Phoenix takes on Western Sydney Wanderers in New Zealand’s most populated city on Saturday, in their now-annual visit to Auckland.

The fixture takes on added significance given ASB Premiership club Auckland City’s link to A-League expansion along with the city as a potential market in itself.

Matches played at Auckland’s QBE Stadium and Eden Park in the past two seasons have attracted crowds of in excess of 10,000, while 18,506 fans attended at the latter venue in 2013-14.

“We’re really excited. These regional games are great for us,” Barbarouses said.

“We know people in Auckland love their football and they always seem to come out.

“When we play with the national team there’s always a good crowd.

“I hope there’s going to be a great crowd, especially coming off a good win.

“We want to put on a good show for them.”

A-League boss Greg O’Rourke said during a visit to Wellington in October that there was interest in a second New Zealand club in future expansion.

“If you’re thinking about the 15th and 16th team, it could be even a potential for a second New Zealand based team,” O’Rourke said.

“Realistically I think we’re five to six years away from getting to 15-16.”

Domestic powerhouse Auckland City, who recently competed at the FIFA Club World Cup, had been linked to the A-League although chairman Ivan Vuksich said they remained a way off.

"We would like to be in the A-League but it's always been a fairyland idea that we would be asked," Vuksich told AAP.

"If we had any inkling that there was interest from Australia - and we've never had anything like that - we would try and bed down a few of these things. That's as far as we've gone."