Late goal keeps Coastal Spirit on course

Chloe Webster's late goal kept champions Coastal Spirit on course for their National Women's Knockout Cup defence after a quarterfinal victory over Dunedin Technical.

The Mainland Premier League champions thrashed Dunedin Tech 7-0 at the corresponding stage last season, but the southerners were made of sterner stuff at English Park yesterday.

Coastal won 2-1 to advance to the semifinals but Dunedin Tech kept pressing for an equaliser until the final whistle.

The home team had a definite edge in the first half and led 1-0 at the interval after Lauren Dabner's 37th minute goal.

Coastal could have had more goals for show for their dominance but Dunedin keeper Jade Middleditch produced some superb saves.

Dunedin Tech equalised in the 75th minute through a well-taken goal by Elise Mamanu-Grey, but Coastal hit back instantly, with Webster grabbing the match winner.

Dunedin Tech squandered a good chance to equalise on the cusp of fulltime but Coastal - fielding Football Ferns Meikayla Moore and Annalie Longo and youth internationals Dabner, Laura Merrin and Whitney Hepburn - deserved to advance to the next round.

Meanwhile, in Mainland Premier League men's action, Jordan Halligan had bragging rights at breakfast yesterday.

The young Cashmere Technical midfielder scored a second half goal in a 4-1 win over a Ferrymead Bays team coached by his father, ex-All White Danny Halligan.

Shawn O'Brien gave league leaders Tech a 1-0 halftime lead to notch his 10th goal of the campaign and Bays paid for defensive lapses in the second spell after their skipper Chris Murphy had equalised at 1-1.

Diminutive Tech midfielder Andy Barton rose unchallenged to head home an Oscar Evans corner and Halligan nodded home from a similar setpiece in the 84th minute before Canterbury United striker Ash Wellbourn completed the scoring.

Nelson Suburbs closed to within a point of second-placed Western after beating their rivals 2-1 at Nelson's Saxton Oval yesterday.

Irish import Davitt Walsh opened the scoring for Nelson from the penalty spot but Alex Pak levelled for Western with a spotkick on the hour.

Western were reduced to 10 men when defender Micky Willis was sent off for collecting a second yellow card. Nelson player-coach Ben Wright made the most of the extra-man advantage by grabbing the winner.

Michael Munro's second-half goal gave Coastal Spirit a 1-0 win over Nomads United.

Bottom team Universities were unlucky not to beat Halswell United, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw. Caleb Baker fired Universities ahead in the first half with his sixth goal of the season before Halswell's Dagan Bland struck back before the break.

Halswell had to play the last quarter with 10 men after promising defender Finn Gormack had to leave the pitch with a dislocated elbow after the Hawks had used their three allotted substitutes.

Mainland women's premier league cellar dwellers Parklands United and Western are still searching for their first goals after being blanked again on Saturday.

Hannah Wong scored a hat-trick in Cashmere Technical's 6-0 rout of Parklands and Milly Conner scored twice as Universities beat Parklands 4-0.

Source : http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/f...

Today News: Tech Giant Alibaba bought Chinese Soccer Club

After announcing to enter the US stock market with huge public offering Chinese Techno giant Alibaba has bought the 50% share of a famous soccer club of China recently.

Alibaba bought the popular Chinese soccer club Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club by a 1.2 billion yuan ($192 million) as they are doing everything right at the moment.

The new co-owner and the real estate tycoon Xu Jiayin was with the founder and chairman of Alibaba Jack Ma was present at the home town of the team and announced the purchase of the club.

Facebook’s IPO which was raised to a staggering $16 billion while Alibaba is expected pull more than the social networking site’s record in 2012.

Marcello Lippi the Italian coach has taken the job for the club and since the real estate giant Evergrande Real Estate Group in 2010 has bought the club Guangzhou Evergrande has won three Chinese Super League titles as there was more money been invested by the company.

Ma concedes he knows very little about soccer but believes he can help the league improve, saying “amateurs are wanted to make things different.”

Jack Ma informed that he has a very little idea about soccer however the owner believes to improve the club while he also said that he will not interfere into coach’s activity of the club.

Source : http://www.mkobserver.com/tech...