2004–05 New Zealand Football Championship

New Zealand Football Championship

Season	2004–05
Champions	Auckland City
Oceania Club Championship	Auckland City
Matches played	86
Goals scored	286 (3.33 per match)
← 2003 NSL 2005–06 →

2004–05 was the first season of the New Zealand Football Championship.

Team locations

Waitakere United

Auckland City

Waikato FC

Team Wellington

Canterbury United

Napier City Rovers

Otago United

YoungHeart Manawatu

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Location of teams in the 2004–05 New Zealand Football Championship

	Club Name	Home City	Stadium
	Auckland City FC	Auckland	Kiwitea Street
	Canterbury United	Christchurch	English Park
	Napier City Rovers FC	Napier	Bluewater Stadium
	Otago United	Dunedin	Sunnyvale Park
	Team Wellington FC	Wellington	Newtown Park
	Waikato FC	Ngaruawahia	Centennial Park
	Waitakere United	Waitakere City	Douglas Field
	YoungHeart Manawatu	Palmerston North	Memorial Park

Season summary

The league kicked off on 15 October 2004, with a 3–1 victory for Auckland City at Napier City Rovers and it soon became clear that Auckland City, along with Waitakere United, were the class teams in the championship. Auckland lost only three games all year en route to be the first winners of the New Zealand Football Championship. Even though they were runners-up in both the regular season and Grand Final, Waitakere lost four times to Auckland City, including the thrilling 3–2 final in front of 3,800 spectators at Auckland City's home field, Kiwitea Street, where Auckland came back from 2-1 down to win in the last minutes of the game.

Waikato FC came out best of the rest to take the final playoff position in third, despite making a slow start to the season. Notables among the other teams were Napier City Rovers, who also came back from a slow start to have a chance of making the playoffs in the final week of the season. Otago United won five games all year, but did not win any of their last twelve games.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Auckland City (C)	21	14	4	3	53	24	+29	46	Qualified for the finals and Club Championship
2	Waitakere United	21	12	4	5	39	19	+20	40	Qualified for the finals
3	Waikato FC	21	9	4	8	27	25	+2	31
4	Canterbury United	21	7	6	8	31	38	−7	27
5	Napier City Rovers	21	7	5	9	39	48	−9	26
6	Team Wellington	21	5	8	8	35	40	−5	23
7	Otago United	21	5	5	11	26	46	−20	20
8	YoungHeart Manawatu	21	4	6	11	26	36	−10	18

Source:
(C) Champions

https://www.rsssf.org/tablesn/nz05.html

Finals

Waitakere and Waikato play in the Elimination Final, the winner of which plays Auckland in Grand Final.

Bracket

	Elimination final					Grand final
						1	Auckland City	3
	2	Waitakere United	4			2	Waitakere United	2
	3	Waikato	1

Elimination final

6 March 2005

Waitakere United	4–1	Waikato
Ellensohn 9' Wylie 37' Jordan 54', 82'		Callinan 33' (pen.)

Grand final

12 March 2005

Auckland City	3–2	Waitakere United
Young 48', 90' Mulrooney 81'		Ellensohn 31' Jordan 70'

Oceania Club Championship

By winning the NZFC, Auckland City went on to represent New Zealand in the Oceania Club Championship in Tahiti. Auckland lost their first game to Australian representatives Sydney FC, 3–2 in the dying minutes. Their next game, against tournament hosts AS Pirae of Tahiti, was also a loss, this time by 1–0. Auckland City would take some consolation from finishing third in their group after defeating the champions of Papua New Guinea, Sobou FC, by 6–1.

See also

• New Zealand Football Championship