A draw at the weekend brought their winning run to an end but the Kiwi club is proving expansion and success don’t have to be strangers
table eight games into the 2024-25 season. Entering this year as an expansion franchise, common sense pointed to some kind of breaking-in period as they looked to find their feet. The assembled talent suggested they could make an impact at some point, but leading the league at Christmas was almost without precedent. Even Western Sydney, in their premiership-winning debut season, lost four of their first eight games.
And Corica hasn’t had to reinvent the wheel to get here. Alongside director of football Terry McFlyn, Corica has assembled a strong foundation of Australians and Kiwis and, as evidenced by captain Hiroki Sakai, got his foreign recruitment mostly right. On the pitch, Auckland are organised and disciplined – a defensively sound unit that doesn’t beat themselves and will punish mistakes.
Having a billionaire owner in the American businessman Bill Foley to underwrite the project helps, and this should not be confused for an underdog story. Foley also proved useful in helping push through rule changes that allowed his Premier League side Bournemouth to buy Alex Paulsen – the best goalkeeper in the ALM with Wellington last campaign – and immediately loan him to Auckland.
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