The winner of the OFC Champions League Final will represent Oceania at the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2013 and join the confederation champions of Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America at the premier club tournament in world football.
The match marks the first time two clubs from the same country have fought it out for the biggest club prize in Oceania football and, as well as the chance to reach Morocco 2013, the sides have plenty to play for.
Waitakere United are chasing an unprecedented quadruple of titles after winning three domestic competitions this season while Auckland City are aiming to become the first club to win three OFC Champions League titles in a row.
Qualification for the FIFA Club World Cup brings with it a pay cheque of $500,000 USD.
See below for a look at the action that’s in store in the final.
OFC Champions League Final – Waitakere United [NZL] vs. Auckland City [NZL]
The details:
3.45pm local time, Sunday 19 May
Arena 2, Mt Smart Stadium
Auckland, New Zealand
The officials:
Referee: Peter O’LEARY [NZL]
Assistant referee 1: Jan-Hendrik HINTZ [NZL]
Assistant referee 2: Ravinesh KUMAR [FIJ]
4th official: Norbert HAUATA [TAH]
The lowdown:
With so much riding on the outcome, this match is arguably the most important domestic game to have taken place in the history of football in New Zealand and there are certain to be plenty of nerves from both sets of players. Each camp claims to be in a confident frame of mind however and both have reason to be – Auckland are the defending champions and are aiming for a record-breaking third title in a row while Waitakere have dominated the domestic scene and will complete a historic quadruple of honours if they can secure a win on Sunday. Form is on the side of Waitakere as they have enjoyed the edge over their great rivals in recent months – having earned four wins and a draw from their six meetings with Auckland this season – but Auckland have been the bench mark side in this competition over the previous two campaigns and are therefore still the team to beat. Pleasingly for a match of such importance, neither side will be without key players due to suspension and there are also few injury concerns in either party. The only notable name likely to be missing is Auckland’s Spanish striker Gustavo Souto, still recovering from a shoulder injury, but the defending champions have now been without him for a handful of fixtures and there are plenty of goals elsewhere in the team. Manel Exposito and Adam Dickinson are both among the competition’s leading scorers while Darren White and Emiliano Tade have proved dangerous coming off the bench. Waitakere have relied mainly on a solid defence and the goals of Roy Krishna to reach this point as only two other players – English import Chris Palmer and influential captain Jake Butler – have found the net more than once. It will therefore be obvious who Auckland coach Ramon Tribulietx must focus on containing and Krishna’s battle with the likes of City skipper Ivan Vicelich and Croatian Mario Bilen will be a key factor in the outcome.
The quotes:
“I’m always confident with this team because we have a fantastic group of players and they have proved themselves four times against Auckland already this season. This will be our seventh outing against them and, of the six other times, we’ve beaten them four, drawn once and lost once. So we’re pretty confident going into this game, we just have to get the details right and if we play well I think we’ll win.” – Waitakere United coach Paul Marshall
“We are convinced that we can win and will prepare to do the things we consider to be important in this game. All of the derby games this season have been very tight. It doesn’t really make a difference to us who considers us to be the favourites or the underdogs. Records and milestones are not really part of any talks we have within the squad – our focus is firmly on what we have to do as a team to get the right result.” – Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx
The squads:
Waitakere United: 1. Danny ROBINSON [GK], 2. Aaron SCOTT, 3. Jack BEGUELY, 4. Tim MYERS, 5. Brian SHELLEY, 6. Matt CUNNEEN, 7. Jeremy CHRISTIE, 8. Chad COOMBES, 9. Milos NIKOLIC, 10. Allan PEARCE, 11. Luiz DEL MONTE, 12. Roy KRISHNA, 13. Julyan COLLETT, 14. Daniel JONES, 15. Salesh KUMAR, 16. Tristan PRATTLEY, 17. Jake BUTLER, 18. Sam MATHEWS, 19. Daniel MORGAN, 20. Ryan DE VRIES, 21. Dylan STANSFIELD, 22. Richard GILLESPIE [GK], 23. Masaki NOMOTO, 24. Harshae RANIGA, 25. Bill ROBERTSON, 26. Billy COLTON, 27. Chris PALMER, 28. Alex CARR [GK], 29. Kyosuke KITANO, 30. Rory TURNER
Coach: Paul MARSHALL [NZL]
Auckland City: 1. Jacob SPOONLEY [GK], 2. Simon ARMS, 3. Takuya IWATA, 4. Adam MCGEORGE, 5. Darren WHITE, 6. Matthew RIDENTON, 7. James PRITCHETT, 8. Chris BALE, 9. Manel EXPOSITO, 11. Daniel KOPRIVCIC, 12. Tamati WILLIAMS [GK], 13. Alex FENERIDIS, 14. Adam DICKINSON, 15. Ivan VICELICH, 16. Albert RIERA, 17. Pedro GARCIA, 18. Damian HIRST [GK], 19. Mario BILEN, 20. Emiliano TADE, 21. David BROWNE, 22. Andrew MILNE
Coach: Ramon TRIBULIETX [ESP]

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