Central League Promotion Match

Wairarapa United are expecting fireworks from Stop Out in the first of the their two central league promotion-relegation soccer matches, to be played at the Pugh Sports Bowl in Masterton tomorrow.

Having finished bottom of the 2008 central league with just two wins from their 18 matches and both of them over the same side, Wellington United Stop Out will be desperate to restore some pride in their camp, and retain their current status in the process.

To guarantee that happening Stop Out will need to score more goals over the two games than Wairarapa United and their decision to concede home advantage in the first of them suggests they are confident of doing so.

That is possible providing they were signed within the allowable time constraints but whether they have actually taken such drastic measures to maintain their central league spot remains to be seen.

Whoever takes the field for Stop Out though they will be used to playing the game at a greater tempo than that generally found in the Capital premier division the competition which Wairarapa United won this season.

Or, for that matter, in the two playoff games against Hastings-based Maycenvale United which followed.

Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley agrees that how Wairarapa United cope with having less reaction time both on and off the ball will go a long way towards deciding their fate both tomorrow and next weekend.

"It's all very well talking about the adjustments you need to make but it's doing it out on the field which counts," he said.

"Fitness won't be an issue for us, it's more about being quick and positive in our decision making. They will be in our faces and we can't afford to get rattled and do silly things."

The loss of skipper Pita Rabo through injury, is, of course, a huge blow for Wairarapa United for all sorts of reasons & leadership and goal scoring potential foremost amongst them.

But rather than dwell on the absence of such a key player Keinzley is taking the stance it should bring out the best in his teammates. "Leadership has now become a shared responsibility and everybody has to go up a cog, it's a good test of character, isn't it?"

Tactically Wairarapa United will be attempting to play the same attacking brand of soccer which has been so successful for them through most of the 2008 season.

Vanuatu international Seule Soromon has been a revelation in the striker's role and comes into this game on the back of a stellar second half performance against Maycenvale United last weekend, an effort which Keinzley rated his best in the Wairarapa United colours, and that really is saying something!

No doubt, however, Stop Out will be well aware of the danger posed them by Soromon and it would be no surprise to see them "double team" him, something which a couple of premier division sides did with notable success earlier in the season.

If that is the case then the onus will be on Soromon's fellow striker, 16-year-old Rathkeale College student Kota Maeno, to take some of the pressure off him. He might not yet have the absolute brilliance of Soromon but he has the same unpredictability and flair about his play and the Stop Out defence will ignore him at their peril.

Soccer matches are often said to be "won" in the midfield because the players there not only have to make an impact on attack but also stop the opposition from pushing forward on a regular basis.

Tomorrow will be no different with the Wairarapa United midfield of Sakeo Valevou, Miriek Tvaroh, Paul Gregory and Anton Ross needing to have a major influence on proceedings.

Gregory, especially, will come under the spotlight as he has been given a starting spot ahead of the in-form Aaron Spierling, purportedly because of his attacking skills.

Tvaroh's no-nonsense style of play has made him a somewhat legendary figure on the local scene but he does leave himself open for special "attention" from the opposition as a consequence, and you can bet Stop Out will be intent on testing his discipline under fire.

It is in Wairarapa United's favour that if the midfield does have hassles containing Stop Out in an attacking sense their last line of defence in the form of goalkeeper Matt Borren and fullbacks Carl Shailer, James Oxtoby, Waisake Sabutu and Andy Robertson have been in outstanding form of late. They will need to be on their mettle here though & especially if those rumours we talked about earlier in this article are true!

Kickoff tomorrow is at 2pm and with local league matches concluded and other winters codes winding down a big crowd should be in attendance to cheer Wairarapa United to what could arguably be the most important victory in the club's history.

And so the final whistle blew with Wairarapa United clinging on to their 1-0 lead and, in doing so, preserving their remarkable record of having scored at least one goal in every game they have played this season.

Do that again next weekend, of course, and they will reap the benefits of the rule which says the first goal scored in an away game by the visiting team is actually worth two on the scoreboard. Which means, in effect, that if Wairarapa United score the first goal next weekend Stop Out will need to score three to level with them.

If we score 1 and stop out score three it won't be level, they will lead 3-2.  Everytime you read the rag you can guarantee errors...

Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley warns his team will walk off the field if they are subjected to more "over the top" vocal abuse in their return central league promotion-relegation soccer match with Stop Out at Hutt Park, Petone this coming Saturday.

Keinzley could never be called a prude but he was shocked to learn from his players after the first of the promotion-relegation games at the Pugh Sports Bowl last Saturday at the type of comment being made by some of the Stop Out team.

"From what they said a lot of the talk had racial overtones and we won't tolerate that," Keinzley said.

Wairarapa United have three Fijans- Pita Rabo, Waisake Sabutu, and Sakeo Valevou- in their squad along with Vanuatu striker Seule Soromon although a broken collarbone kept skipper Rabo out of the Sports Bowl match.

His absence was sorely felt, especially on attack, but Sabutu, Valevou and goal scorer Soromon all starred in Wairarapa United's 1-0 win.

As it happens Stop Out will be without one of their defenders for the crucial return fixture after he was sent off about midway through the second half of last Saturday's game for alleged dissent.

It came after the intervention of a assistant referee who obviously heard something he didn't like from the player, who was on a warning after being penalised for a similar "infringement"earlier in the game.

