Football: Preparations begin for Auckland

Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx. Photo / File

Auckland City have arrived in Japan set to begin the next leg in their Fifa Club World Cup preparations.

While an initial group of players have already hit the training pitch, the second batch arrived a day later after missing a connection in Hong Kong due to delays.
in Tokyo looming.

Coach Ramon Tribulietx said the travel plans were far from ideal, with a warm-up game against J League 2's 16th-ranked team Yokohama FC looming, but only a minor setback.

"It's only affected the structure of our day in a small way," he said. "We need to make sure the guys who arrived later get rest before they hit the ground in Yokohama. We have to keep an eye on these players and see what they look like. If we need to readjust something in training we'll do that."

After sweeping aside Canterbury United 4-1 in the ASB Premiership on Sunday, Tribulietx indicated that this stage of the tour was about loosening legs ahead of the Club World Cup playoff on December 10.

"Our objective is to have a good practice game against a Japanese team," he said. Japanese teams play in a different way to how teams play in New Zealand or even in Oceania.

"Hopefully every player will get some game time and will feel what it means to compete against these guys in these weather conditions."

The identity of Auckland's opponents started to take shape last night when Sanfrecce Hiroshima defeated Gamba Osaka 3-2 in the first leg of the J League Championship final. The second leg is due to be played on December 5.

"It was a typical final both teams were very respectful of each other both teams have good players," Tribulietx said. "Gamba were looking to get hold of the ball a bit more, Hiroshima were happier sitting a bit deeper and counter attacking, which is how they normally like to set-up."

One change could be forced on Tribulietx ahead of the Yokohama friendly. Captain Angel Berlanga is touch and go after a hamstring niggle sustained in the Canterbury game while Mario Bilen continues his return to fitness after an ankle injury picked up in the Charity Cup final win over Team Wellington in early November.

"Angel is going to be a matter of time to see how he goes," the coach said. "He's got a small injury and its only 10 or 11 days after it happened so it could be a late call for us.

"Mario is looking good. He played a pretty decent game on Sunday. He went quite well in the first half quite but he got a little knock and in the second half he was a bit sore. But I think there's going to be no problems in terms of his ankle."