{"id":425702,"date":"2026-05-13T14:13:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T14:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/425702\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T14:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T14:13:21","slug":"the-five-minutes-auckland-fc-cannot-forget-ahead-of-semifinal-showdown-in-adelaide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/425702\/","title":{"rendered":"The five minutes Auckland FC cannot forget ahead of semifinal showdown in Adelaide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sam<\/p>\n

\nSam Cosgrove of Auckland FC, right, heads the ball against Adelaide United.
\nPhoto: www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

Auckland FC have played more than 2550 minutes of football so far this A-League season, but a moment’s inattention could be what they remember the most.<\/p>\n

Last season a period of five minutes in a semifinal ended their season.<\/p>\n

Before Friday’s second semifinal against Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium<\/a>, coach Steve Corica will make sure to bring up that period of play that cost the team a maiden grand final appearance.<\/p>\n

He wants the players to “feel the hurt”.<\/p>\n

But the players have not forgotten. A year on, as the finals series has played out over the last fortnight a few of them referred to it in public, more will have thought about it privately.<\/p>\n

“We know how bad it is to lose a semifinal<\/a>,” Corica said.<\/p>\n

“Last season, the only thing we did wrong is we conceded two goals in five minutes. We can’t afford to do that. Can’t afford to concede at all.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to try and keep a clean sheet. I think we’ll do our best to do that, but I think we have enough goals in us to win the game.”<\/p>\n

Auckland and Adelaide are level at 1-1<\/a> after the first semifinal in Auckland on Saturday.<\/p>\n

A win on Friday sets up a grand final against either Newcastle Jets or Sydney FC who are also locked at 1-1 after the first leg of the home and away semifinal.<\/p>\n

Coaching vernacular<\/p>\n

‘Moments’ is popular coaching vernacular.<\/p>\n

Corica has spent the finals series mentioning moments of “switching off” – something he wanted players to avoid.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Brisbane Roar women’s coach Alex Smith mentioned “two moments, lapses of concentration” that saw the Roar lose their semifinal<\/a> to Wellington Phoenix on Sunday and miss out on a grand final.<\/p>\n

\"Hiroki<\/p>\n

\nHiroki Sakai of Auckland FC and Anselmo de Moraes of Adelaide United compete for the ball.
\nPhoto: www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

Corica believed his team were “definitely focused” in the first semifinal.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s just little details. We switched off for a minute, Hiroki [Sakai] got beat by [Yaya] Dakuly on the left-hand side, great ball across the face, we couldn’t deal with it.<\/p>\n

“It’s just trying to maintain focus, don’t lose what we’ve been [doing to be] disciplined defensively.<\/p>\n

“[It’s] just trying to limit their opportunities because they’re a good team. They score a lot of goals. They also concede, so our job is to score more than them.”<\/p>\n

Straight after the game on Saturday, which was likely their last home game of the season unless Sydney beat Newcastle, Corica admitted the players “lost maybe a little bit of concentration” when two Auckland players went down with injures that required them to leave the field within the first 10 minutes of the second half.<\/p>\n

“It’s just the way it is sometimes with football, you’ve got to deal with these moments in games.”<\/p>\n

\"Guillermo<\/p>\n

\nGuillermo May and Jake Brimmer will not play in second semifinal.
\nPhoto: Andrew Cornaga\/www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

Auckland will be without Guillermo May who injured tendons in his ankle in the first semifinal and Felipe Gallegos and Jake Brimmer will also miss the must-win match at a sold-out Coopers Stadium.<\/p>\n

In 90 minutes there will be many moments that could turn the game in Auckland’s favour on Friday. But history suggests it will take extra time, if not penalties<\/a>, to separate the two teams who have had four draws in the five matches they have played in the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

The match kicks off at 9.35pm (NZ time).<\/p>\n

Follow updates on RNZ’s blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Cosgrove of Auckland FC, right, heads the ball against Adelaide United. Photo: www.photosport.nz Auckland FC have played…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-425702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}