Fulltime: Auckland City 0 Al Ittihad 3, nice to see Tade subbed on late and get a strike on goal. Attendance 50.400. 2nd half strong team showing to match the likes of Konte, Jota & Benzema. No bookings in match, well controlled by the officials.
Put it in perspective this was a pretty average ACFC side compared to whats gone before them. The ACFC sides that won 3rd and 5th place would put 3,4,5 goals on this team. So the fact that they managed a 3-0 loss with those players is somewhat impressive.
Coach produced some surprises in his lineup. No proper 9 to hold ball up? probably cost them first half. Bizzare really. Kilkoly came on and played right wing in the 80th min. Gillion played as a 4 ft 2 Centre Forward! The curly hair guy had a shocker and had to come off probably sooner.
Joe Lee had to start they always look a better team with him in it and especially with de vries out.
I would say Riera is under big pressure....not a great run of form recently and his decisions have gone wayward. Big game coming up against the Greeks for OFC place or writing could be on the wall.
Fair play to Auckland City though not disgraced again and fought throughout.
Impressive to see female officials given the job in the middle east. Did it well too.
The Saudis are making an effort to rebrand themselves, especially around women's rights. I'm sure alot of it is around positioning themselves to host the 2034 World Cup. They would have seen the microscope Qatar went under last year from the world's media.
They have a womens national team now (played their first games last year) and have launched a national women's league. Read the winning team will get SR500,000 ($USD133,285). CR7 gets that in a day ending in a y.
Yeah Joe Lee was a real highlight when he came on. Skinned their LB, went to the goalline and laid a good ball back to Gillion who stumbled over it. de Vries has buried many from that position. Lobo (who got a curiously low FotMob rating), Zhou (when subbed on) and Tracey (not at fault for any of the goals, some great saves including a spectacular one at full stretch from range) also deserve to be highlighted
Lobo always flat footed when receiving passes he does it all the time in national league. He runs all day but has some bad faults to his game.
Keeper pulled off some good saves. And agree the asian lad they subbed on looked decent and he could play a bit...looked in better shape than Howieson and the other guy in there
Lobo always flat footed when receiving passes he does it all the time in national league. He runs all day but has some bad faults to his game.
Keeper pulled off some good saves. And agree the asian lad they subbed on looked decent and he could play a bit...looked in better shape than Howieson and the other guy in there
Lobo is a very good player who has clearly got away with these faults through his youth days because his other aspects make up for it. Eventually it gets found out though.
Keeps the thread title going I guess. Bit rough on Olympic. 2029 the earliest they or anyone else other than ACFC can go to the CWC.
And by then looks like OFC will have it's own professsional league (to kick off 2025?), so maybe it's the club with the best record over 4 years in that league who gets to represent OFC at the 2029 CWC??
Played in every four years, the expanded competition will feature clubs from each of the six confederations with Oceania awarded one spot, which will be Auckland City FC in 2025.
The Navy Blues, winners of the 2022 and 2023 OFC Champions League, have sealed their place under the tournament’s qualification criteria as the highest ranked team in Oceania over four seasons leading up to the Club World Cup finals.
“While the 2024 edition of the OFC Champions League remains to be played, of the teams that may potentially participate, there is no mathematical possibility for any to overtake Auckland City FC based on the points gained by that team over the qualification period to date," stated the FIFA communiqué
There is the "new" Intercontinental Cup which is effectively the same as the current CWC setup Whoever wins the OCL will get to play against the CAF or CONCACAF champions (away only)
“While the 2024 edition of the OFC Champions League remains to be played, of the teams that may potentially participate, there is no mathematical possibility for any to overtake Auckland City FC based on the points gained by that team over the qualification period to date," stated the FIFA communiqué "
So essentially there's absolutely zero point of Olympic playing against Auckland?
“While the 2024 edition of the OFC Champions League remains to be played, of the teams that may potentially participate, there is no mathematical possibility for any to overtake Auckland City FC based on the points gained by that team over the qualification period to date," stated the FIFA communiqué "
So essentially there's absolutely zero point of Olympic playing against Auckland?
Well as above the 6 team Intercontinental Cup (first version Dec 2024) is basically a direct replacement for the current CWC, and will also it seems be an annual event.
If participation comes with a nice fat pay check, still plenty for Olympic to play for when they meet ACFC early next year.