While delighted his side will go into the return match with a one goal buffer Keinzley is adamant they will need to improve several aspects of their play if they are to attain their dream of central league status by beating Stop Out on goal aggregate over the two games.

"They (Stop Out) were always going to be a handful at home and that one goal advantage won't be enough to do the trick," he predicted. "We'll have to lift another couple of notches, that's pretty much guaranteed".

The electrifying attacking skills of Soromon caused panic stations in the Stop Out defence on numerous occasions last Saturday but Keinzley believes more goals should have come from the deficiencies he exposed in that area.

"It wasn't Seule's fault, he created the openings but too often became isolated because the support wasn't there," he said. " We can't rely on him being a one-man band, we have to work harder to help him out.".

Keinzley also considered that Wairarapa United lacked their usual assertiveness on the tackle, especially in the last quarter when Stop Out, even though a man down, mounted a series of likely-looking attacks. "We were holding back a bit, it was like we didn't want to risk getting whistled up. It's not our usual style at all.".

The loss of Miriek Tvaroh in the closing stages after he was inadvertently kicked in the leg showed just how important the Czech hard man is to the Wairarapa United game plan with the organisation in midfield becoming somewhat haphazard in his absence.. Happily however, Tvaroh, was moving freely again by Sunday and his availability this coming weekend is not in doubt.

Keinzley said there was "no chance" of Wairarapa United going into the return game with anything other than their usual attack-orientated game plan.

They have the remarkable record of having scored at least one goal in each and every game this season and making the continuation of that trend so important at Hutt Park is a rule for the promotion-relegation series which says the first goal scored by the away team is actually worth two on the scoreboard.

"Scoring the first goal would be huge, absolutely huge," Keinzley said. "Rather than have them having to score twice to get their noses in front they would have to score three times, and,mentally that's a big difference, isn't it?".

Does anything know anything about a game between East Coast Bays and Miramar kicking off at the same time at Petone Memorial?

Ta! 

It might sound Irish but Wairarapa United are counting on home advantage giving them a winning edge in their crucial Central League promotion-relegation soccer match with Stop Out at Hutt Park, Petone tomorrow.

Wairarapa United are travelling into enemy territory but such is the number of their supporters expected to be on hand the noise factor from the sidelines could favour them.

"We'd like to think our supporters will actually outnumber theirs," Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley said. "That would be a huge boost for us & it would be just like playing at home, wouldn't it?"

Keinzley said the first of the two promotion-relegation matches against Stop Out, played at the Pugh Sports Bowl in Masterton last weekend, provided a classic example of what crowd support could do.

"They (the crowd) helped get us home, no doubt about that," Keinzley said.

Tomorrow's match has been widely touted as the most important in Wairarapa United's 14-year history, and it's easy to understand why.

Ever since they were formed the objective has been to have their men's team attain the highest status available to them, Central League, and they are now just 90 minutes away (penalty shootout excepted) of either realising their dream, or again being consigned to playing in the Capital premier division in 2009.

To beat Stop Out they have to finish their two-game series with the better goal aggregate and in Wairarapa United's favour is they already have the one goal in the bag, and the first goal they score tomorrow will actually be worth two because they are playing away from home.

There is always the prospect, of course, that Stop Out will keep Wairarapa United scoreless on this occasion but considering they have scored at least once in every game they have played this season you'd have to fancy them doing so again, wouldn't you?

That Stop Out will be a more disciplined and professional unit than they were last weekend is guaranteed.

They were pretty much a rabble in that sense for most of the game at the Pugh Sports Bowl and it was no surprise they had a player sent off midway through the second half. Indeed they were probably fortunate to have only one missing at the game's end.

The mood in the Stop Out camp at the after-match function was a story in itself with the faces failing to hide they fact they were hugely disappointed at the way they had played, and were intent on a much better effort second time round.

In fact, their coach said as much in a brief speech.

There was though considerable room for improvement in the Wairarapa United performance too.

Striker Seule Soromon was his usual electrifying self on attack but for his flair to be fully utilised he needs more support, and that job falls to Paul Gregory tomorrow.

A big game from him is an absolute necessity because Stop Out are sure to have had the containing of Soromon as a prime requisite in their thinking over the past seven days.

Also outstanding for Wairarapa United last weekend was central midfielder Miriek Tvaroh and it was very noticeable that when he left the field after taking a blow to the leg an injury from which he has fully recovered the composure in that part of the field was badly dented as well.

Tvaroh too can expect some close "attention" from Stop Out in the return game so the other midfielders him need to lift their efforts to help ease the pressure on him.

There were worrying signs last weekend as well that Wairarapa United's defensive work around their own penalty box was not always as tight as they would like with Waisake Sabutu's header off the line saving at least one certain goal & maybe the most defining moment of all in their Central League bid if the Hutt Park clash is as closely-contested as most pundits are predicting.

With first time successes in the Hilton Petone Cup pre-season tourney and the Capital premier division series behind them Wairarapa United have already had what could be called a memorable 2008 season but no one understands better than coach Keinzley that a poor result tomorrow will be remembered more than anything which has gone before.

"You get this close you don't think of losing, it's definitely not an option," he said.

The Wairarapa United line-up is:

Matt Borren; Carl Shailer, James Oxtoby, Waisake Sabutu, Andy Robertson, Sakeo Valevou, Miriek Tvaroh, Guiseppe Cagliari, Anton Ross, Paul Gregory, Seule Soromon. Reserves: Aaron Spierling, Kota Maeno, Anaru Te Rangi