WAIKATO WIN GAME OF TWO HALVES
by Bruce Holloway at Waikato Stadium
nzfc.co.nz
Waikato FC’s strikers are finally back at work.
After two earlier scoreless outings in 2008, Waikato FC made a bright start to eventually beat a surpisingly gritty Canterbury United team 3-1 at Waikato Stadium.
Solomon Islands international Stanley Waita opened the scoring by finishing a slick Waikato move, while Steven Holloway added two dashing goals before half time to give Waikato a rare 3-0 margin of comfort.
But Canterbury turned the game on its head when they dominated the midfield in the second half. Reports of their demise in the wake of their loss to Waitakere last week may be overstated.
Canterbury duly gained second half reward when midfielder Garry McDermott completing the scoring by crashing home a potentially awkward volley.
It was impossible not to sum the match up as a game of two halves.
Waikato engineered some clever attacking moves in the first half, but in suffocatingly hot conditions – a 1pm kick-off in the peak of January is not everybody’s idea of summer soccer – almost found themselves over-run by the visitors in the second spell.
The difference was in the finishing. In the 18th minute Holloway headed a ball down for skipper Rob Gill, who dinked it behind the defence for Waita - enjoying a rare start - to slide through and nonchalantly slip the ball home past advancing keeper Michael O’Keeffe just inside the post.
Then Waita turned provider in the 33rd minute, allowing Holloway to outleg the defence in a 30m sprint and pick his spot in the same corner.
Two minutes later came the goal of the game, with Gill crossing from the left and Holloway arriving late and hard at the far post to smash home.
"It was a real striker’s goal," said Waikato coach Roger Wilkinson.
Holloway, 22, enjoyed a prodiguous goalscoring record in US university soccer, where he collected a number of honours in his four year scholarship at Monmouth, New Jersey, which ended last year.
But these were his first goals at national league level.
Holloway, who was wracked by injury pre-season, declined to be interviewed, apart from saying it was "a relief" to find the net after failing to score in his previous five games - the longest barren spell of his career.
Waikato looked set to embellish their goal difference in the second half – but it never eventuated.
Instead the young Canterbury team found new purpose and took control from the start of the second half, with Ryan Faichnie producing useful darts forward and substitute Michael Fifi making a bigger impression on the right. Yusaku Okubo made a nuisance of himself up front and after sustained pressure it was fair reward to see McDermott drill in a right foot volley in the 55th minute.
Waikato lost a little of their fluency when Waita was subbed, while it was also at about this point that Gill’s work rate up front dried up completely. Gill later pointed to a suspected torn stomach muscle, making it even more surprising he was not subbed earlier than the 89th minute in such trying conditions.
A feature of Canterbury’s dogged effort was the 90-minute performance of coach Danny Halligan at centre back.
Halligan, who will be 43 next month, was one of the aristocrats of the old national league with Christchurch United back in the mid 80s and it was a trip down Memory Lane seeing him "do a Terry Phelan" as player-coach.
While not quite the midfield "ginger ninja" of old, he showed he was well preserved with an economical showing at centre back
He described the game, his first in three years, as "exhausting".
But he earned his corn with a solid contribution, though 20 years ago would undoubtedly have scored when he found himself free in the six yard box late in the second half.
"It was a matter of necessity," he said of his performance. "Bill Robertson has been the heart and soul of our defence and he was suspended, so I was simply looking to cover for him.
"I didn’t enjoy losing but I was really pleased with the way we played in the second half.
"I am under no illusions that we are not a top side, but we showed some good traits.
"We are still not good enough as a team but we continue to learn and play good football."
Halligan singled out defender Matt Boyd and midfielders McDermott and Sam Jasper for praise for their second half showing.
Meanwhile Wilkinson was unpertubed about Waikato’s second half slackness after such a breezy start.
"It gives me something to beat them with during the week ahead of our game against Auckland," he said. "The main thing is that was a very important three points for us.
"We played around them in the first half, but stopped doing it in the second spell.
"At half time I told them not to take the foot off the gas – but they did. The eyes glazed over with a few players.
"The good thing is, when we were under pressure we got bodies back and didn’t give silly penalties away."
Wilkinson said Holloway and centre back Hone Fowler were the pick of the Waikato players, and also acknowledged Aaron Scott’s "very good defending".
Photos: Tony Whitehead