One afternoon in mid-May earlier this year, Chloe Knott sat with her Auckland United FC team-mates in the rooms at Tahiti’s Stade Pater.
Moments before walking out for the semi-finals of the OFC Women’s Champions League, they gathered in a circle. In the middle was Knott, visualising how things would play out against their opponents from the Solomon Islands, the Henderson Eels.
“We were sitting in a circle and I told them that today we are going to go out and score an early goal. It will be a cut-back, within the first five minutes.”
When they took to the pitch, with less than three minutes elapsed, Saskia Vosper broke free down the left; a cut-back found Tupelo Dugan who swept home from the top of the six-yard box.
Just like that Knott’s visualisation had played out and her team-mates were quick to remind her.
“We talked about that start, the early goal and that’s literally what happened. Afterwards my team-mates reminded that it was exactly how things played out. They were ‘Oh my gosh, she said it would happen and it happened!’”
The power of visualisation and the intersection of sports and psychology is something that comes naturally to Knott. As a key part of the Auckland United midfield and a full-time clinical psychologist she’s keenly aware of both worlds.
“Oh, both are just so interconnected and I think every player should have access to a psychologist. I think every team should have a psychologist as part of the staff, it’s such an under utilised resource because I think the mental side of the game is 90 per cent of the battle a lot of the time, both individually and as a team.
“I would love to see growth in that area and personally I’ve used so many psychological skills that I’ve learned through my clinical work in games. Things like mindfulness, being present in the moment, positive self-talk and then just being able to really play free and get into the flow and have fun.”
That positivity also rose to the surface in the following match, where Knott scored the only goal of the game in the final as Auckland claimed back-to-back continental titles, seeing off Papua New Guinea’s Hekari United.
It was a strike that earned the club more than just another notch in the Oceania honour roll, as it also secured their passage to the maiden edition of the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup™.
Before the final stages of the new tournament, which will be held early in 2026, two preliminary rounds will take place. In the first of those, Auckland will fly the OFC flag against Asian champions Wuhan Jiangda in China PR in October.
It’s the first step into a new era of women’s club football, with the FIFA Women’s Club World Cup™ set to be launched in 2028. For Knott, the Women’s Champions Cup represents a chance to be a pioneer in this growth and that’s a role she’s keen to embrace.
“Just to be in this tournament is such a privilege and in terms of this kind of a club competition there’s been nothing like it before. It’s really exciting and we just want to run with it and make the most of the opportunity.
“It’s also a chance to create a pathway and a legacy and give some visibility to club players who may not be in national teams or professional environments and show that they can play on the world stage.”
That’s very much the case for Knott and her team-mates, all of whom are amateur players. The 29-year-old knows that means it’s a stern challenge to have to travel to China and face the Asian champions but they remain focussed on trying to progress to the second round of the Champions Cup.
“Everyone in our team is either studying or working and we know that [Wuhan] are going to be training full-time whereas we’re working 40-hour weeks and training twice a week.
“We’re doing everything that we can on our end though to prepare and no player goes into a game without the intention to win it. We’re doing a lot of film review and I know the coaching staff are working really hard in the background to make sure that we’re as prepared as we can be.
“It’s going to be a huge step up from anything that we’ve experienced in our league but hopefully we can give them a good challenge.”
Having grown up in the English town of Bolton, Knott moved to New Zealand at the age of 13 and has had stints playing professionally with the Wellington Phoenix in Australia’s A-League as well as a spell at college level in America with Georgetown University.
That’s afforded her a front-row seat to the growth of the women’s game in numerous regions and she’s confident that the Champions Cup and the Women’s Club World Cup can help to further accelerate that.
“Growing up football was always part of my life. We would be playing on our street in what was a little wonky piece of grass and we would be out there until the evening when things got too dark.
“Seeing now the success of [the England women’s national team] is so cool and it’s really a reward for all the hard work that they’ve put in and so hopefully we can make some small moves over here too.
“Having the World Cup here was incredible and we know that there’s a real support for the game in New Zealand and beyond.
“We’re really proud of our corner of the world and even though we might not have the resources of some nations in Europe, we’ve shown we can compete on the world stage at all levels.
“Going now into this tournament we will bring that same passion and love for the game and do our best to represent Oceania on the big stage.”
Images courtesy of OFC Media/Phototek
