KEY POINTS:
When Danny Hay ran on to Barcelona's Nou Camp for his Leeds United debut, the significance of it virtually passed the All Whites skipper by.
Champions League football, 100,000 fans, private jets, five-star hotels and almost god-like status.
It seems a world away for New Zealand's footballers and
these days it is for 31-year-old Hay.
Today, though, represents something of a return to those hazy days of 2000. It might not be in the hotbed of Europe played out under the gaze of the world's media but there's little doubt it's high-stakes football.
A cheque for US$500,000 ($670,000) awaits the winner of this afternoon's second leg of the O-League final, as well as a playoff with Japan's champion club for a spot in the Club World Cup later this year.
Fijian side Ba take a slender lead into today's game at Mt Smart Stadium after their controversial 2-1 win in Fiji last Saturday.
But Waitakere will be buoyed by the fact they had two goals disallowed in that match, one just seconds before the fulltime whistle.
For the bunch of students, sales reps and physios from Waitakere United, this game is the most significant the majority of them will have ever played.
Hay recognises this and admits he, too, is feeling some of the excitment he experienced when playing Champions League and Premiership football for Leeds in 2000.
"It's nice to be playing high-stakes club football again," Hay says. "I look back now and realise I took it for granted. Playing Barcelona, flying private jets around the place. We were playing for millions of dollars.
"At the time, I thought, 'this is nice'. It's only now when I think about it that it sends me into a bit of a spin."
A chronic groin injury meant the tie against Barcelona was the only Champions League game Hay appeared in (he sat on the bench for a handful of others).
It might have been only four minutes at the back end of a 4-0 defeat to the glamour Spanish club but Hay remains the only New Zealander to have played in the Champions League.
He also appeared in four Premiership matches (against Tottenham, Manchester United, Bradford and Liverpool) as well as a League Cup defeat by Tranmere.
He then played 18 months with Walsall in the English First Division before returning to New Zealand to team up with the Knights for their first A-League season.
There's little doubt he's an older and slower version than the defender Leeds signed for £200,000 in 1999 and that his career is winding down but his experience will be vital to Waitakere.
"There's a lot riding on it and a lot of the guys were thinking about the money before the first game," he says. "It's easy to say but we need to approach it as just another game of football. That's where Michael Utting and I have to take more responsibility so the younger guys are a bit calmer.
"It's a lot of money in New Zealand but we have to remember what it's worth in Fiji as well so they will be feeling it.
"They can be unpredictable and do some good things at times but they can be poor if we put them under pressure. We didn't do that enough last week."
There's nothing like half a million dollars to raise the stakes.
