Oceania Football Champions Auckland City leave for Japan on Tuesday ahead of next month's FIFA Club World Cup competition.
The New Zealand franchise will be making their fourth appearance at the elite event, with their best finish being fifth place in 2009.
They will meet Japanese champions Hiroshima next Friday and captain Ivan Vicelich says they've prepared well.
"Not an easy sort of journey to take and prepare for but we've played really well over the last month and we've trained really hard so hopefully this can help us in our first playoff game. It's going to be another exciting time for the players - some players haven't been there before - we've got some new guys in the squad, so it's going to be a bit of a learning experience for them but hopefully we can as a team, with all the experience there, provide a good performance."
