Soccer: City embraces the Spanish flavour

Angel Berlanga (left) coach Ramon Tribulietx and Manel Exposito. Photo / Sarah Ivey

It's not all tapas and sangria - certainly not at Croatian-based Auckland City where red wine is the tipple of choice and steak sandwiches the favoured fare - but there is no denying the Spanish influence is growing at Kiwitea St.

Co-coach Ramon Tribulietx makes no excuses for the Spanish way which City president Ivan Vuksich sees as the future for the club.

After all, Tribulietx has his roots deep in Spanish soil having played and coached at Barcelona. He has recently been joined at Kiwitea St by another "Barca" product, attacker Manel Exposito, 29, who made his debut for the club's first team alongside footballer of year Lionel Messi, also on debut, for a friendly against Porto.

A broken foot curtailed Exposito's career at the Nou Camp, but he still played for the Barcelona reserves and a handful more friendlies for the first team.

They are joined at Auckland City by a "foreigner" from Madrid, defender Angel Berlanga, to ensure there is no shortage of Spanish spoken in and outside the "hut".

Vuksich admits the transition to the Spanish way has not been easy, but he and his club's supporters are happy their patience is being rewarded.

Tribulietx says there is a difference from what many perceive as the "New Zealand way" to what he is trying to instil in his players. "We are trying to develop a possession-based style of football," said Tribulietx, 38. "But not just for the sake of holding on to the ball. It is about being patient and looking after the ball and from there taking control of the game.

"When I first arrived at Auckland City, I worked with Colin Tuaa. He was trying to develop a similar possession-based style, but it was not easy getting the players to switch from what had been the traditional game of sitting deep and playing a counter-attacking style like we see Waitakere United doing.

"I'm not knocking what other coaches do and it is more risky doing it our way as it takes a long time to get the players to adopt and adapt," said Tribulietx. "When you get good at it, you can have other options. The old style, the traditional British way, is very one dimensional, but that is not to say it can't be successful."

Tribulietx said he has been helped in making the radical changes by having coaches happy to work in with him and having a number of young players coming into the squad.

"We have had a lot of older players retire or leave and replaced them with many young players who are open to new ideas. That helps me and Aaron [co-coach Aaron McFarland] make the changes."

After working with Tuaa briefly, Tribulietx became Paul Posa's right-hand man and took a greater role in preparing the team and using his technical/tactical skills to help guide the team to their success at the 2009 Fifa Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi.

It worked very much in the same way John Adshead and Kevin Fallon ran the 1982 World Cup campaign with Fallon taking much of the tactical responsibility.

"I don't know about that," said Tribulietx, "but Aaron and I work well together. At training we have a lot of small-sided games with the emphasis on touch and ball speed. The test then is to translate those skills into a match situation.

"When a player like Manel comes in, it is not a problem for him as he understands what we are doing and trying to achieve. Before he came I told him what style we were looking to play. He was happy with that.

"Angel was playing a slightly different style but he too has adapted well. He has proved good for us after we lost central defenders Riki van Steeden and Greg Uhlmann."