AUCKLAND – New Auckland City coach Colin Tuaa will be wearing his best game face on Sunday when the three-time champions open their NZFC title-defence at YoungHeart Manawatu.

Much has been made of Tuaa’s return to FMG Stadium after he guided Manawatu from season one wooden-spooners to highly-entertaining season two bridesmaids.

The former All White – who bypassed last summer’s NZFC to prepare New Zealand for their FIFA U-17 World Cup campaign in South Korea - expects a warm Manawatu welcome right up until the minute Wellington whistler Jamie Cross blows time on.

“It’ll be good going down there for the day but to be honest with you, I haven’t thought too much about it,” the now Mairangi Bay-based coach said.

“Sometimes the emotion of these things comes into play too much. I’m just trying to stay focused on what we have to do.”

That, to Tuaa’s way of thinking anyway, is quite simply to produce a repeat of the flowing football that saw City open their 2007-08 O-League campaign with a 6-0 thumping of Tahitian champions AS Manu Ura on October 27.

Auckland will be missing Keryn Jordan – a two goal hero against AS Manu Ura – as the South African marksman, a new real estates agent, has work commitments.

Tuaa also faces the start of the season without Henry Fa’arodo with the Solomon Islands international not due in the country until Tuesday.

But Auckland still have ample firepower with sometimes All White Paul Urlovic set to partner Grant Young up front ahead of a dangerous looking midfield including Korean Ki-Hyung Lee, Scotsman Bryan Little and World Cup All White Jeff Campbell.

Fullbacks James Pritchett and Rupesh Puna add further punch out wide.

“We’ve set a benchmark for ourselves really and while the result [against AS Manu Ura] was good and the cleansheet was great, the really pleasing thing is the way we tried to played. We’re only going to get better from there,” Tuaa said.

For all that, Auckland captain Ben Sigmund and his central defensive partner, Greg Uhlmann, will have to be on their toes against Manawatu’s new foreign legion – unknown Uruguayans Pablo Yackson and Gouzalo Nieres and Fijian internationals Peni Finau and Osea Vakatalesua.

“I obviously know a lot of their [Manawatu’s] players but they’ve changed a bit and the loss of their Solomon islanders – particularly the Alick Maemae-Benjamin Totori connection - is a big loss for them,” Tuaa said.

“The players coming in from Fiji and Uruguay will bring something different. They’ve obviously got plenty of size now and we’ll need to combat that because they’re going to be very focused on trying to stop us playing.

“It’s always a tough place to go and try and win but if we can just keep building on what we showed against AS Manu Ura and the effort is there, we’re confident of securing some points.”

Manawatu will be out to avenge their 3-1 loss to Auckland the last time the sides meet at FMG Stadium in last summer’s preliminary final – a result that ultimately denied YoungHeart a start in this season’ O-League.

The greens home record last season – 25 of a possible 30 points – gives Manawatu heart while coach Shane Rufer is confident he has plugged the hole left by now Waitakere United signed striker Totori – last season’s golden boot with 24 goals.

“While the loss of the Solomon Island contingent is significant on the face of it, the addition of players from Fiji and Uruguay will add a new dimension to the squad in terms of style and physical presence,” Rufer said.

“The NZFC continues to grow in terms of playing strength and the season in front of us will be a challenge. But we have a squad good enough to be right in the thick of it and we are looking forward to Sunday’s replay of last years [preliminary] final.”