Soccer: City under no illusions about Mexican magic

Still on a high after the win over Dubai-based Al Ahli in their first outing of the sixth Fifa Club World Cup, the Auckland City players face a far greater challenge in tomorrow morning's quarter-final against Concacaf champions Atlante FC.

While the odds against a City win are huge, not everything is in the Mexicans' favour.

They have not played in the month since their league ended with results for the Cancun-based club hardly flattering.

In the 17-game Mexican Primera they finished ninth (mid-table) with a seven-win, two-draw, eight-loss record and had a goal difference of 18 for 23 against.

In winning through as champions in North and Central America, Atlante won six, drew four and lost two matches (scoring 16 goals and conceding seven). Their two losses were against Joe Public (Trinidad and Tobago) in the group phase and Santos Laguna (Mexico) in one leg of the semifinals.

They beat another Mexican club Cruz Azul 2-0 on aggregate in the final.

As ever, Auckland City assistant coach Ramon Tribulietx has done his homework. Purely by chance he recorded a match played by the Mexicans against Malaga in July.

That was one of two tapes he and other members of the coaching staff have already analysed. Tapes from two more recent games were due at the hotel yesterday and by kick-off Tribulietx is confident he will have a good idea of what to expect from Atlante - a club founded in 1916 and which has been crowned Mexican champions three times.

"Their style of play is very Spanish," said Tribulietx who, when he is not in Auckland, lives in Barcelona. "In many ways they will want to play much the same as Al Ahli did on Wednesday night, only they have much better players.

"Individually they will be better on the ball and will keep to their usual short-passing game.

"They will want to deny us of as much of the possession as they can. They don't play or receive the long ball particularly well. In receiving they tend to drop very deep. Often their goalkeeper plays as an extra defender which sees them switch from their accustomed 4-3-3 formation to virtually 4-4-3."

City coach Paul Posa is under no illusions of the enormity of the task facing his players.

"Away from the obvious tournament favourites Barcelona, I see them vying with Argentina's Estudiantes as the second-best team here," said Posa.

"In the end, I see Barcelona, who are right in the middle of their season, being stronger than Atlante, who have not played for a month."

Agreeing with Tribulietx that the Mexicans pose a greater challenge than Al Ahli, Posa said they will come up with a game plan they feel will give them at least a battling chance.

FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP

* Auckland City v Atlante FC (Mexico)
* Zayed Sports City, Abu Dhabi
* Tomorrow 5am (NZ time) live SS3
* Referee: Coffi Codjia (Benin)
* Auckland City (likely): Jacob Spoonley, Chad Coombes, Ivan Vicelich (C), Greg Uhlmann, Ian Hogg, Ki-Hyung Lee, Adam McGeorge, Matt Williams, Jason Hayne, Daniel Koprivcic, Adam Dickenson.