Auckland FC coach Steve Corica feeling ‘strange’ ahead of battle with his former club Sydney FC

Former Sydney FC coach Steve Corica is plotting the downfall of the Sky Blues as his Auckland FC team chases back-to-back A-League wins.

Exhausted after 18 successive years at Sydney FC, a “rejuvenated” Steve Corica will have no qualms with showing the travel-weary Sky Blues no mercy on Sunday in his role as coach of the A-League’s newest outfit, Auckland FC.

A Sky Blues hall-of-famer, title-winning mentor Corica was shown the door by Sydney officials in November last year – less than a month after the club’s Australia Cup triumph – following three consecutive losses to start the A-league season.

”I was getting tired at Sydney – it does take its toll,” admitted the 51-year-old former Socceroos star, who joined the Sky Blues as a player in 2005 ahead of the club’s foundation season and stayed there after he hung up his boots in 2010 in a variety of coaching roles, including the top job from 2018 until his exit 11 months ago.

“I was never going to be able to stay at Sydney forever, and I didn’t want to anyway.

“I always had ambitions to go overseas. Things happen for a reason for me, and the chance to coach Auckland was the reason.

“I probably wouldn’t have had this job if I stayed the whole of last season with Sydney. It’s just worked out the way it has. I feel refreshed and rejuvenated.”

Corica admitted the thought of taking on his former club was “strange”, but said he was determined to not only win on Sunday but also ensure that Auckland beat Wellington Phoenix in the race to become the first New Zealand based-team to clinch the A-League championship.

“That’s our plan,” he said.

This weekends game is going to be MASSIVE.

Bring the noise, make the difference, be the 12th man.

See you on Sunday afternoon 🏟️ pic.twitter.com/7JYPCoNTPQ

— Auckland FC (@fc_auckland) October 24, 2024

BILLIONAIRE BILL

Driving the plan financially is Auckland’s billionaire majority owner, 79-year-old American tycoon Bill Foley, who has a net worth $US2.1 billion ($A3.17 billion), according to Forbes.

Foley also owns English Premier League club Bournemouth and American ice-hockey franchise Vegas Golden Knights, as well as a host of businesses across the ditch.

“Bill loves New Zealand,” Corica said.

“He just wants to give opportunities to New Zealand kids to do well and to head off overseas, but he also wants to win.

“He’s very ambitious. In everything that he does he’s a winner. He didn’t get to where he is now by not having ambitions like that.

“It was a good fit for me.”

SUITABLE STEVE

Corica was also a “good fit” for Auckland, not only because he has won A-League titles as a coach and a player, but also due to him having been part of Sydney FC’s birth along with the new club’s football director, Terry McFlynn

“When we were at Sydney as a start-up club, we were training all over the place, and we didn’t have any real main residence,” Corica said.

“We definitely knew what was needed here. We know from a players’ point of view what they expect, but also I’ve been around as a coach, and he (McFlynn) has been a football director for years now, so we know what we need to provide to the players as well.

“That was our job first-up, to make sure we had everything we could for the players, and the right environment for them.

“A lot of players we got from the national league in New Zealand, and they had never been professional players. They need to learn how to become a professional.”

SUPER START

Months of hard work in preparing the players for the A-League paid off last Saturday with a debut 2-0 win over Brisbane Roar in front of almost 25,000 fans at Go Media Stadium.

“It was an amazing build-up,” Corica said,

“It was a great start, defensively especially.”

And now Corica is intent on securing back-to-back home wins by beating a Sky Blues outfit who arrived in Auckland on Friday from Japan, where they lost 2-1 on Wednesday night to Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the AFC Champions League Two competition.

“We know what we think is their weakness, so we will try to exploit that … and they’re definitely going to be tired because it’s a long trip from Japan,” he said.

“They’re a good team, and they’ve always been a good team. Every season that I was there I wanted to win the league, so they’ll be no different now, but we want also to win the league.

“We want to surprise people.”

Originally published as Auckland FC coach Steve Corica feeling ‘strange’ ahead of battle with his former club Sydney FC