Keeping It Real About Auckland City’s Annual Club World Cup Excursion
The World Club Cup journey didn’t last very long for Auckland City this year. Up against the host reps and champions of the United Arab Emirates, Al Jazira, they went down 1-0 to a first half goal from Brazilian Romarinho. Quite a good goal, to be fair. Ordinarily that’d be about what you’d expect, after all Auckland City has lost in the playoff round, one and done, in five of the last six years. The only time they won that game was the time they made the semis in 2014.
And yet that doesn’t tell the full story here because Auckland City didn’t just show up to scrap about as plucky underdogs. They straight-up controlled this game. The goal they let in was a blinder against the run of play, otherwise they were all over the host nation representatives. 60% of possession for the game. 17 shots to 5, with 7 on target compared to 2. Al Jazira committed 22 fouls with 4 yellow cards (vs 13 & 1). 10 corners kicks to none. AJ’s captain and keeper, Ali Khaseif, had to make 7 saves. All AK City failed to do was score a goal… hence they’re heading back home.
It’s not fair to place blame but some of the finishing wasn’t what you’d expect. Perhaps it was the occasion or whatever, yet you give Ryan De Vries a few chances like he had here – especially that one late on which he stabbed right at the keeper - against Tasman or Waitakere in a couple weeks and he’ll be surging ahead on the top scorer’s list; he’s already second with 8, including a hatty against Waitaks. Same goes for Emiliano Tade and Callum McCowatt, who were occasionally brilliant in their build up play but didn’t have their shooting boots on.
That Auckland City have been able to compete at this tournament of giants for the last seven years in a row (and nine times overall) is a happy twist of fate. Every confederation gets represented so ACFC scoot on in alongside Real Madrid and Gremio by virtue of their OFC Champions League exploits earlier in the year. Team Wellington may have beaten them to the Premiership title the last two seasons but Auckland City have still gotten the best of them in the Champions League each time.
But FIFA knows that chucking a team of non-full-time-pros up against Real Madrid would be rather risky as far as the dignity of their competition goes. Hence Oceania’s best have to play this qualifying game against the best club of the host nation. It turns out that the best that the United Arab Emirates had to offer was well within the realms of Auckland City’s capabilities… nevertheless they still lost. Thus Al Jazira advance to play Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds – with the winners playing Real Madrid – and the Aucklanders won’t play again until they host Tasman at Kiwitea Street next weekend. A whole lot humbler than the stadia in the UAE, that’s for sure.
But, like, are we supposed to rip on this team for missing an opportunity here? Competitive natures suggest so. There are kiwi teams that find themselves in these FIFA tournaments thanks to the Oceania conference all the time and very few get the chance to boss a game that ACFC had here. You can look at this dominant performance as a positive but that’s belittling. Simply competing isn’t enough – once you’re in it you have to win it. That’s what the players will be feeling for sure.
And yet… it’s the Club World Cup, mate. Real Madrid will probably win it and Real Madrid don’t even really wanna be there. The other clubs only want to be there so they can play Real Madrid. To the rest of the world this is an annoyingly-scheduled borderline-friendly competition that only really exists to further FIFA’s global idealism… or the impression thereof. It’s a silly tournament and a bit of a giggle. Incredible opportunity for the players, sure… except some of these ACFC players have been there so many times it cannot mean the same thing as it would for, say, Team Wellington if they were to qualify next time.
Plus it’s such a whiff as to who they end up playing as well – they’ve had four playoff games against Japanese teams (losing all four by a combined 7-1), two teams from Morocco (lost one in extra time and won the other on penalties) and now the champs of UAE. If this were a tournament whose other participants were as regular as its Oceania participants then you could argue they ought to be improving on their results from year to year. That’s not really the case when we’re talking semi-pros (amateur is a dirty world in football, no matter where you are) up against legit professional players from all over the planet.
But, but, but... THE STATS!!!
Yo but it ain’t fair that they only get to play one game! Why don’t they change the format to make it less harsh on the worst team that qualifies!? Umm… because the tournament is as snappy as it is on account of nobody else really wants to be there when it means their regular domestic games need to be rescheduled. Auckland City are lucky to be there, you can probably list two hundred clubs worldwide off the top of a ya head that could beat them nine times out of ten.
Which sort of makes you wonder what’s really being gained by such consistent representation at this thing. There’s definitely a patriotic boost to seeing a kiwi football team playing on a global stage, yet that comes back around to the slightly patronising ‘we love it when we’re underdogs’ line. Also there were as many Spaniards in the starting line-up as there were New Zealanders so the ‘NZ players in the spotlight’ idea’s kinda slim as well. Plenty of lads from Aotearoa on the bench, granted, but only Dan Morgan got on.
Although in the sharp focus, Cam Howieson had a really solid game here plus he came as close to scoring as any other player in blue. He’s been around a little while, playing for Burnley long before Chris Wood, and got nine caps for the All Whites before falling out of the picture. So it’s kinda crazy to think he doesn’t even turn 23 for a couple more weeks. Oh and Callum McCowatt is pretty simply the find of the Premiership season. The 18 year old playmaker was a Team Welly youth member last year and came through the Ole Academy like every other up and coming bugger seems to these days. That’s he’s scoring goals in the national league and starting in the Club World Cup is completely wild.
Fair play to Ryan De Vries too, he also played for the All Whites once if you recall. But you already know what to expect from RDV and that’s goals. He’s been putting them away for years now at Premiership level and right now will be regretting that he didn’t get at least one in this Al Jazira clash.
It doesn’t really seem like the exposure players get here is leading to pro deals overseas either. Clayton Lewis is a fair example but his Scunthorpe contract will have been far, far, far more based upon what he did for New Zealand at the Confederations Cup. What we do have here is an incredible experience for the dudes that get to be a part of it that’ll clearly improve them as players down the line… but yeah, not something that’ll set them up for long professional careers alone.
Of course, that doesn’t make it pointless… just a little frivolous. This is a game that Auckland City get to play every year, always plenty of fun, which might even lead to further games if they’re lucky. It’s heartening to see them footing it with the best that UAE had to offer but outside the team’s frustrations at letting it slip this result doesn’t actually mean much. Irrelevant tournament, random opponents (it’s back in UAE next year though…), unique qualifying opportunity, nothing at stake, professionals versus non-professionals… there’s no sense to be made here. A little FIFA-stamped money but not much sense.
Good game to watch on a Thursday morning before the Champions League kicked off, though. Shoulda won it but they didn’t. Let’s see if they qualify again next year and extend that record number of appearances into double digits.
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