Head coach Ramon Tribulietx began as an assistant coach at the club before building up to the top job and now, while he has his eye on that elusive victory at home in the premiership, Tribulietx is also hoping to lead his team on a successful campaign at the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2012 in December.
oceaniafootball.com spoke to the Barcelona native about how he is juggling the preparations for Japan, what the team’s chances are and how they might be affected by the introduction of goal-line technology.
You’ve completed your first season as sole head coach, what lessons have you learnt?
Well, you’ve got more responsibility is basically the story there. Coming from being an assistant coach at the beginning and then sort of sharing the elite with another person and then having to take everything on board by myself has made me realise that the responsibility is bigger, it is higher and I have to be better prepared. That’s what I’m aiming for – to be better prepared than ever.
Was it a big jump going from an assistant coach to having a co-coach then to sole charge, or because it was gradual was it easier?
Not really because I’ve always been doing all the coaching here at the club and so the change has been more in terms of the responsibility and making decisions rather than the loading. The loading has always been the same ever since I signed for the club four years ago. I started doing all the coaching and doing all the sessions and planning so I’ve been doing all of that up until now. And now I’m probably less loaded with that because I’ve got great help from Paul Gothard who is assistant coach and is really helping me.
What have you learnt from previous seasons that you’re applying this year?
Every year you have to, not change, but you have to re-adjust to what’s happened in the past and last year we did really well but we could have done better. Unfortunately, we missed out on that grand final of the ASB Premiership and obviously we will learn some lessons through that, and through the loss up in Japan at the Club World Cup. I think we competed really well but still could have done better. You’re always learning lessons otherwise you’re going to be left behind and hopefully with re-adjustments that we are trying to implement this year, we will be more competitive than last year.
You have some new squad members this season, can you give us some insights into how your team is working together so far?
Everything is pretty good, I mean we’ve got three new players at the moment and the good thing is that the base of players are all back in, so the mood is really good and everything is going the same way. These three guys have had great starts and have easily adapted to the team because everything is basically the same. They are three very good guys who we’re very happy with so it’s working really well at the moment.
How are you feeling about the upcoming premiership? Are you confident?
Well obviously we’re feeling confident. I mean we are preparing well, we know we are going to be well prepared. As I said, I think we are going to readjust a few things that we learnt from last year and we are going to compete at our best to try and win the ASB Premiership which is our aim at the moment. We’ve not only got the ASB Premiership but the O-League is coming hopefully later on this season so in terms of preparation, in terms of being competitive, we are going to be at our best that is for sure.
Can you share any of the adjustments you are making?
They are just tactical adjustments, things you learn from last year and you realise you could be doing differently. Some of those re-adjustments might not work, but hopefully they will because I’ve done a lot of thinking about it.
Waitakere United have a new coach this season, will that effect how you prepare for the season or are you just taking it as it comes?
No, we’re going to prepare in the same way. Obviously, they will be different and Paul Marshall has a lot of experience in this league and he knows us very well because he’s been at the club before, he knows what we are doing and obviously he will prepare well for the games against us and for the league. But we are not preparing for that game or that team – we are preparing to be competitive in general.
As well as the Premiership starting in November, you have the Club World Cup in December. How is it going preparing for two different competitions more or less at the same time?
Well, the Club World Cup is coming in December and at the moment it’s a one-off game and if we win then we go through and play another game – but that’s coming later and we don’t really want to focus on that now. The competition is the ASB Premiership, and we are starting that in November, and the charity shield is the week before and that’s what we are planning for at the moment. We are trying to prepare for the season and through that preparation we are getting ready for the Club World Cup but at the moment we are going to leave it to the side and concentrate on the ASB Premiership.
You’re also facing somewhat of an unknown opponent in that one-off match for the Club World Cup – how are you preparing for that, not knowing exactly who you are playing?
There are three teams that are looking likely to be at the top and the only thing we can do is try and keep an eye on them. There are still eight games left, we’ve got some contacts in Japan that will be sending us some DVDs from those teams and eventually I will start watching them. I’ve got some ideas already about those three teams and I will start getting into more detail later on but that’s all we can do. Hopefully, if the league winners get decided early we can concentrate on that team.
It’s been announced that goal-line technology is being implemented for the first time at the Club World Cup and the first match will be yours. Is that going to affect you at all?
Not really. Last year we had a goal that could have been, we didn’t know, when Ivan Vicelich had a header – did the ball cross the line? We don’t know. Had we had that technology, maybe we would have been able to at least challenge for that. So that’s the only advantage that we might have. If there’s an opportunity and we have the right to make a call we’ll use it but we still don’t know how that’s going to be set.
Do you think having that technology will have a major impact on football in general?
I think eventually these things happen, but when it happens in a big game obviously the world talks about it. That’s why we’ve made, between everyone, a big issue about this and it was sure to happen eventually. I remember in the 1966 World Cup final, when England beat Germany that was an important goal – so when you’ve got a big event and that happens obviously that’s going to help with making sure that everyone stays cool because that technology will not lie.

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