A group of loyal supporters are traveling from city to city to cheer on their semi-pro team – and don't care about the results
Some of them traveled for 35 hours. That’s how long it takes to get from Sandringham, New Zealand – a suburb just outside Auckland with a population of 12,000 – to Cincinnati, Ohio. There were all sorts of different routes. Some of them stopped in Sydney and then went through Dallas. Others had layovers elsewhere. No, there are no direct flights.
But they convened all the same, a group of just under 30 fans and parents, all supporting Auckland City FC – bleary-eyed and tired-legged – in the 2025 Club World Cup.
You’ve probably heard of this club by this point, even if you never had before. For some, they are the measuring stick of why this competition is imperfect. After all, they shipped 10 goals to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich in last weekend’s CWC opener. They are a semi-pro team, who legally cannot make more than around $90 per week for travel expenses.
But the players and fans themselves don’t care. They know they probably won’t win a game. It’s not a guarantee that they will even find the back of the net. Instead, this is a story of intolerably long plane journeys and personal sacrifice to either play or watch football – even if that means spending thousands of dollars to come out on the wrong end of a scoreline.
“Because it's such a big event, and it may be the only one we ever get to go to, a lot of people spent a lot of money and sacrificed to actually get here and make it happen,” Blair Shaw, an avid Auckland City fan, told GOAL.
Getty'We are that supreme underdog'
The narrative around Auckland City seems easy to construct. They are, by some distance, the smallest club at the CWC. The team was founded in 2004 and their home stadium, Kiwitea Street, has a capacity of just 3,500 – it was a public park until the early 1980s. Opta’s power rankings the team as the 5,074th-best team in the world.
Their route to qualifying, too, has been criticized in some quarters. They qualified due to their recent success in the Oceania Champions League, in which they have beaten teams from Fiji, Tahiti, and Papa New Guinea.
“We kind of relish that,” Shaw said. “We know what we are. We are that supreme underdog. And we've been trying to explain it to a lot of Americans that we've met along the way.”
But they aren't exactly strangers to this stage. Auckland City have played in the CWC 12 times over the years – and even won a handful of games. They have beaten two African teams, two Asian teams, and pushed Mexican giants Cruz Azul all the way to penalties in 2014.
“I went to the seven-team format for the first time to watch Auckland City, and they were completely out of their depth,” Dennis Katsanos, unofficial club photographer, said. “By 2014, they finished third. This format is just another step up.”
Shaw and others have routinely traveled to the tournament, following the team as far as Morocco and Saudi Arabia.
“Usually the Club World Cup for us is “Go up for a week. If you win the first game, you get to stay, otherwise you go home,’ ” Shaw said. “It's quite hard to organize a large group. Plenty of individual people have done it through the club, but this is the first time we've actually had a proper organized tour where people paid their money.”
AdvertisementGetty Images Sport'Sharing the field with these types of players is crazy for us'
This summer, of course, is different. The CWC has been expanded from seven teams to 32. The United States is an arduously long journey away from their native New Zealand – and also involves significant travel even after arriving in the U.S.
But perhaps more importantly, the matchups are far trickier. Auckland City picked up effectively the most difficult draw possible, with Bayern Munich, Benfica, and Boca Juniors all in their group. Some would be intimidated. Auckland were delighted.
“When we got drawn against Bayern, Benfica, and Boca, it was unreal,” left back Nathan Lobo said. “Everyone was so happy. Of course, we knew that it was going to be a big challenge, but to even be sharing the field with these types of players is crazy for us. It’s a dream come true.”
That may be hard to comprehend, especially given losses – big losses – were all but inevitable. But Lobo stressed that they are a semi-pro team. And for some of them, they were playing with their heroes. Goalkeeper Conor Tracey – full-time job, pharmaceutical warehouse worker – is one such example. He had grown up idolizing Bayern’s Manuel Neuer.
After the game, he got to meet the legendary German goalkeeper and had a lengthy chat with Bayern’s goalkeeping coach. It didn't matter that he allowed 10 goals, he wanted to soak in every minute, learn from the world's best. And, it’s those micro experiences that the team will hold onto.
Getty Images Sport'It's my definition of the good of the game'
And what a strange team this is. They have generated plenty of social media buzz for the fact that most of them have full-time jobs. One of the players is a regional manager for a tool company. Another is a sales representative.
They have a number of university students in their squad. Jeremy Foo is on a pre-med track and had to miss multiple training sessions in order to take virtual exams. Lobo just graduated with a degree in food and science nutrition. He is supposed to be preparing for a master's degree and ultimately training to become a dietitian.
But when he told the university that he had to spend time away to play in the Oceania Champions League, first, and then the Club World Cup, they determined that he simply couldn’t squeeze in the number of in-person hours required for his training.
“We decided that I wasn't really going to meet the placement hours needed, because we have to do some ridiculous amount of hours in the hospital for placement. So yeah, we decided that I would have to give it up this year,” Lobo explained.
In the meantime, he’s got a “work-around” plan. He’s not unique in that respect. While most of the club are – yes, we know – employed full-time in professions other than soccer, plenty of them take time to volunteer.
Some coach soccer at a local school, Mount Roskill Intermediate. It's not in a poor area, but the kids there are hardly well off. Students have the option to use one of their class periods to kick a ball around with the local team. Players take time out of their own day to do it for free.
“It kind of keeps them out of trouble at school,” Lobo said. “They get to come out of their class and play football and engage with each other, and play sports. And I think through sports that they're able to kind of get rid of any negative emotions and just kind of play freely.”
Few of them are natural footballers, Lobo said. Yes, there is soccer involved, but oftentimes, they play modified versions of kickball or other games.
“It's my definition of the good of the game, how this club wanted to raise the standard but also give back to the community, so other clubs and other, you know, other entities could be as good,” Katsanos said.
Dennis Katsanos'Professional standards need to be upheld'
Shaw admittedly didn’t enjoy the first 20 minutes of the Bayern loss. The lineups came out, and the Bavarians went full strength, starting much of the same side that won the Bundesliga last season. And they played like it, too. They needed six minutes to break the deadlock. By the 20th, they were up 4-0.
But for Shaw, the spectacle was enough.
“Watching those Bayern players up close and how good, how strong, how fast they are… it was just such a great day,” he said. “Even though the score was painful, we’re going to have these memories of what our boys did.”
Bayern, for their part, made sure that they weren’t giving up. Vincent Kompany screamed at his side for 90 minutes. Harry Kane went scoreless (something the team remain immensely proud of). He was hooked, and replaced by Jamal Musiala – who swiftly scored a hat-trick in 17 minutes. After the game, Michael Olise was asked if he felt sorry for Auckland. His response: “No.”
To Auckland, that was a compliment.
“'It’s a professional tournament, and professional standards need to be upheld,” Lobo said. “And I feel like that's just a sign of respect. Of course, it doesn't sound nice, and maybe the way and tone he said it in. But yeah, it's just a sign of respect.”
The fans, more broadly, simply appreciated the effort. Shaw lauded the fact that “the boys never stopped running” and remarked on their professionalism throughout. These are, admittedly, small victories, but it’s all a matter of perspective. These are moments that will last.