27-04-2025
Scotty Stevenson: Auckland FC delivers success on a plate
Chalk up win 15 for the season, roll out the confetti canons, and cue the Tamaki Makaurau rain gods.
On a dreary Auckland Sabbath under skies the colour of factory overalls, the boys in black and blue, soaking wet and chilled to the bone, got their day in the sun. So many years of trying for that mob down the road, and now they — the Phoenix, the poster boys for New Zealand professional football for 17 years — sit back and watch these brazen blokes take the glory, literally, and metaphorically.
What's not love about this team and this season? Mount Smart Stadium already had the most connected club in the country calling it home, and now it appears to have the second most, too.
Apologies to football fans, but you'll have to keep turning up to knock the Wahs' faithful from their perch atop the pantheon of passionate members. Still, in they have poured for the novelty of it, then for the experience, then for the thrill of it all, and now for the shot at a title. It is now categorically clear that the most reliable form of public transport in Auckland is a bandwagon.
Think about it. The Auckland Knights failed to even function back when they had first crack at the chance to play in Australia, yet here we are 18 years later and in true kiwi fashion it appears adding 'Black' to the name makes everything at least 78% better. Maybe it's more than that, considering this team has lost just two games from the 25 they have played in this, their maiden season.
There's the right blend of everything here. There are the billionaire owners attracting an entourage of influencers in the same way manta rays attract remora, the impeccably tailored coach with his own successful playing history and a head crowned by a gravity defying coiffure of pure silver, the players plucked from the nation's lower leagues or from the far-flung corners of the globe or, in the case of Alex Paulsen, from Wellington via Bournemouth. They have come together triumphantly, a celebration of collective will and a vision to give New Zealand's biggest city a taste of the world's biggest game.
There's a tinge of Lassoian destiny about this team, minus Jason Sudekis' moustache and a sub-plot of distance as a mechanism for overcoming relationship grief, but that just adds to the sparkle, which is exactly what the Premier's Plate did when it was held aloft by captain Hiroki Sakai. The fans sung in the stands and wiping the tears and the rain away, holding aloft their scarves and banners while the Port bounced up and down at the southern end waiting for the team to come and dance along with them. There was no need for the ferris wheel on this day, or the man-made beach. The team was the star attraction, the premier's plate winning team. Auckland FC. The Black Knights.
The team gave us Nando Pijnaker and Francis De Vries; Louis Verstraete and Jake Brimmer; Felipe Gallegos and Guillermo May; Marlee Francois and Neyder Mareno. There must be six languages between them but no matter the native tongue, winning is a universal language and one this team seemed to understand from the opening game. Aucklanders love a winner, and these guys are on to one. You can't keep the merch on the shelf. Everywhere you look some kid's parading about in the blue and black stripes. Aspiration meets affirmation, a heady dopamine hit if ever there was one.
Now the question must be asked: Can this team take it all the way. If you ask coach Steve Corica he'll say absolutely. But he knows there is still all to play for here. They travel away to Western United for one last regular season game this week before advancing straight to the semifinals and two bites at that home and away cherry. They are the only team with their ranking fully in place. If you look at the schedule they are already there, already playing semifinal football. It's enough to make the yellow fever green with envy.
And we will be watching, swept up in the mania of it all. Just as we were when the Breakers broke New Zealand's trans-Tasman duck, and when the Warriors tried. We'll be watching, marvelling at how this team could go from non-existent to damn near unbeatable in the space of a single season. If this is a taste of what's to come, then don't be afraid to fill your plate.
