On the back of a dominant 45 minutes of football, Auckland raced to a 1-0 halftime lead in a scrappy first half of action where the defending champions and minor premiers from the previous season’s ASB Premiership went head to head.
Ivan Vicelich slipped off his marker to head a Jason Hicks free kick beyond Danny Robinson and give the visitors a seventh-minute lead, then Auckland City survived an anxious moment when former All White Allan Pearce cannoned a rasping shot off the underside of the crossbar just four minutes later.
City were worth their halftime lead, but a bizarre second half goal proved their undoing as Waitakere caught the visitors on the hop.
George Slefendorfas, playing up front on his own, levelled the game inside two minutes of the restart when Auckland goalkeeper Jacob Spoonley ripped a wayward clearance off the back of the Waitakere striker only for the ball to loop into an empty net.
Twenty minutes later, a superb solo effort from Adam Dickinson – the Auckland striker turning his man and slamming the ball at Danny Robinson from inside the area – forced the Waitakere goalkeeper into a dynamic save, the move only lacking an Auckland player to tap in the rebound.
A Waitakere counter attack in the 88th minute saw Spoonley make up for his earlier error saving a one on one with substitute Ryan de Vries.
However, a desperate home side exploited the slowing pace of the final stages to secure an early season boost heading into next week’s opening weekend of the ASB Premiership when substitute Maksim Manko scored in the final minute to clinch the cup for Waitakere.
“It isn’t the be all, end all, for us, there weren’t any points up for grabs, but we wanted to win this game and turn the tide. I thought the players did very well today,” Waitakere United coach Paul Marshall said.
“That’s a result without Ryan de Vries or Roy Krishna, but we have some good players to come in, exciting, quick players. Roy couldn’t play but he’s a talent, he’s special. All the games will be tough, you still have to win, the league is getting closer and tighter.”
Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx acknowledged his side was caught out by two uncharacteristic defensive lapses.
“I think we dominated this game but didn’t come away with the win, which can happen in football sometimes. I think we dominated the first half and if we had taken some of the chances in the second half things would have been different. But the goal we conceded happened, then the late goal cost us. It’s all about goals at the end of the day.
“It was a good exercise for us. We needed competitive games, games like this. I’m pretty happy with the way the team is playing and we’ll keep going and playing our way,” Tribulietx said.
Next week, Auckland City are at home to Canterbury United on Saturday while Waitakere United open their ASB Premiership defence at home on Sunday to Team Wellington while the other two matches on Sunday see YoungHeart Manawatu away to Otago United and Waikato entertain Hawke’s Bay United.

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