Auckland City manager vows to improve upon his team’s 2009 Club World Cup form
As the teams prepare for the Club World Cup campaign, the tournament underdogs, Auckland City FC, vow to improve on their 2009 Club World Cup form. The ACFC coach, Ramon Tribulietx, was upbeat ahead of his team’s opening game despite being considered outsiders in the competition.
The Kiwi outfit will travel away to Japan for their opening CWC game against the Japanese champions, Kashiwa Reysol. The City are due to face the Sun Kings on Thursday, December 8, in Japan and are rightly considered the underdogs in front of the J-League champions.
Tribulietx told that his side are well prepared for the competition and would prove a difficult proposition for the Japanese side.
He also warned other teams of their backlash despite being considered underdogs and wowed to attain greater heights in the competition. The manager reckoned that it would be a useful experience for his side to play alongside some big name clubs as the competition in New Zealand is certainly nowhere close to what his players would prefer before entering a tournament of such stature.
The Spaniard urged his players to be on their toes from the word go and press lot harder in front of the under-pressure Sun Kings who will be expected to register an easy win on their home soil.
While talking to Goal.com, the Barcelona born tactician further enthused:
“The main thing you can take out of that (2009's fifth-place finish) is that we can compete at this level. We are convinced that we can do it. It's going to be very difficult because we're going to play a very good team, we're coming from New Zealand and the competition back home is not as good. But we can challenge these guys.”
“The last few results for the All Whites and (New Zealand's) junior teams, have been pretty good. That's spreading around New Zealand and we're convinced we can compete at a higher level.” Tribulietx concluded.
The last time Auckland participated in this competition, they finished fifth and are once again expected to come up with some sort of surprise.
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