Little more than two years ago, Auckland FC were a concept. An idea which, on paper – given the chequered history of both expansion clubs and overall Kiwi involvement in Australian soccer – was never guaranteed to actually work.
Now they are the kings of the A-League, and their coach, Steve Corica, stands tall above all of his contemporaries.
Thanks to Auckland’s 1-0 win over Sydney FC in Saturday’s grand final, Corica is now the first coach to win three A-League championships.
He now sits in heady company in the annals of Australian national league history: alongside Zoran Matic and Eddie Thomson, two coaching greats from the old National Soccer League, and just behind Ange Postecoglou, the only man to have done it four times, whose long-standing record is now within reach.
Don’t think of it revenge. That would sit uncomfortably with Corica, even though he was unceremoniously sacked by the Sky Blues in late 2023, after 19 years of unbroken service as a player, assistant and then senior coach. As he did with Sydney (until they asked him to stop), the former Socceroo has moulded Auckland FC in his own image.
With the greatest of respect to Corica, it’s not a pretty one. The Black Knights play a structured, disciplined, highly physical brand of football, and it’s not a style that tugs at the heartstrings if you’re a neutral.
This grand final, played largely on their terms, was a tough watch – but not if you had a dog in the fight. For the locals, all 28,307 of them, this was everything, a new high-water mark for domestic soccer across the ditch. Aesthetics were a secondary concern at best.
For the first time, an A-League grand final not only involved a New Zealand side, but was held over there, too, at Auckland’s sold-out Go Media Stadium. The city embraced the occasion, just as they have embraced the club from the moment they began play last season – now their transformation into a bona fide power is complete.
Cam Howieson’s 60th-minute winning goal was, in typical Auckland style, scrappy but effective. Sydney’s attempts to clear the ball from their defensive box triggered a short bout of aerial ping-pong, which ended when it fell to Howieson, and he took a first-time lash at it.
Taking a fortunate deflection off Sky Blues defender Jordan Courtney-Perkins, it whizzed past helpless goalkeeper Harrison Devenish-Meares and in to break what had been, to that point, a rather dull deadlock.
Before then, there were hardly any clear-cut chances for either side. At half-time, each had crafted an expected goals tally of just 0.06 xG. Sydney had created the better openings, but flirted repeatedly with danger in their attempts to play out from defence and through Auckland’s high press – but the hosts couldn’t take advantage.
It was much the same in the second half, the start of which yielded Sydney’s best period of the match. But the goal changed everything, gave Auckland something to hold on to as they sat back and camped in defence, and as the minutes ticked by, the pressure ramped up on the visitors.
Even accounting for the late introduction of their veteran star Joe Lolley, there was no getting around Corica’s black and blue wall.
At the final whistle, there was only heartbreak for Sydney, but delirium for Auckland, who join the NBL’s New Zealand Breakers as the only Kiwi team to have won a grand final in Australian club competitions. (Rugby fans: Super Rugby is technically an international competition.)
They have put New Zealand soccer on the Australian map.
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