olympic but before they could even get to that, they also had to figure out how to play in this swirling tornado. Same deal for ACFC who might have done better with a Gray header from a Manickum free kick had the wind not caused that ball to drop without momentum onto Gray’s noggin. He still got it on target but not with any power or placement. Isa Prins had one instance where he measured the wind resistance perfectly to get goal-side into the area until a bump from Murati knocked him down. Not enough for a penalty, said the referee.

And so it went, on and on. Scoreless at the break and still scoreless for a long time afterwards as everyone waited to see which team would take the first gamble. Johnny Reynolds replaced Hoy after an hour. Ten mins later it was Gianni Bouzoukis and Ben Mata on for Olympic. The Greeks almost never draw nil-all, especially not at home. They were responsible (along with Coastal Spirit) for the only 0-0 of last year’s National League and weren’t planning on letting travesty repeat itself. Gotta be careful what you wish for though.

Auckland City made their own attacking substitutes with Angus Kilkolly and Matthew Ellis chucked out there. It was Kilkolly who did the deed. One other notable tactical angle to Auckland City’s approach was that Riley Dalziell was much more advanced on the right than Murati was on the left. Probably because Murati had to be extra careful with Sinclair on his side, although that meant they often resembled a back four. No dramas there because Dalziell (same as last week) was one of their best outlets getting forward and whacking in crosses. He’s not got an amazing success rate with those crosses, a few of them he skewed badly, but when he catches them right they’re delicious. Like the one he hit in the 82nd minute which pierced the gap between the goalkeeper and defensive line. Angus Kilkolly did the rest.

Not only did the Greeks fail to find a reply in the eight minutes plus stoppages that remained, they also got a red card when Adam Supyk was called up after sliding in to prevent Joe Lee from going 1v1. It was a last-man tackle, albeit far enough out from the goal that it’s very harsh to say he denied a goal-scoring opportunity. Anyway, red was the colour – a second injury time send-off for Olympic this season (Hamish Watson got one in the first game... Watto wasn’t involved here after his injury last week). Supyk has featured in every game this season but that’s obviously about to change. 1-0 to Auckland City was the final score. Same score as they beat them by in Wellington last year.

Auckland City played that one perfectly in defence. The tactical tweaks all contributed to a superb clean sheet in which one of the most dangerous teams in the country only mustered a small handful of meaningful chances. Gray was magnificent. Boxall really raised the bar. Nathan Garrow didn’t have too many challenging saves but he did everything that was required of him in tricky conditions. That Ilich/MDH duo gets a shout out. As does Riley Dalziell, the Eastern Suburbs loanee, who has now been a huge positive for the Navy Blues in both games he’s played.

This was a loss that should have been a draw from Wellington Olympic’s perspective but don’t forget they’ve already won a game that should have been a draw (Supyk’s late winner vs Western Springs) so that works out as two points gained and one dropped. Still in the bonus. Most of all what this does is it drags Olympic down into the pack and sets up an absolutely fascinating Men’s National League where every team has tasted defeat within the first four weeks and half the teams already have at least six points.

Wellington Olympic 0-1 Auckland City

Goals (Assists)

82’ | 0-1 | AC | Kilkolly (Dalziell)

90+4’ | RED CARD | WO | Supyk


Auckland FC Reserves vs Coastal Spirit

The Auckland FC Reserves didn’t have the services of Ryan Mackay for this game because he travelled to Melbourne with the A-League team and sat on the bench. It’s been Semi Nabenu and Luka Vicelich who’ve gotten the hype thus far yet Mackay almost beat them both to an ALM debut, what do ya know? He still might... AFC are obviously stacked for young CBs. Nabenu and Vicelich were the partnership here for the second week in a row. There was also room for scholarship players Finn McKenlay, Oliver Middleton, and Jonty Bidois to back up again after last week. Ralph Rutherford and Sam Lack were the two alterations from that 1-1 draw with Western Springs. And for Coastal Spirit, they were glad to have captain Joe Hoole back in midfield while Liam Cotter and Jack Hale also returned to the eleven as they sought to snap a run of three straight defeats.

Understandably, following some bang average defensive outings, Coastal’s focus was on their out-of-possession mahi as this game got underway, allowing Auckland FC to control most of the ball. Not to much avail though. Sam Lack drew an awkward save out of Adam Braman with a free kick while Braman also did well to keep Aston Burns out after some lovely work from Middleton stepping up. Middleton played as a winger for AFC in the Aussie Cup. He played as a second striker last week. Here he was a deeper midfielder alongside McKenlay which is arguably his best spot. As is becoming the trend it was Rutherford and Lack who looked most likely to spark something on attack for AFC... but all in all this was an uneventful first half.

