Auckland City is the only representative from Oceania to participate in the FIFA Club World Cup. However, they cannot bring anything new to the tournament. On the contrary, Auckland City is a big disappointment due to their weakness.
Auckland City (yellow shirt) conceded 16 goals after 2 matches at the FIFA Club World Cup (Photo: Getty).
The level of the New Zealand representative is much lower than that of the opponents in this tournament. That makes many people even more frustrated about the difference between the clubs and partly makes the FIFA Club World Cup less attractive.
In their opening match, Auckland City suffered a humiliating 0-10 defeat to Bayern Munich. The Bavarian team played like they were “playing” with their opponents and didn’t have to expend too much energy to win 10-0.
Not stopping there, in the second match of the tournament, Auckland City continued to lose miserably with a score of 0-6 against Benfica in a similar scenario. Thus, after only two matches in this tournament, Auckland City has conceded 16 goals. That is truly a "shame".
In the past, Auckland City surprised everyone by finishing third in the 2014 tournament, but in most other tournaments, the Oceania representative has failed to get past the first qualifying round.
Auckland City is just a collection of amateur players (Photo: Getty).
In fact, Auckland City is just an amateur team with many players taking football as a part-time job. The captain of the team, Mario Ilich, is currently a salesman for a soft drink company. Every day, he wakes up at 5am, takes the time to work out at the gym, before going to his main job. Then, at 5pm, Mario Ilich takes the time to pursue his passion for football.
Auckland City’s squad has many such players. They include real estate agents, truck drivers… and all have a passion for football. Auckland City FC has a training schedule of 4 days a week and officially plays on Saturday mornings.
Auckland City FC's home ground is Kiwitea Street, with a modest grandstand that holds just 3,500 spectators. Despite this, it is rarely full.
Even the cost of Auckland City FC going to the US to compete in the FIFA Club World Cup is more than 1 year of Auckland City's revenue.
Auckland City have just one match left on their journey, against Boca Juniors. Notably, the Argentine club needs a big win in this match to have any hope of advancing. Now, people are worried about the fate of the New Zealand club.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/clb-cua-tai-xe-co-dat-gay-soc-voi-thanh-tich-te-hai-o-club-world-cup-20250621175025038.htm
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