Auckland FC v Sydney FC: Steve Corica and Terry McFlynn to face Sky Blues after 33 years with rivals between them

Auckland FC coach Steve Corica in his playing days against the New Zealand Knights. Photo / Photosport

Between Steve Corica and Terry McFlynn, coach and director of football at Auckland FC, there are 33 years spent at Sydney FC on and off the field.

During his 19 years, Corica won two A-League titles as a player and two as a coach, guiding the Sky Blues through their most successful period before resigning and being replaced by former Wellington Phoenix gaffer Ufuk Talay three games into the 2023/24 season.

After navigating his new Auckland club’s first match with a convincing 2-0 victory at home over Brisbane Roar, Corica and his men now face a stern challenge in Sydney FC on Sunday at Go Media Stadium.

Emotions will be high on the day, Corica tells the Herald, but the focus is on three more points and continuing the winning start to their inaugural A-League Men campaign.

“Obviously, we’re a little bit emotional for the Sydney game because we’d been there for so long, but at the end of the day we’re not there anymore and we have our job to do here.

“For me it’s exciting because it’s our next challenge. Brisbane was a good challenge and now this will actually show how far we’ve come, because I think they are a better side than Brisbane, so we’ll test ourselves against a top team.”

Sydney FC will be a step up from Brisbane Roar, says Steve Corica. Photo / Photosport

Corica says while he is familiar with many of Sydney FC’s players, there are a few threats he will have to judge on the day, namely former Juventus star Douglas Costa and striker Joe Lolley, who played 159 matches for Nottingham Forest in the UK.

“The other players I obviously know pretty well, I’ve spent a lot of time with them. I know their strengths and weaknesses but it’s probably the newer ones we have to be ready for because they’re the ones we don’t know so well.

“Overall I think you set out your game plan, work hard defensively but I think with the ball we showed [against Brisbane] we can create some good chances and I think that’s going to improve as the league goes on. We’ve got some talented boys and a few who people haven’t seen yet still.”

McFlynn, too, enjoyed success at Sydney FC, winning two A-League titles while captaining the side for two seasons and spending 14 years as a player and backroom staffer. While like Corica he will be emotional on the day, his focus remains the same; on the men wearing blue and black stripes.

“I obviously left Sydney in 2019 after we won the grand final there and I was with Perth Glory so I’ve been in this position with another club. For me, my focus is on Auckland FC and making sure that we do everything we possibly can to win every game.

“Steve and I have still got a lot of friends connected with Sydney FC both on and off the pitch ... it’ll be nice to see some of those people again in a different city, different surroundings but our focus is 100% on getting a result for Auckland.”

McFlynn’s role as director of football is unique in the sense of building a club from the ground up. Using pieces from his time at Sydney as well as Perth Glory have been valuable, but it’s his time as a player that he says has been the most beneficial.

“A lot of the learnings we’ve taken going into this one are from a player’s point of view. Putting ourselves back in the players’ position and what we wanted from the football club as players back then, we’ve tried to put in place for our boys here.”

Auckland FC's director of football Terry McFlynn faced a unique challenge in building the new club. Photo / Photosport

Sydney placed fourth in the A-League last season before being eliminated from the playoffs by the eventual champion Central Coast Marriners. With respect to Brisbane, Corica expects Sydney to be a step up from what they faced in round one.

“We’re excited about it, it’s going to be another great challenge for us against Sydney and obviously one I’m looking forward to, to see where we are, because I think they’ll be a good team this year ... if we want to be up there these are the games where we’ve got to show what we’re about.”

After 19 years a connection is formed between a man and a club - Corica hopes the travelling Sydney fans can appreciate the service he provided during that time as a player and manager.

“Mate, I don’t know [how I’ll be received] it’s going to be the first time for me that I’ve played against them. I’ve given 19 years to the club, we’ve won many trophies so you’d hope they respect that.

“At the end of the day they’re coming to our home ground so we should be the ones making all the noise, but we always have a good relationship with everyone at Sydney so I don’t think there’s going to be any change in that.”

Will Toogood is an online sports editor for the NZ Herald. He enjoys watching people chase a ball around on a grass surface so much he decided to make a living out of it.