That’s often the best way to beat these academy sides, you know. Some teams see a bunch of tricky youngsters and want to out-ball them but it’s the sturdy defences and timely counter attacks that tend to work best. Let them have the ball in areas where they can’t hurt you, then pounce as soon as the inevitable mistake arises. And also, you know, if you happen to have Derek Tieku in your side then maybe try and give him a few things to do as well. Tieku was busy with those runs in behind but got flagged offside a few times in that first stanza. Less than five minutes into the second we saw a bit of all those yarns as Mason Stearn made a sliding interception in midfield and a couple of passes and some keen running later there was Tieku tapping home from a Weston Bell cross.

That’s the Spirit. After conceding 13 goals in three games, you can forgive Coastal Spirit for not going too hard for a second. Their subs were all attacking ones (Max Chretien, Dan MacLennan, Nick Petherick) yet the focus remained on defence. AFC tried to speed up their play and were able to regularly forge room out wide via one-twos, though Danny Boys and Matt Bergin kept eating up all the crosses with their defensive clearances. Very common sight for there to be 6+ Coastal players in the penalty area. McKenlay did force a good save. Chretien also wasted a good chance to seal it for Spirit after Blake Callinan’s punch didn’t go far enough. Not that it mattered because Auckland FC didn’t have it in them to break down this set defence. It was a fixture that’ll soon be forgotten by most involved but from it came a crucial 1-0 victory for the visiting Southern League champs.

There were only two winless teams remaining after week three and now there’s just one. Coastal Spirit have played better and lost this season but what they needed here was a result and they got it thanks to some fine application towards a pragmatic gameplan. That midfield trio of Mason Stearn, Kaleb De Groot-Green, and Joe Hoole meant business and of course Derek Tieku wasn’t going to waste the opportunity to get his National League account started. It’ll be curious to see if they stick with the Hale/Boys/Bergin/Bell back four after tweaking it around the last few games. They did brilliantly here though this was also the first game they’ve played against a team that mostly plays out in front of them rather than getting in behind like Birko, Wests, and Welly Olympic. Regardless, massive three points at a much-needed time.

Couple small lapses in there from AFC proved the difference. Finn McKenlay continues to look like a magnificent prospect – he could easily be getting proper A-League minutes by the end of the season, having already had a taste last term. But same as what we’ve seen from the WeeNix many times across the years, it’s hard for these U20s lads to create chances against Grown Man Defence, especially since the academy sides tend not to stray too much from the deliberate possession stuff. Keep in mind that only a few of these players have been regular starters at this level before. They’re all learning their craft and they don’t have veterans like Derek Tieku or Danny Boys or even Joe Hoole to lean upon in those clutch situations.

Auckland FC Reserves 0-1 Coastal Spirit

49’ | 0-1 | CS | Tieku (Bell)


Christchurch United vs Western Springs

Next we hop on down to United Sports Centre for where Christchurch United, coming off a disappointing 3-0 loss to the WeeNix, hosted a Western Springs team that last week needed a 90+5th minute equaliser to draw with Auckland FC. Neither team had much fun against the A-League academies. The Rams reacted by giving Josh Rogerson (CB), Jackson Cole (FW), and Bray Whitecliffe (CF) their first starts. Whitecliffe has joined as an U20 loan from Petone. Cole has been awesome off the bench these past three weeks. Pretty different look from them with Shogo Osawa and Josh Tollervey both on the bench... but a very familiar look to the Swans who gave youngster Emmett Connolly another start in goal and otherwise were unchanged. Scotty Hales never makes many changes to his Western Springs teams - he’s even made the fewest substitutions.

Whitecliffe’s first involvement was a nutmeg pass into the area so that was nice. Christchurch Utd started with good intent – their pressing against the deep build-up of Springs was an interesting battle (although it faded after a while). Lots of Joel Stevens touches with those wee swivel turns of his. But Daniel Normann and Wan Gatkek kept poking the ball away when it got into decent areas and with two similar formations, the teams kinda shut each other down. Hence it took twenty minutes for Toshiki Makimoto (WS) to ping a decent shot on target, which Steven van Dijk palmed away on the dive making that the first instance of either keeper having to move their feet in a hurried manner. The next instance arrived fifty seconds later up the other end when Cole ran onto a flick from Whitecliffe and Connolly made a great save stretching out a leg at his near post.

United couldn’t retain the ball high enough to do much, with two strikers both seeking to play off the line leaving too much for Noah Karunaratne to do behind them, but in fairness that was largely because of how well Springs were closing down the lanes. Connolly made another decent save diving to his left to deny a Godden strike. Aidan Carey was reading the play like a picture book in that Springs CB trio. That’s about it for the first half.

