'Harry Kane is going to score 10 past ya!' Meet Auckland City, the CWC's only amateur team

The lone amateur broadside successful the recently expanded FIFA Club World Cup, Auckland City would look to beryllium the unusual ones retired astatine the tournament. But arsenic goalkeeper Conor Tracey told ESPN, the nine are serving a overmuch larger purpose: representing the bulk of footballers astir the world.

One happening that needs to beryllium established aboriginal -- and a hurdle that has already encountered galore times by Auckland City's players and unit this week -- is that they are not Auckland FC.

New Zealand is incapable to enactment its ain afloat nonrecreational league, which means Wellington Phoenix and Auckland FC play successful the Australian-based A-League Men. To marque matters adjacent much confusing, due to the fact that New Zealand belongs to the Oceania Football Confederation and Australia is successful the Asian Football Confederation, the Phoenix and Auckland FC -- owned by American billionaire businessman Bill Foley -- person 1 ft successful some camps, and are truthful barred from participating successful continental nine competitions successful either.

That has near the doorway ajar for Auckland City to go the look of Oceania connected the planetary stage. Establishing themselves arsenic New Zealand's preeminent non-professional powerfulness implicit the past 2 decades, winning 13 Oceanian Champions League titles. they person go regulars astatine the Club World Cup, competing successful 10 tournaments. They adjacent finished 3rd nether the aged format successful 2014, beating Mexico's Cruz Azul connected penalties.

And whereas their erstwhile 5 visits to the tourney person each ended aft a azygous game, this year's expanded iteration volition warrant the Kiwi broadside astatine slightest 3 matches successful a radical with Bayern Munich, Benfica and Boca Juniors.

"Every [previous] Club World Cup has conscionable progressive preparing for the 1 game," Tracey told ESPN. "That's unsocial successful itself, and it's been great. But to beryllium guaranteed 3 of those monolithic games, and, you could arguably say, against bigger clubs, it's fantastic.

"We each went to the nine rooms to ticker the gully unrecorded arsenic a team, and watching america gully Bayern Munich consecutive distant was ridiculous. My member turned to maine and laughed and said, 'Haha! Harry Kane is going to people 10 past ya!'"

Based retired of Tennessee for the tourney -- Tracey confirmed that, arsenic a Kiwi, of people helium likes the section barbecue -- City volition unfastened their run against the Bundesliga champions astatine Cincinnati's TWL Stadium connected Sunday. It's genuinely a conflict of David vs. Goliath. The Bavarians are Germany's astir palmy nine and six-time champions of Europe; Auckland City are an amateur broadside that ply their commercialized successful the New Zealand Men's National League.

"It's a unsocial portion of this full puzzle of the Club World Cup," Tracey said. "We are -- not successful an egomaniacal mode -- benignant of representing the 99.9% of footballers retired there; 0.1% of footballers are professionals but we're the remainder -- and it's not an casual gig."

Indeed, according to FIFA data, determination are conscionable 128,876 nonrecreational players astir the satellite -- a tiny proportionality of the estimated 250 cardinal who play the crippled successful immoderate capacity. And portion plentifulness of speech surrounding fatigue heading into the Club World Cup has centred connected the progressively unsustainable demands being placed connected the game's elite, Auckland's amateur contingent look their challenges, too.

Playing successful the 2nd of 3 large tournaments they'll participate this twelvemonth alongside their home league and cupful duties -- the Club World Cup joining the OFC Champions League and FIFA Intercontinental Cup -- astir of the squad is made up of players who equilibrium their footballing commitments with full-time jobs, with a fewer of those inactive surviving astatine location oregon completing assemblage studies juggling part-time employment.

Outside football, Tracey works successful a supervisory relation astatine a veterinary proviso warehouse, overseeing the organisation of pharmaceuticals, nutrition, and controlled drugs to veterinarians crossed New Zealand. Before helium near for the United States, helium took connected other responsibilities and added overtime, feeling the effects of burning the candle astatine some ends.

"The permission is ever an issue, it's ne'er easy," Tracey said. "When I joined this company, I did archer them, 'If you're wanting to motion maine on, I would emotion to beryllium here, but the occupation is that I've already committed to football.'

"We've got radical astatine the nine who are each of a akin mindset, who judge the nonstop aforesaid things that we do. For each the players moving full-time, playing and grooming full-time is truly difficult. It's really, truly hard. We're slogging it out.

"We don't spot the sunshine, really, due to the fact that we're astatine enactment each day, spell and train, and past we travel backmost [home] astatine 9 p.m., 9:30 p.m. ... for immoderate of the guys who person families, it's precise difficult."

On the field, whereas Auckland City thin to beryllium capable to dictate presumption astatine home, they're good alert that won't beryllium the lawsuit erstwhile they instrumentality the tract against European and South American giants successful the coming weeks. The Kiwi broadside hasn't delved excessively profoundly into the idiosyncratic prima powerfulness that could beryllium deployed against them but, instead, however they'll run arsenic a corporate unit, some successful and (mostly) retired of possession. Falling to a 1-0 decision against 2024 Asian champions Al Ain successful their last warm-up fixture, that constrictive decision came little than a twelvemonth connected from the 6-2 decision they suffered against the Emirati broadside astatine the 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup.

"That's precisely what we've been grooming for," explained Tracey. "We cognize however we bash it to different teams, present it's going to beryllium the implicit flip; that's what we're expecting anyway.

"We're present moving connected our shape, formation, tactics, each to suit what we're expecting. It's Bayern Munich. It's Benfica. It's Boca Juniors. They are notoriously the champion teams successful the world. Everything that we've done truthful acold is prepping us, I think, successful a realistic mode of however the crippled volition astir most apt go.

"All the hard yards that we've done successful Oceania and New Zealand, I conjecture we've already succeeded successful that way. We've worked truthful hard to get to wherever we are, and we're already arrogant of what we've done. Just getting to this tourney is simply a occurrence successful itself."