New Zealand Football Championship
Hols Over - Manawatu on Saturday...
Rab Smith
The sight of All White Andy Boyens and former NZ U20 player Michael 
Cunningham in Dunedin this week, had Otago United administrators grabbing for contracts and sharpening quill pens.
Otago coach Malcolm Fleming was very keen to sign the former Otago players for New Zealand Football Championship duty.
‘ The NZFC has a transfer window in January, but neither Andy nor Mike are available to play for us at this time. However the club management and myself are examining a couple of candidates to strengthen our squad in 2010,’ said coach Fleming.
Andy Boyans is commited to a heavy schedule of Coaching Clinics all over Otago and Southland ( pdf info here ) before he returns to the New York Red Bulls in the MLS in which he has now 
played 56 matches
In a recent match, NY Bulls beat Boyens old club Toronto 5-nil. Must have been satisfying for the big centreback. Click here for the Bulls link, with match videos,
Below is the
squad for that match.
New York Red Bulls -- Bouna Coundoul, Carlos Johnson, Andrew Boyens, Mike Petke (Walter Garcia 9), Jeremy Hall, Dane Richards, Albert Celades (Matthew Mbuta 92+), Seth Stammler, Danleigh Borman, Macoumba Kandji, Juan Pablo Angel (Sinisa Ubiparipovic 90). 
However - Otago’s NZFC squad looks a bit thin since star centreback Chris Jenkinson returned to the UK before Christmas, and injuries to defender Dave Shaw and striker Dave Dugdale have not helped.
Fleming said,’ Dave ( Dugdale ) has almost returned to match fitness, but we do not want him to break down by returning too early. Shaw is also pretty close to returning.’
Even physio Gareth Hore has vanished - gone to get married, and honeymooning in Vietnam, where Fleming expects the physio to sign a couple of slippery strikers...
Otago faces a string of difficult matches in the next few weeks. On Saturday Fleming’s team travels to play Manawatu. The week after its another tough away trip to play Auckland, then a home match against Hawkes Bay at Carisbrook.
‘ We need points from those matches or we could slide down the table. Everyone enjoyed their Christmas break, and have returned looking fit and definitely ‘up’ for this weekend’s match,’ said Fleming.
‘ The lads trained particularly well at Logan park this week in hot difficult conditions with a full complement of players looking sharp and keen.’
According to Fleming, Otago’s creative midfielder Stu Kelly will remain in United’s ranks, despite having traveled to Israel for professional trials during
the holiday break.
Otago’s opponent Manawatu is second equal in the NZFC, after winning matches against Hawkes Bay, Waikato and crushing Wellington 4-nil thanks to Vanuatuan striker Seule Soroman scoring four goals.
Top NZFC goalscorer Soroman could set Otago problems, and the miserly Manuatu defence is well led by Adam Cowan who recently clocked up his 100th NZFC appearance.
Otago squad –
1 James Waggett (GK) |
3 Tristan Prattley |
8 Stu Kelly |
9 Ryan Faichnie |
11 Andy Coburn |
12 James Reichwein |
14 Dan Ede |
15 Tom Connor |
17 Tim Horner (C) |
18 Nathan Knox |
20 Mike Abbott |
Substitutes |
6 Tom Sadd |
13 Brian Brown (R.GK) |
16 Morgan Day |
21 James Watson |
| Waitakere | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 13 |
| Auckland | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 10 |
| Manawatu | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
| Canterbury | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| Otago | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 7 |
| Wellington | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 10 | -5 | 6 |
| Hawke Bay | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11 | -4 | 5 |
| Waikato | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 14 | -8 | 3 |