The game sped up in the second spell, in part because Western Springs started to get Makimoto the ball in all those little pockets. It was Maki who got to the line and pulled the ball back for Reid Drake who squeezed his shot narrowly over the bar. But then just as the Swans seemed to be edging ahead, they should have gone behind. 58 minutes gone and Connolly caught Noah Karunaratne skipping beyond the defence to concede a penalty. Fortunately, EC made immediate amends with a one-handed diving save against Joel Stevens.

It was right about that time that Ben Wallace (Springs) and Shogo Osawa (CUFC) were subbed on as both coaches decided enough was enough it was time for the leading strikers to get to work. Before they could started though, Makimoto claimed his turn by running onto a clever pass from Daniel Normann – that ol’ classic Norway to Japan connection - and the quick feet of Makimoto saw him guide that thing into the net for 1-0. Five minutes after the Rams had missed a penalty and about two minutes before Connolly had to claw the ball off his own line after some miscommunication between himself and Carey nearly caused an own goal.

Ten mins later it was back to Makimoto as he curled a beautiful cross onto the head of Benjamin Wallace. That bloke is excellent in the air and he made it 2-0 to Western Springs. When two teams are this evenly matched, both in talent and tactics, it tends to come down to who claims the big moments... and it was Springs who made a collection of them on this occasion. Their goalie saved a penalty and prevented an OG. Makimoto scored one and set up another. It could have been 2-2. It could have been 2-0 to the Rams. Instead it was 2-0 to the Swans with the clock ticking down. Albeit they weren’t home and dry quite yet.

It wasn’t until the 88th minute that Joel Stevens finally pulled one back for the Rams with a ripper of a shot from outside the area. That left about injury time in which to chase a leveller... Tollervey whalloped an effort over the top, then Whitecliffe gave it a nudge which allowed Connolly to contribute one last highlight, before Godden’s volley was diverted wide, and then CUFC keeper Steven van Dijk of all people managed to win a header from a corner which he skimmed off the crossbar. Insane action in the dying minutes but Western Springs held on for another three points.

Put it in the books as a 2-1 win for Western Springs who not only return to winning ways after a couple weeks without a dub... they also leap to second in the standings. Emmett Connolly has played in both Swans wins. Aside from that almost-OG, Aidan Carey did his regular rolls royce impersonation. The midfield tandem of Wan Gatkek and Daniel Normann were as good as they’ve been in any of these four matches. And of course Toshiki Makimoto whose industrious creativity was pretty much what sparked this win for Springs. Looking forward to the next vlog entry...

(That bro’s got 34k subs on YouTube... which makes this a good time to suggest you pop by The Niche Cache’s channel and give us a cheeky subscribe too)

Christchurch United won twice with Travis Graham in the team. Then he left and they’ve lost twice. Those two things may or may not be connected. The Rams played pretty well here and it may have been a different yarn had Stevens scored that penalty, or even if their goalkeeper had scored a legendary last-second equaliser, but it was a lack of consistency that stopped them from winning the Southern League and perhaps we’re seeing a bit of that seep through in the Nats as well. Speaking of the Southern League, it’s Coastal Spirit vs Christchurch United next week. That’ll be a cracker.

Christchurch United 1-2 Western Springs

65’ | 0-1 | WS | Makimoto (Normann)

74’ | 0-2 | WS | Wallace (Makimoto)

88’ | 1-2 | CU | Stevens (Osawa)


Auckland United vs Wellington Phoenix Reserves

Here we had a gender-swapped rematch of Kate Sheppard Cup final (the actual rematch would take place in Wellington the following day). Auckland United made three changes to their line-up, promoting Will Mendoza, Oli Fay, and Lucca Lim to the eleven after those three all impressed off the bench in the comeback draw against Miramar last round. The Wellington Phoenix Reserves picked the same team as beat Christchurch United except for Alby Kelly-Heald making his return from injury between the sticks – first competitive game he’s played since having shoulder surgery in March. AKH is the third keeper that the WeeNix have used in four weeks (Eamonn McCarron x2, Matt Foord, AKH). The unchanged outfield meant Gabe Sloane-Rodrigues, Nathan Walker, and Luke Supyk all started again. There was cricket on in the background at Keith Hay Park. It was Daniel Olaoye’s 27th birthday. Everything was set for a beautiful afternoon of football.

