Football: Auckland at full strength for O-League

Ryan de Vries of Auckland City FC shoves Wellington Phoenix Reserves player Matthewl Ridenton (right) as they play in round 9 of the ASB Premiership football competition. Photo / Nick Reed.

Auckland City FC coach Ramon Tribulietx has named a full strength squad for their OFC Champions League title defence in Fiji.

Auckland, who last week won the ASB Premiership grand final by beating Hawkes Bay 2-1, will face Amicale, Suva and Western United in the group stages, who have all bolstered their ranks, recruiting players from across Europe.

Amicale, the most active, have brought in former Serie A veteran Nicola Princivalli, formerly of Salernitana.

Tribulietx believes that means every match is a vital one.

"I think these new signings make our opponents better and more experienced and the format of the OFC Champions League means there will be a lot of pressure in every game.

"The competition is tougher now but we will take this campaign game by game just as we normally do. We'll look to learn most things about our rivals and make sure we're prepared well for every match," Tribulietx said.

There are familiar faces in the Navy Blues line-up that give Tribulietx confidence.

The experienced Ivan Vicelich, defenders Angel Berlanga, Takuya Iwata, Marko Dordevich and the ever dependable Mario Bilen, now in his fourth season with the club, are all important selections.

"I'm not sure where this squad ranks against our previous ones. But we've always puts together good squads at this club.

"We have different personnel than in previous years and it is a competitive squad with a variety of options in all lines.

"We are just hoping to switch up our game to what's required in Oceania and be competitive," Tribulietx said.

Also included are a raft of players with All Whites or New Zealand age group international experience with Ryan De Vries and Sam Burfoot influential figures.

Goalkeepers Tamati Williams and Jacob Spoonley are joined by recent signing Danyon Drake, while three former age group internationals Ant Hobbs, Colin Murphy and Michael Den Heijer add youth to the defence and midfield.

The Auckland attacking will be led by strikers Joao Moreira, David Browne, Oscar Garcia, De Vries and Gustavo Souto - who returns for his second spell with City.

"Gustavo has been playing regularly in the third division in Spain and was a very important player at the club he's just come from.

"He's a very good signing for us and has past experience of the OFC Champions League so when the chance arose for him to come back to us, Gustavo was very positive about the opportunity," he said.

The depth and quality of the squad is bolstered by free-kick expert Ivan Carril, former Wellington Phoenix player Cam Lindsay and OFC Champions League veterans Darren White, Andrew Milne, Adam McGeorge and Daewook Kim.

One player who misses out on the trip is Nigerian forward Sanni Issa.

Issa, who made a definitive impact in two penalty shoot-outs in two memorable Club World Cup penalty shoot-out wins over Moghreb Tetouan and Cruz Azul in December, stays in New Zealand.

"It is a very sad situation for Sanni as I believe he would have been very good up in Fiji where he used to play for Ba.

"Its an environment where Sanni's best game emerges and he would have been in his element," Tribulietx said.

Defender John Irving is unavailable and he prepares to undergo shoulder surgery.

The team departs New Zealand on tomorrow at 12.55pm, setting up camp in Nadi ahead of the team's first match against co-host club Suva at ANZ Stadium on Saturday.

The winner of each of the three groups advances to the semi-finals with the final position in the last four filled by the group runner-up with the best record.

Both semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday 21 April with the winner takes all final taking place five days later.