Auckland FC survive shootout drama against Melbourne City to keep A-League season alive

Auckland FC have ended Melbourne City’s A-League title defence in the most dramatic fashion possible, winning their first ever penalty shoot-out at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday night to book a place in back-to-back semi-finals.

The Black Knights and the reigning champions were locked at 1-1 after extra time, with both sides converting their first six spot-kicks. Auckland goalkeeper Michael Woud then saved City’s seventh attempt, and experienced defender Dan Hall stepped up to slot home the winner and send the home crowd into delirium.

Auckland had walked into the elimination final under pressure. As NEWS WIRE reported on Friday, the side had stumbled into the playoffs after losing the Premier’s Plate to Newcastle and dropping points in their final regular-season fixtures. Beating City was their first win in six weeks.

For 89 minutes it looked as if a single goal would be enough. Uruguayan striker Guillermo May headed home on the stroke of half-time for the second consecutive week, planting a near-post finish into the net to give Auckland a 1-0 lead. May has now scored against City in both meetings since February, when his goal earned the Black Knights a notable home win over the eventual champions.

Auckland looked the more likely side to score a second through a frantic second half, but their defence was the unit forced to stand up as City pushed for an equaliser. The visitors finally found one in the fourth minute of added time, sending the contest into 30 minutes of extra time and then to penalties for the first time in Auckland FC’s short history.

Both teams were ruthless from the spot. After the first six rounds the score remained level, with each kick converted. Then came the moment Woud later said every keeper dreams of.

"It’s a goalkeeper’s dream to get to a penalty shoot-out and it’s a little bit selfish but it’s kind of an opportunity to be a hero," Woud told RNZ after the match. "Lucky enough for me and for Auckland it went our way."

The save sparked a brief and slightly premature celebration from midfielder Jake Girdwood-Reich, who appeared to think his side had already won. With the shoot-out still alive, the responsibility fell to Hall, the centre-back who has played 135 A-League games and scored just four goals across his entire career, all for Central Coast Mariners. He had not previously found the net for Auckland.

Hall admitted to mixed results in shoot-out practice during the week, including a miss the day before the game. He picked the right moment to break his Auckland duck.

"Pretty surreal to be honest," Hall said of the winning kick. He described conceding the late equaliser, after Auckland had led for so long, as "gutting".

Coach Steve Corica was at pains to praise the players who returned from injury. Defender Nando Pijnaker came off the bench, as did playmaker Jake Brimmer, both having missed significant chunks of the season.

"Hard work for them, they haven’t done a lot of training so they had to probably play longer than we expected as well," Corica said. "They showed courage, they dug in, they defended obviously that 30 minutes really well. I think we had a couple of good chances ourselves to maybe win the game in that last 30 minutes but obviously we’ve got to do it the hard way."

Corica’s side now host Adelaide United at Mt Smart in the first leg of a two-legged semi-final next weekend, before travelling across the Tasman for the return fixture. Adelaide knocked Auckland off the Premier’s Plate perch in the final round of the regular season with a comeback win, so there is no shortage of motivation on either side.

The coach acknowledged that doing it the easy way is no longer this team’s style.

"We’d like to, but we know it goes over two legs and if we have to do this in the second leg in Adelaide we’ve got to show bravery when we take our penalties and hopefully we come out on the best side and we make it to a final," Corica said.

For a club only in its second season of A-League football, reaching back-to-back semi-finals represents an extraordinary level of consistency. Last year Auckland topped the regular-season table on debut. This year the team has done it the hard way, scrambling through to the playoffs out of form, and is suddenly two legs away from a grand final appearance.

Plenty has been written about Auckland’s slump in the closing weeks of the regular season, with concerns about defensive lapses and an over-reliance on May for goals. Saturday night did little to dispel either concern, but the side’s bench depth, mental resilience and a hero goalkeeper got them across the line. In knockout football, that is what counts. The full match report is also available from RNZ.

City’s defeat ends one of the more notable title defences of recent A-League history. The Melbourne side had been many people’s pick to repeat as champions and had ground their way through the season as one of the form teams of the competition’s back end. They depart the playoffs with a missed shoot-out kick that will haunt them through the off-season.

Auckland have shown enough across two seasons to suggest a maiden A-League grand final appearance is well within their grasp. Adelaide will not roll over, and away legs in finals football are notoriously difficult, but the home leg first gives Corica’s men an opportunity to set the tone.

Tickets for next Saturday’s first leg at Mt Smart are expected to move quickly. After Saturday night’s drama, anyone in the country who isn’t already on board with this team is probably running out of excuses.

Were you at Mt Smart on Saturday night, or watching the shoot-out from your couch with your hands over your eyes? What do you make of Auckland FC’s chances against Adelaide? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.