Daunting night awaits part-timers in Kashima
In terms of against the odds sporting battles, Auckland City’s football game in the Club World Cup tomorrow must be near the top of the list.
The Sandringham-based club will take on Kashima Antlers tonight, in the opening playoff match of Fifa’s biggest club competition, with the winner progressing to the quarterfinals.
On paper it’s a mismatch. Kashima are the champions of the J League, which is recognised as the best domestic football league in Asia. They have an estimated annual turnover of more than US$100 million ($140m), and have won the J League a record eight times since it’s inception in 1992. Their players are all fulltime professionals, with combined salaries in the tens of millions.
In contrast most of the Auckland City squad have day jobs, combining fulltime work with evening training sessions. Auckland’s roster includes a car groomer, a teacher aide, a paint salesman, a delivery driver, an industrial cleaner and a lawyer.
In modern sport it’s a gulf that is just too large, though Auckland have shown in the past that anything is possible. They won two matches at the 2009 Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, including beating the African champions, to finish fifth. Five years later they trumped that effort with the ‘miracle in Morocco’, where they took the bronze medal after beating the champions of Africa (ES Setif) and Mexico’s Cruz Azul.
They also pushed took South American champions San Lorenzo to extra time in the semifinal, and were only a scuffed Emiliano Tade shot away from dreaming about a date with Real Madrid in the final.
Under coach Ramon Tribulietx, Auckland City have mastered the art of lifting their game against much better opposition, with their collective organisation a match for any side.
But Japan is the final frontier. They have yet to win a game in the Land of the Rising Sun, losing 2-0 to Kashiwa Reysol in 2011, 1-0 to Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 2012 and 2-0 to the same opposition last year.
Auckland have enjoyed a thorough preparation ahead of this campaign, with a warm up games against Hong Kong Rangers (4-1) and Japanese third division side SC Sagamihara (1-all).
“The squad Ramon and the club have put together is very strong and we've worked really hard over the past couple of months,” said assistant coach Ivan Vicelich. “Unfortunately there's a couple of injuries in Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi and Mario Bilen that keep key players away from us. But the strength in our squad is good and we've got the players who can step up and keep us in that game and give us a chance of getting a result.”
The absence of Bilen (hamstring) and Hudson Wihongi (knee) change the balance of the Auckland side, with forwards Clayton Lewis and Fabrizio Tavano likely to switch into midfield roles. But the presence of former Phoenix midfielder Albert Riera is a considerable boost, while ex-La Liga goalkeeper Enaut Zubikarai provides a strong presence in goal.
“Kashima are a very physical team and they like to press aggressively,” said former All Whites defender Michael Fitzgerald, who has been based in Japan for almost a decade. “They've got some very good defenders and they'll be a hard team to break down but if Auckland City do not concede in the first half they've got a good chance.”