Top of the table at Christmas, no place Auckland FC would rather be

Auckland FC experienced high and lows in A-League football in 2025, but the lows can be put into perspective with the silverware, the records and the continued success.

The year began partway through the 2024/25 season with a goalless draw on 1 January against the team, Melbourne Victory, that would eventually end Auckland's inaugural season a game short of the Grand Final.

But lifting the Premiers' Plate in April, as the first New Zealand side to achieve the feat, and ending the calendar year in a new season and still at the top of the competition meant Auckland FC fans, players and staff could look back on the year fondly.

Days out from the new year coach Steve Corica summed 2025 up as "amazing", but also had an eye on what lay ahead.

"We want to continue next year the same way we started this year.

"Three [wins] in a row is great, being top of the table at Christmas is nice as well.

"Especially this time of year we just want to keep building from what we've started. We've had a great start and I think there's still improvement in this team to go, you can see the improvement over the last few games as well we're scoring some really good goals, we kept a clean sheet which was positive on the weekend against the Wanderers strikeforce which is really strong so we're happy with where we are at the moment."

The last challenge of the year will be against second-placed Sydney FC, who sit just two points behind Auckland on the A-League ladder, and have not lost at home this season.

Home and abroad for the holidays

Jake Girdwood-Reich did not expect to be home for Christmas.

The centre-back has played every minute of his first season with Auckland FC and a quirk in the rejigged A-League draw means he will play in front of family and friends in his hometown on Saturday.

The Australian former age-group representative began 2025 rehabilitating an ankle injury and then struggling for game time with Major League Soccer side St Louis City.

A chance to link up with his former coach Corica on loan from St Louis City was too good to turn down for the 21-year-old, and it means he ends the year in a very different place than where he started it - both geographically and football-wise.

Such is Girdwood-Reich's form and consistency for Auckland, there is suggestions Socceroos coach, Tony Popovic, should be taking notice of the former Sydney FC player.

Girdwood-Reich played 45 times for Sydney before he sought challenges abroad. Saturday will be the first time he has played against the Sky Blues.

"I started there pretty young, when I was 12, went through the whole system so it is going to feel a little bit weird for me but I'm definitely excited for it.

"We need to continue [our] form into that game, obviously I know what Sydney's like the home crowd's good, we're going to be under the pump sometimes, but I'd say we're good away from home so we're going there [and want] nothing but three points."

Auckland's first game against Sydney this season will be played at the smaller Leichhardt Oval, rather than Allianz Stadium where Girdwood-Reich had run out many times.

"I've watched a couple of their games, it actually looks quite good... I think the Leichhardt move is actually good, it looks like a lot of the fans are enjoying it closer to the field and it looks full."

Auckland's leading goal-scorer Sam Cosgrove is still adjusting to Christmas downunder.

The Englishman is familiar with a packed playing schedule at this time of the year but he said the Christmas spirit is a bit different in Auckland than Manchester.

Last Christmas Cosgrove was playing for Barnsley against Bolton in League One on 26 December. This year he will take his fifth international flight in 15 days and be staying in a hotel in Sydney where temperatures are forecast to be in the low 20s.

"You guys don't do Christmas quite as heavily over here as we do back home, there's not as many Christmas trees and Santa hats knocking about."

The regular flights to Sydney this month, though airports that were heaving for the holidays, "took a toll" on the players.

"Travelling back and forth it's not just the three hours to Sydney it's the two hours beforehand and the two hours after, it's tough but its part and parcel of what we do and the boys did it all last season last year and still managed to finish top of the table so there's no excuses for us."

Cosgrove was thankful the Auckland staff made the trips as seamless as they could for the players as they chase more away wins.

"A few of the results went our way this weekend so we do find ourselves top going into this Christmas period, but there's no complacency within the squad, within the club, we want to make sure we're solidifying our place at the top of the table and that includes getting a good result this weekend and over the Christmas and festive period in general."

Cosgrove had not completed his Christmas shopping on Monday.

"I'm absolutely useless, luckily I can probably try and use the excuse that I'm on the other side of the world this year so I'll be using that one for sure."

Corica was aware that there would be plenty going on in his players' lives at this time of the year and that they would be celebrating the festive season differently.

Some players, including the South Americans, would be celebrating on 24 December a day before the team flew out.

"This is a period that you can get distracted, we don't want to take away Christmas we want them to have fun with their families and all that kind of stuff, some of them have kids and I don't want to be the grinch but it is a time to stay focused because we do have a lot of games early January and this is a time that if you stay focused then you pick up a lot of points on the road at this stage and you can move away from teams, and if we're not focused you've got a chance of losing games and we don't want that."

The schedule has worked in Corica's favour and he would spend Christmas at his family home in Sydney - including a family lunch for 20 people.

But he will not let his mind wander too far from the task against the club he played for and coached before he arrived in New Zealand.

"It's constant thinking about football, that's what my wife tells me as well."

Once lunch was over Corica would shift to the team hotel.

"There's no different rules for me I want to be there when the players get there, that's the way we do it here."

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.