We didn’t get it though. Instead the mystical forces that be dealt out the rarest of occurrences: a 0-0 draw in the New Zealand National League. Fingers crossed it’ll be the only one this year – across the last five and a bit seasons, men and women, there have been six scoreless draws across 425 matches which works out at 1.4%, in other words the National League of Aotearoa has a nil-all result roughly once in every 71 games. And one of those six was really an abandoned game from 2022 when the Canterbury United women’s team got covid so arguably the ratio is even higher. In contrast that English Premier League thingamajig that everyone seems to love has had six 0-0 results from 79 games this season and that’s probably on the low side.

Blame goalkeepers Alby Kelly-Heald and Kai McLean for this one. AKH was welcomed back into footy with a diving stop against Mendoza followed by a scrambling reaction save off Olaoye from the rebound. Pretty soon he did it against when Fay lined up an effort, though this time Mac Munro made the rebound block. Bright start from AUFC, who also went close with an early Olaoye header from a corner, although the Nix settled down after the first fifteen or so. Nathan Walker was determined to make things happen – both he and GSR set up Luke Flowerdew in the box but the striker couldn’t convert. Auckland United must have watched the short corner that led to Auckland FC’s first goal against the WeeNix because they tried that move several times... the closest resulting chance coming when Olaoye barely missed getting his head on an angled Otto Ingham delivery.

The second half brought decent long strikes from Fay and Flowerdew and it brought a superb sliding block by Munro on Ingham. Auckland United changed the focal point by sending on Dre Vollenhoven and Ishveer Singh and immediately Singh drew another save out of Kelly-Heald. The best of AKH’s denials came later on when Fay’s shot from the left edge of the area was deflected and still somehow AKH managed to flap a hand back in the other direction to get rid. But for all the AKH heroics, the finest bit of goalkeeping prowess came from Kai McLean when he produced a triple save after Lewis Partridge got to the byline and dinked the ball over to Luke Mitchell whose header provided save #1, then McLean stayed big to defy a rocket effort from Supyk for save #2, before also keeping Hayden Thomas at bay for save #3.

In all honesty, both teams were guilty of shooting down the middle far too often, giving the goalies too much of a chance. But those goalies were also fantastic, as were the respective centre-backs – especially Mac Munro for the WeeNix. We already know what quality expoloits Ross Haviland and Abdallah Khaled have been up to for AUFC but this Dylan Gardiner/Mac Munro combo is looking great for the Phoenix. That’s now consecutive clean sheets for them (and fullbacks Lewis Partridge and Ryan Lee). Nathan Walker threw himself about but GSR and Supyk were kept pretty quiet. Not a bad draw for the WeeNix, all notions considered.

Auckland United will be the ones feeling the frustration as they’re now the only team without a win thus far and they’ve failed to score in either game at Keith Hay Park (granted, the women’s team have made up for that with 18 goals in two homers). It doesn’t quite seem like they’re reaching the sum of their parts at the moment, with the absence of Emiliano Tade being felt deeply in this one. At times they’re over-reliant on him... but without his x-factor and experience it’s not the same. Not hard to imagine them winning thus 3-0 if Tade had been involved.

Auckland United 0-0 Wellington Phoenix Reserves


Western Suburbs vs Birkenhead United

Western Suburbs won 8-0 against Coastal Spirit two weeks ago in the biggest Men’s National League victory for a decade... and yet managed to bookend that record win with a pair of defeats. This week they hosted Birkenhead United who’d won 2/2 and were rested after getting their bye out of the way. Wests made two changes to their line-up with George Green picked in midfield and Dakota Brady as the ten. Brady is a common face at Wests, he’s one of the players also involved in coaching within the Ole Academy set-up and has featured off the bench in all three games. Green was making his National League debut and is still at school at Scots College. On the other side, Birko kept it steady except for Zachary Chung getting a go at wing-back. Kian Donkers and Michael Suski (probably their two best attackers) both returned to the bench after recent injuries.

There’s a fair bit of overlap in how these two sides play, each trying to use their width to spark fast attacks, and the opening flurries put that into perspective as Birkenhead immediately went on the attack at Endeavour Park winning a corner and getting some touches in the box... only to then get whipped on the break as Sebastian Barton-Ginger burst away. Sammy Khan blocked the first attempt but the second attempt was deflected into the net to make it 1-0 to Western Suburbs after barely two minutes. And it could easily have been 2-0 soon after except that Keegan Smith made an excellent foot save against Kaelin Nguyen.

