Soccer: Auckland City hope to do it all again

Two years ago, Auckland City departed the Club World Cup with a fifth-placed finish, US$1.5 million for football in New Zealand and a greatly enhanced reputation.

This time around, their chances of doing that are much tougher.

Auckland will line up against recently-crowned J-League champions Kashiwa Reysol in Toyota City tomorrow night (NZT) in a playoff for a place in the quarter-finals of the prestigious Club World Cup. They beat Al Ahli (United Arab Emirates) 2-0 two years ago to reach that stage and then stunned African champions TP Mazembe 3-2 when Riki van Steeden scored an injury-time winner to claim fifth.

Unlike Al Ahli, who had played little in the three months prior to the tournament, Kashiwa are match-hardened after winning being crowned J-League champions last weekend.

But they are vulnerable, considering they lost eight of their 34 games this season - the second and third-placed side lost fewer games - and conceded 41 goals. They also have limited experience at the top level given they won promotion from the J2 league last season and former Japan international Teruo Iwamoto, who played for Auckland at the 2006 Club World Cup, thinks his former club will match up well against the Japanese side.

There's also a touch of irony in the fact Auckland now play a passing game and Kashiwa the long ball - Auckland built early success on a highly-effective long-ball game under former coach Allan Jones.

"We've shown the players some videos [of Kashiwa] and talked about a few things we can do to hurt Kashiwa,'' Auckland coach Ramon Tribulietx said. "We've also pointed out a few things to the players where Kashiwa can hurt us.

"There is belief that we can actually win the game. Watching Kashiwa win the title, we were impressed they are a very good team. We know that. They are the J-League winners for a reason and this is the Club World Cup.''

Auckland City are the anomaly in the tournament as the only amateur side against the likes of Barcelona and South American champions Santos. Those two sides automatically win progression to the semifinals because of their lofty status.

One of the biggest incentives for Auckland is the money on offer. Although minimum
prizemoney of US$500,000 equates to little more than what Barcelona striker Lionel Messi might make in a week, it increases dramatically the deeper teams get into the tournament and Auckland brought home US$1.5 million in 2009.

The club kept a significant proportion of it, with players pocketing around 40 per cent of winnings, and the rest was divided among the other ASB Premiership clubs and New Zealand Football.

It's not something Tribulietx said he had thought about but Auckland chairman Ivan Vuksich and his contemporaries at the other football franchises know exactly what it can mean.

Few are giving Auckland much chance in this match but they will go in with a fully fit squad.

Tribulietx won't name his side until the last moment to keep his players on edge and said they would practice penalties in their final training session as well as set-pieces where their best chances of a goal might lie.

They produced a good 2-1 win over Ryutsu Keizai University, a fully professional outfit, in a warm-up game last Saturday morning and lead the ASB Premiership after four wins from four games.

"We have been working towards this for three months,'' Tribulietx said, "and we are excited.''

Not as excited as they will be if they can repeat their feats of two years ago.