Nike Premier Cup - Pacific Finals
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Hi all,
Just through from West Island - Onehunga Sports have won the Nike Premier Cup Pacific Region competition, and have qualified for the world finals in August.
They defeated Victorian club Monash in the final at the Bulleen Soccer Club, after seeing off Queensland club Loganholme in the semis 3-1.
The team is coached by Hiroshi Miyazawa and Leigh Kenyon, of Football Kingz and NZ Knights fame, and is mainly comprised of players from the WYNRS programme, namely:
Adam Mitchell, Arthur Yanagisawa, Conor Tracy, Frazer Diver, Jardin Draper, John Gribble, Jordan Hunter, Liam Jordan, Michael Den Heijer, Moses Dyer, Nathan Reive, Nicholas Sugden, Patrick Grey, Shalvin Sharma, Stuart Holthusen, Timothy Alle
Cheers,
JR
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was a news story on tv1 last night
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Well done, boys! Is this another sign that footy in Auckalnd is on the rise again while footy in the rest of nz is falling away again?
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As far as I knew, the team was completely made up of players from WYNRS.
Apparently I'm apathetic, but I couldn't care less.
"Being a Partick Thistle fan sets you apart. It means youre a free thinker. It also means your team has no money." Tim Luckhurst, The Independent, 4th December 2003
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yeah, are they all playing for onehunga this winter season? rules say you are cup-tied. mainland team will win it next year! ;)
Kotahitanga. We are one.
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This latest Onehunga/Wynrs team was hand-picked years in advance. Players around the Greater Auckland Region are scouted and the best ones are invited into the programme. Most likely they are training 4-5 times as week. This current Onehunga side would beat most Federation Rep sides in their age group with little problem. Some Auckland clubs have that pulling power also: Three Kings, Central, Waitakere and Birkenhead have all done the same in recent years. It's a tough ask for any club teams outside of Auckland to compete with the player base in the big smoke. But hey, at the end of the day are these necessarily the players that are coming through as 19-20 yr olds? Well, some are - like Cameron Lindsay, Zane Sole, Andrew Milne and Adam Thomas. But the many are not. Who's ever heard of Kelly Jack-Martin or Nick Patterson? Or Mohammed Salad or Keigh Henry? For many the Nike cup experience is the pinnacle of their playing careers. I'm greatly encouraged by Rojas, who at one stage looked as if he might have fallen through the cracks. The message for any player, surely, is to keep training hard through the teenage years and don't despair just because you don't get exposure as a 15 yr old.Toffeeman662011-04-05 17:13:14
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Just had a look at the Manchester United Website The tournament started today
Onehunga Sports had a first up draw with Kyoto Sanga from Japan then lost 5-1 to Boca Juniors They have Chelsea first up tomorrow
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Leigh Kenyon has been writing a great blog about their time at the World Finals.
Incredible stamina. No shame. Yellow Fever.
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Yeah its amazing to read a draw Onehunga Sports v Chelsea, PSV or Boca Juniors. Good on these kids. Hope they learn as much as they can from the experience and come back with a desire to go further in the game.
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