Auckland Soccer Team May Visit Dunedin

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27082, 17 May 1949, Page 8

Auckland Soccer Team May Visit Dunedin

Sports Commentary

By the Sports Editor,

The English Football Association Trophy Tournament will be held this year in Christchurch over the King’s Birthday week-end. This is the fourth time the tournament has been held under the present system, and the winners to date are: 1946, Auckland; 1947, Auckland; 1948, Canterbury. After this year’s tournament has been completed, each centre will have held the tournament, and it is possible that a different system of playing for the Football Association Trophy will be instituted next year.

It is not unlikely that Auckland will undertake a southern tour later in the season, playing Otago on a Saturday, Canterbury on the following Wednesday, and finishing with a match against Wellington on the Saturday. The tour will be in the nature of an experiment, for it is contended that the main difficulty with the tournament principle is that each centre has provincial matches every four years, whereas Auckland's scheme is devised with a view to seeing if it is financially practicable for each centre to play each other home and away matches every year. Otago had hoped to play Canterbury for the Jones Cup, at present held by Otago, on May 28, but unfortunately this date was not suitable to Canterbury. The Jones Cup competition which is played annually between Otago and Canterbury consists of home and away matches. .The Keach Cup, a trophy for competition between Otago and Southland, will be played for in home and away matches. The North v. South Island match will be played at Auckland, and the teams for the game will probably be selected from players taking part in the Football Association Tournament. With a visit by a New Zealand team to Hongkong proposed for about five weeks in September and October, players will have every incentive to give of their best at the forthcoming tournament. The tour will also

include matches in the Philippines. A coaching scheme under Mr J. Glen is to be re-commenced in Dunedin next week, and two coaches or players from each club will be given an onportunity to study and apply the latest coaching methods so that they can pass on the knowledge gained to their own players. Twenty-four playei’s have been selected for training for the representative games, and it is proposed to keep them in training throughout the season. Mr Glen has been appointed as trainer and coach of the Otago team.

Otago is entering a team in the Junior National Cup for representative teams under 18 on January 1. Last year Otago was defeated by Auckland in the final. for the Otago team close next Monday with the secretary of the Otago Football Association. Dangerous Tactics

The practice is becoming general among Otago goalkeepers when they save a shot and are unable to clear of throwing themselves on the ground, expecting the referee’s protection which is usually forthcoming, writes the soccer correspondent of the Daily Times. This dangerous practice is much too prevalent, and goalkeepers who persist with it are asking for trouble. Once the goalkeeper makes a save and holds the ball, his duty is to get rid of it as quickly as possible. If he is on the ground, he should throw the ball clear of the uprights for a corner. J. Glen, too, is inviting trouble by holding the ball and enticing a forward to come to close quarters. With his experience Glen should know that he would not be permitted to indulge in this practice in First, Second or any other division of British soccer, and if he wishes to impress promising young goalkeepers —and this is one position in which Otago is not lacking in material—he would be well-advised to refrain from the practice. A goalkeeper who persists inmich tactics may be penalised for “ ungentlemanly conduct.” Kelly in Form

J. W. Kelly, the former Canterbury and South Island representative player, could not find a place in the Auckland University College team and is turning out with Training College. While on holiday from Auckland, he played for Varsity in the Christchurch competition match against New Brighton last Saturday, his team winning by 24 points to 10. Kelly played a fine game and scored three tries from the full-back position, all of them splendid efforts. This Marcel Cerdan World middleweight boxing champion, Marcel Cerdan, who beat Britain’s Dick Turpin at Earl’s Court recently in the seventh round of a scheduled 10-round non-title bout, and collected £9OOO for the effort, has lost only three times in more than 100 contests during the past 13 years, a period which includes war service with the Frehch Navy. Cerdan comes from Algei'ia, and, at 32, he is still at peak form. Last September, he knocked out Tony Zale at Jersey City in what sports writers said was the most punishing world middleweight bout ever seen. Incidentally, the appearance of Cerdan in London was the first occasion on which a world middleweight titleholder had fought there since the bout 16 years ago in which the Frenchman, Marcel Thil, beat Britain’s Len Harvey.