Toby Manhire on an occasion so impressive it made him do something he thought he never would.
Hard to think how it could have gone better. A packed out stadium. A 2-0 win. Flowing football. Blue skies. Blue flares. I even saw blue slushies. Sure, there were no box-office volleys or jumbo jet flyovers, but Auckland FC have a season of games yet to play. Plenty of time for that.
As the A-League’s newest side ran out in their Inter-esque blue and black stripes on to Go Media Stadium they must have known there was more than just the first points of the season up for grabs against Brisbane Roar. This was a moment of real consequence for New Zealand football and for the city of Auckland. If there were nerves, they didn’t show, save a wobble or two in the first five minutes. Auckland FC confirmed themselves, however, as a New Zealand team by taking the lead in the manner that best befits the national psyche: an own-goal.
In fact it was an own-goal made by the home side. Made, specifically, by Hiroki Sakai, the right-back and captain, who fizzed the ball across the goal and into the path of poor old Harry Van Der Saag. Sakai has played in Bundesliga and Ligue 1, he has 75 caps for Japan, and here he was in a class of his own.
Sakai has been around, yes, but he’s far from one of those big name semi-geriatric footballers of years gone by that have opted for a place in a smaller league instead of the retirement home or glue factory. Steve Corica has assembled a team with proper quality, spanning emerging New Zealand players, All Whites and international talent. They deserved their win on Saturday. When you account for the rustiness that afflicts teams at their first competitive outing of a season in any league in the world, they looked sharp and cohesive, brimming with potential.
None of that would have been possible were New Zealand football not in such rude, flourishing form. Back in the day, it was rare to have a New Zealander (Wynton Rufer, mostly) playing in Europe; these days it’s almost commonplace. That generational shift, built on participation, expertise and international networks, is echoed in the reservoirs of support. And one of the many things that Auckland FC has got right under CEO Nick Becker is paying more than lip service on commitment to clubs in the city. Anyone signing up for membership can nominate their local club, and send 20% of the fee back to their local club. That’s quite a kickback (it’s literally called the “kickback programme”).
Auckland FC and its fans owe a debt of gratitude, too, to Wellington Phoenix. If Saturday night finally exorcised the demons of the Kings and the Knights, the Phoenix had already burned up some of the messier memories in their ashes, showing that a New Zealand city could sustain a side in the Aussie league for longer than a few years. The Phoenix stand to gain from a successful, popular AFC as well – there is the real prospect of travelling (and transplanted) fans of both teams turning out in big numbers across three derbies, with the first in Wellington just 12 days away. There is the prospect of a genuine, enduring rivalry. (Much like other famous rivalries around the world, including, as one senior dignitary said on Saturday, betraying his football familiarity, that between “the Rangers and the Celtics”.)
There is talk of an Auckland FC backed plan for an 8,000-seat stadium at Western Springs. It’s a good idea, but that may not be big enough, if game number one is any guide. The Warriors have cracked it at Go Media Stadium, selling the place out across the most recent season, and that energy fed through to the football. Either way, it underscores one of the most powerful drivers in live event attendance: scarcity.
Fullness begets fullness, and the Port section – the ultras of Auckland FC and source of those blue flares – were in fine voice already on Saturday night, pulverising vocal chords on the march in and into the pre-match player warm-ups. We are top of the league came within seconds of the first goal. I even heard a lick of We’re by far the finest team the world has ever seen – a club classic sung in semi-irony across English football, but especially impressive to behold within 75 minutes of a team’s competitive existence, following a second goal, from Logan Rogerson. A cluster of other bespoke songs can be chalked up as work in progress, but still it was more choral than three All Black tests put together.
Just about every part of the Auckland FC experienced on Saturday night was a triumph, all the way down to the giant slide on the embankment that kept younger fans happy in a palpably family-friendly affair. But it was still more than the sum of those parts. There was a sense of something special happening. Something important for Auckland, in being ready to play home to a proper professional football club. And something important for New Zealand football: the third of three milestone acts across 15 months. The first: July 2023, when an Eden Park full house of 42,137 cheered the Football Ferns to victory in the opening game of the World Cup. The second: May of this year, when 33,297 packed out Sky Stadium for a Phoenix semi-final. And the third: 24,492 new devotees filling Go Media Stadium on a perfect early Saturday evening.
As a born and bred Wellingtonian resident in Auckland only briefly (the last 14 years), the thought of supporting an Auckland side is spine-freezing anathema. I can cheer for the Warriors or the Breakers, sure, because there’s no Wellington equivalent. To back the Blues or the Aces, or whatever they’re called? Disgusting.
And yet here we are. I’ve been a fairweather Phoenix fan over the years, attending and enjoying very much half a dozen games in Wellington and Auckland. I like them a lot. And yet, perhaps because they were founded while I was living overseas, it’s never been love. And now, having kool-aided up on a crisp blue Saturday evening – and in saying this I know I invite, no, deserve loathing, that it might even end friendships – I think I may be ready to love Auckland FC.
I’ll be back on Sunday for the second game, a real test against Sydney FC, and I’ll be cheering. My heart remains yellow and black, but maybe there is a corner carved out in blue.