Mario Ilich: Auckland City FC Captain ahead of the National League final clash against Wellington Olympic

After a long season, we’ve finally reached the business end of the National League. 

Auckland City FC and Wellington Olympic are set to clash this afternoon in the finals in Wellington, in what promises to be an exciting game.  

Mario Ilich is the captain of Auckland City, and he joined D'Arcy to preview the match. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk S'B.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Things going with the National League Football Final. This is
a really big afternoon for all concerned. And when you're
take into account the amount of mockey that's been put
in by Auckland CITYFC this year, this is astonishing. Newton Park, Wellington.
It's at six o'clock tonight. Mario Elich is the captain

(00:35):
of Auckland City and he joins us now to.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Talk about the game. Here we go. Good morning, Mario,
it going good eight.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Last time we spoke, if I'm not wrong, that was
a few weeks ago, your team had to win three
consecutive matches to qualify for the final.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
What happened over the last three weeks Mario, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Well, basically we did exactly that. A few results had
to go away as well early on and that sort
of happened quite quickly, and then it came down to
the last game where we needed a and after we
beat Western Springs the week before and then we needed
one win to make the final and which we did
last week against Coasta Spurit winning three and Nels who
book us on in the Grand Final. This afternoon. So yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
All about controlling the controllables. He can do nothing about
those other results. You just have to excuse the football team.
I think it just pressed forward and hope for the best, right, Yeah,
that's right.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
You know we've been a little bit inconsistent in domestic
football this year and yeah, kind of sort of came
down to it. This is our last three three games
of the season, and we wanted to go out on
a high, you know. So he had all worked out
and the rubber of the green went ot well, I
guess you could say, and yeah, here we are in
another Grand final against our good old mates.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
You can't call the opposition old mates either, sworn enemy
and then from Wellington too.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Come on, Mario and the Greeks.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Trouble at Mel. Shots fired out on the radio station. Hey,
look last week in that game, it was a slow
enough starm for you. They give me am I right here.
I couldn't score in the first but then you started
the ball rolling in the second half. You'd be pretty
proud proud about that.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah. To be fair to our goalkeeper Nathan gar he
made a few top saves coast to spread. Actually probably
had the better half in the first half against US,
and then yeah, sort of a game or two half
to be honest. We came out seeing half back down
into the clubrooms with the win behind us, and yeah,
scored off off all all three goals off set pieces,
So yeah, it probably wasn't the prettiest of games, but

(02:37):
yeah that we literally needed three points, so it didn't
matter what it would look like as long as we
got it done. And yeah, we got it done. So
here we are again in another final.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
I think that victory is pretty.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
It doesn't matter how it comes, right, it has to
be it's all you care about. Now one's going to
look back at that game and go, oh, crappy football.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
Yeah exactly, And that's exactly what's going to be the
same with the game tonight. So it's not about how
pretty you're playing. It was the last game, and you know,
it's just about who's lifting the title and who's picking
up the silver medal, and I think I know which
one I'd prefer to to do. So hopefully we can yeah,
put in a half decent performance and hopefully that puts
US in good sets to defending our National league title.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
The history here is fantastic it's fascinating so awkwardly of see,
you took the title about twenty twenty two, high scoring
game there and Lempick picked it up in twenty twenty three,
held you guys to zip.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Now you've got the third one.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
So this is a This is a wonderful rivalry, isn't
It's almost exactly what the national league needs.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yeah, that's right. We have, like you said, had a
few very good encounters over the years, you know. And
also it's the Mediterranean Cup on the line as well,
so that's up for grads every time we play them,
so that's again our trophy to lose tonight. So yeah,
it's a double whemmy as you say. So, yeah, really
looking forward to the challenge. You know, it's been a long,
hard for year for everyone involved at the club. You know,

(04:04):
we've I don't think any your team in New Zella
and Oceana level even kind of experienced what we've experienced
this year. And yet to finish it off winning and
backing up our national league title would be an amazing
way to end the historic.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Here Mediterranean Cup. Expand on that please marry you.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
So that's the Greek versus the Croats basically. So yeah,
we I think they started when we first sort of
played them a couple of times and now it's ongoing
extra trophy, extra silverware on the line for when we
play each other.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Is there played in good friendly spirit or is there
a bit of a nigga out there?

Speaker 4 (04:41):
It's always it's always good for friendly spirit. But like
in the football game, there's always some jibajie, as you
can imagine. But yeah, I'm sure there's going to be
some of that tonight high stakes games. So yeah, but
we're all good good fellas off the pitch and obviously
played with you those boys back in the day and
down in Team Wellington and stuff like that, so yeah,
we we know each other pretty well. But yeah, I'm

(05:02):
sure tonight's there won't be be any friends once that
first match whistle blows.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
What about momentum? Do you believe in that? Because it
suggest you guys have got it right. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
I think momentum is a big thing in football, you know,
it's it's sort of a confidence builder, you know, like
you get a few good results and trade the vibe
training is good, You're feeling good lead into the game,
you know. So yeah, I think in that sense, But
I mean, these these finals are one off game, you know,
so honestly, anything can happen. So yes, we probably take
a bit of confidence going into the game, like we're

(05:36):
in a good rn of form and we've been kind
of do what we've been doing the last few weeks
and we'll be all right. But youah, like I said,
it's grand final. Most of these grand finals are normally
done on mistakes or something like this, you know, So yeah,
hopefully we can keep our mistakes to our areas to
a very small margin, and then any any chance we
get on goal, we take it. And yeah, happy days.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
And on Matt Mario, what's you the best of? Like mate,
go well, thanks for your time.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
Cheers mate legend.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with Darcy Waltergrave,
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