Charlton 1-1 New Zealand

I attended an unusual pre-season friendly in South East London on Saturday where Premiership soft-touches Charlton took on the All Whites - the soccer team from New Zealand.

Although the Kiwis are best known for their rugby sides, they've actually been to a World Cup in recent times - at Espana 82 where they failed to get a point but did manage to score twice in a 5-2 loss to Scotland (does that sound patronising?).

Ricki Herbert, one of the alumni from the class of 1982, is now the coach of the New Zealand side and they are in the middle of mini-European tour that also takes in Blackburn Rovers next Saturday and then a match against UEFA Cup holders Sevilla the following Wednesday.

There was a smattering of Kiwis in the 10,237 crowd on Saturday but the majority were Charlton fans enjoying their first home friendly of the season. The only new permanent signing on show for the Addicks was veteran striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink although fans also got to see new manager Iain Dowie prowling the touchline.

New Zealand were actually under strength although Ricki Herbert's claim that the All Whites were missing fourteen first team players was pushing it - but without Danny Hay and Ryan Nelsen, their first choice central defensive partnership was missing, and the absence of regular keeper Glen Moss and striker Chris Killen also weakened the visitors.

The game was reasonably entertaining if a little lethargic in the warm sunshine but there was plenty of chances and not all for Charlton. The All Whites showed great endeavour and although curly-haired left back Tony Lochhead struggled to contain Charlton's Danish winger Dennis Rommedahl, the makeshift defensive unit coped well.

Unfortunately for the away side, in one moment of indecision, they left Marcus Bent in lots of space on the edge of the box and he finished very well - hard and low in the bottom corner of Mark Paston's net.

The architect of the goal was Costa Rican triallist Christian Bolaños who looked Charlton's best attacking player and had a couple of other nice touches as well as a few decent shots on goal. He was invited to train at Liverpool last year after impressing at the FIFA Club World Championship in Japan and now finds himself with another chance to play in English football via the Addicks. If he keeps up his pre-season form then he will surely be offered a full-time contract.

New Zealand's most impressive offensive force was the left-sided Fulham youngster Chris James. The former England youth international was born in New Zealand and amazingly enough rediscovered his love for the Land of the Long White Cloud a few weeks before the Kiwis had a glamorous friendly against Brazil in Geneva in June.

New Zealand equalised just before the hour through the lanky Campbell Banks. Impressively be-mulletted right midfielder Jarrod Smith clipped the ball into the area and a slip from Charlton's Talal El Karkouri allowed Banks to touch the ball past Hermann Hreidarsson and slide the ball past Thomas Myhre in the Charlton goal.

Darren Bent made his first pre-season appearance along with a brace of youth teamers for the Addicks but there was no more scoring and both teams seemed happy with the result - certainly the New Zealand contingent in the crowd were delighted with the score.

And why not? For them, this pre-season stroll in the Saturday sun against a bunch of overpaid, uninterested, under performing Premiership prima-donnas was their cup final.

Well, I thought I'd give little, friendly Charlton a break from THEIR traditional weekly patronising.

A full match report is available in both New Zealand and Charlton flavours.

***

Could the tide be turning against Bayern Munich in Germany? I've mentioned previously how I hate to draw conclusions from pre-season results but FC Hollywood's domination of the Bundesliga in recent seasons has been absolute. And they do it with such bad grace.

Werder Bremen inflicted a 2-0 defeat on the Bavarians in the League Cup final (the traditional German curtain-raiser) in Leipzig thanks to two strikes from Croatian World Cup striker Ivan Klasnic.

It was their first ever defeat in a LigaPokal final and a lack of firepower must be worrying the Bayern management - they have failed to score in their three pre-season games and Roque Santa Cruz was anonymous in taking on the attacking midfielder role vacated by Michael Ballack.

Interestingly for England fans, Owen Hargreaves was excellent in that advanced position in the semi-final against Schalke (which Bayern won on penalties) but uncomfortable playing as a holding midfielder in the final - the enigma continues .

When the Bundesliga season starts properly (on Friday away at Dortmund) Martin Demichelis will surely return to screen the back four if he's fit, with Hargreaves facing strong competition from Ali Karimi and Paraguayan starlet Julio Dos Santos for the schemer's role behind the front two.

Bayern will also want a quick return from their €10 million investment in Lukas Podolski, especially in light of their failure to persuade Ruud van Nistelrooy to swap Old Trafford for the Allianz Arena.

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Mexican giants Guadalajara managed to squeeze two games into one day on Sunday - in different countries.

Firstly, Chivas (meaning 'the Goats' as the team are popularly known) fielded a second-string side in a Mexican opening league game away at Toluca, which they lost 1-0.

Eight and a half hours later in Los Angeles, the first team drew 1-1 in an exhibition game against Barcelona.

Coach Jose Manuel de la Torre attended both games thanks to club owner Jorge Vergara's private jet.

Guadalajara claim they tried to postpone the match against Toluca but with no success. It's unclear how hard they tried to cancel their entirely unnecessary match against the Catalans over the Rio Grande but I bet it wasn't very hard.

A cut of the $3.5 million taken on the gate couldn't have anything to do with it, could it?

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