There’s something about the sight of a goalkeeper outside his area that makes footy fans freak out. Quillan Roberts was only too happy to go hooning after a loose ball but despite the gasps he was always effective. Birkenhead kept after them. One of Devin Slingsby’s crosses ended up with Sam Philip side-footing into the gut of Roberts with multiple hands on heads from Birko players as the Guyana keeper scooped it out of the air with ease. Big chance gone astray. And the thing about missing big chances is that there’s always the risk that Tyler Freeman will get on the ball, drift across the defence, play a stunning through ball between two defenders to find Ryan Harrison overlapping, and then Dakota Brady will score from the cut-back. There was that rapid Wests attack again (SBG did get a touch on the cross but it seems fairest to give the assist to Harrison whose ambitious run was what inspired the goal).

It was a pretty breezy afternoon which affected Birkenhead’s direct approach and probably aided Wests as they opted to sit back and counter. With a 2-0 lead after half an hour they had every right to do so – especially with Alifeleti Peini and Finn Diamond boosting header after header. Birko found themselves leaning on long shots to get back into the game... although Leon van den Hoven did smack the post with one of those. It remained 2-0 into the break whereupon Birko coach Paul Hobson reacted to his predicament by making three half-time changes: Hamed Basiri, Kian Donkers & Alex Connor-McClean replacing Zach Chung, Rohun Kawale & Isaac Bates. Those latter three had all been doing alright, it’s just that something had to change. ACM played wing-back to make it work with all the forwards out there.

Even though he made the concession, it was Connor-McClean who had the next two major chances for Birkenhead. One came straight away as he blasted a shot on target off a corner, but straight into the basket for Roberts. The other saw ACM hunting at the back post only for Roberts to dash across and block him. On came Michael Suski who then headed wide from corner. There were chances, mate, there were certainly chances. Problem was, almost all of them were off target or straight at the goalkeeper.

Birkenhead did finally make one count late, late in the game when another of those inswinging corners from Slingsby led to an almighty scramble in the box from which Harry Newbould emerged to slam his laces into the ball and send it flying into the net. Four minutes plus added time remaining, perhaps it wasn’t too late for Birkenhead United? Alas, the comeback was doused immediately when they conceded literally ten seconds after the kickoff. Long ball. Bad touch by Nathan Rostron. Jonathan Robinson rushing through. Boom. As you were.

There was one last chance for Donkers as he shot past the keeper but got blocked by his own teammate... then Diamond’s goalline clearance hit the crossbar and bounced clear. It was one of those days for Birkenhead United. No luck in front of goal, accursed stuff... but you make your own luck to some extent and the fact is their finishing wasn’t good enough. In terms of possession and territory they dominated this game and yet they left with a 3-1 defeat. There are some positives because the return of Donkers and Suski should automatically raise the bar for their finishing. Despite his mistake for the third goal, Rostron looks like a real baller in defence too (multiple times he stepped up and dazzled with a piece of skill). Birko host Wellington Olympic next week with both of those teams loving to attack, both coming off defeats, and both with ambitions of making the final. Looking forward to that one.

Great performance from Western Suburbs. The centre-backs were fantastic. SBG is emerging as one of the best and most consistent forwards in the competition. And tell ya what George Green was awesome at the base of midfield too, really throwing his body around. The early goal was massive because it meant they didn’t have to be too expansive, able to pick their moments on the break (which they did impeccably), and unlike their opponents they actually buried a few of their chances along the way. Western Suburbs have the two leading scorers at this stage: Nguyen and Barton-Ginger each having scored four times.

Western Suburbs 3-1 Birkenhead United

3’ | 1-0 | WS | Barton-Ginger

27’ | 2-0 | WS | Brady (Harrison)

86’ | 2-1 | BU | Newbould

87’ | 3-1 | WS | Robinson


PWDLGFGAGDPTS
Wellington Olympic430110649
Western Springs42117437
Western Suburbs420213766
Birkenhead United32016426
Christchurch United42027706
Auckland City32014406
Miramar Rangers31117614
Wellington Phoenix41127704
Auckland FC411236-34
Coastal Spirit4103313-103
Auckland United302124-22
TOP SCORERS  
Kaelin NguyenWestern Suburbs4
Sebastian Barton-GingerWestern Suburbs4
Martin BuenoMiramar Rangers3
Noah KarunaratneChristchurch United2
Isa PrinsWellington Olympic2
Riley GroverChristchurch United2
Sam Mason-SmithWellington Olympic2
Jack-Henry SinclairWellington Olympic2
Gerard GarrigaAuckland City2
Joel StevensChristchurch United2
Ben WallaceWestern Springs2
MOST ASSISTS  
Owen SmithMiramar Rangers3
Alex SolomonWellington Olympic2
Joshua TollerveyChristchurch United2
Tyler FreemanWestern Suburbs2
Gianni BouzoukisWellington Olympic2
Nathan WalkerWellington Phoenix2
Riley DalziellAuckland City2

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