The first Australian national team was constituted in 1922 for a tour of New Zealand. During the tour, Australia suffered two defeats and scraped a draw. Australia,
New Zealand,
Republic of China and
South Africa became regular opponents in "Test" or "Friendly" matches for the next 25 years. With the advent of cheap air travel, Australia diversified its range of opponents. However, its geographical isolation continued to play a role in its destiny for the next 80 years.
[edit]Early World Cup campaigns
The Australian national team first played at the World Cup finals in West Germany in
1974[1]after having missed out in play-offs in
1966 and
1970, losing to
North Korea and
Israelrespectively It would prove to be their only appearance until
2006.
The road to the 1974 World Cup began with a series of home and away matches against
Iraq,
New Zealand, and
Indonesia. The Socceroos, having won this tournament, then played and won a two-legged fixture against one of the Socceroos' biggest rivals
Iran, managing to hold on to a slim overall lead in front of 120,000 Iranian fans in the
Azadi Stadium, Tehran, during the second leg
[2].
South Korea, having itself knocked out
Israel at the equivalent stage, was then drawn as Australia's final hurdle. Over the course of another two-legged playoff the scores remained even, and so a deciding match was played in Hong Kong. Australia won this match, through a
Jimmy Mackay goal, scored off a free kick.
The team performed with honour at the 1974 World Cup, and although unable to overcome the professional teams from host nations
East and
West Germany, the Socceroos, captained by local amateur
Peter Wilson, did manage a scoreless draw against
Chile. It was to be the last appearance for the Australian team until the World Cup tournament returned to Germany more than three decades later. Over that 32 year time span, the Australian team was known for its near misses in its attempts to qualify for the
World Cup. most notably
1998 against Iran and
2002 against Uruguay.
Also they have lost the play-offs of 1966 (North Korea), 1970 (Israel), 1986 (Scotland), 1994 (Argentina), 1998 (Iran) and 2002 (Uruguay).
[edit]USA 1994 qualifying campaign
Australia's road to
USA 94 is an example of the difficult qualifying path which members of the
Oceania confederation have had to endure. In order to qualify for USA 94, Australia had to endure 3 playoff stages. The first stage was the Oceania playoff. Australia finished on top of Group 1 in Oceania going undefeated in four games against weaker sides
Tahiti and the
Solomon Islands and scoring thirteen goals over the four games. Australia played
New Zealand in the Oceania playoff. The first leg was played in New Zealand on 30 May 1993, with Australia winning the game 1–0. Australia won the return leg 3–0 to win the playoff stage with a 4–0 aggregate score. Having won the Oceania playoff, Australia now had to win a 2-leg playoff against
Canada, the
CONCACAF runner up. The first leg was played in Canada on 31 July 1993, with the Canadians winning the 1st leg 2–1. In the second leg, which was played on 15 August 1993 in Sydney, Australia managed a 2–1 win which saw the game go into extra time after a 3–3 aggregate scoreline. The game went into a penalty shootout which was won by Australia 4–1. Australia then qualified for the 2-leg playoff against the South American group 1 runner up, Argentina. The first leg was played in Sydney on 31 October 1993. The 1st leg ended with a 1–1 draw. On 17 November 1993, the second leg was played in Argentina, with Argentina winning 1–0 and denying Australia a place at the 1994 World Cup in the United States. After the game Argentine legend
Diego Maradona was so impressed with the Socceroos performance that he said to then captain Paul Wade "Your tears of pain, will one day be tears of joy". Just to qualify for the 1994 World Cup Australia would have had to beat Argentina, the runners-up from the
1990 World Cup, and ranked
9th in the world at that time.
[edit]France 1998 qualifying campaign
In 1997, after winning the
OFC qualifying tournament, Australia had to play
Iran over two legs in one week, with the winner progressing to the
World Cup finals to be held in France. Australia, under coach
Terry Venables, tied the away leg 1–1 and looked like they were going to proceed to the finals in France, initially leading 2–0 in the home game in Melbourne, until Iran managed to score two late goals. This match has been named one of the most memorable matches by many of the retired Australian and Iranian football players. The atmosphere at the
MCG after the game was described as "like that of a graveyard" by many fans – At the time the crowd that packed the MCG was the highest ever for a football match in Australia, and after being very confident of progressing to the
FIFA World Cup with only 30 minutes to go – suddenly being eliminated was devastating.
[edit]Korea/Japan 2002 qualifying campaign
In 2001 Australia again won the
Oceania Confederation qualifying tournament for
2002 FIFA World Cup. Second and third-string lineups thrashed a number of tiny island nations in a competition that made a mockery of the Confederation, including a world-record 22–0 win against
Tonga, then smashed that record with a
31–0 win over
American Samoa only two days later. Still missing
Harry Kewell and
Mark Viduka, Australia comfortably beat
New Zealand, their only real threat in the Oceania confederation. Australia then once again had to win a two leg playoff in November, in order to advance to the World Cup finals to be held in South Korea and Japan.
On this occasion the opposition was the 5th placed South American team,
Uruguay. In the preceding four months Uruguay's preparation had been
six World Cup qualifying matches, as follows: beat #2 ranked Brazil 1:0; drew 1:1 with #8 ranked Colombia; drew 1:1 with #2 ranked Argentina. In contrast, Australia's preparation had included no qualifying games since two matches in 4 days in June, against #81 ranked New Zealand, although had played two friendly matches – a loss to
Japan in August and a 1:1 draw with France in November.
In the first leg in Melbourne, Australia won 1–0 after
Kevin Muscat scored from a
penalty kick; however, Australia's qualification campaign ended unsuccessfully as they lost 3–0 in the away leg in
Montevideo just five days later with the South Americans proving too strong.
[edit]Outside qualification campaigns
The team's previously miserable record in World Cup competition was not reflected in their reasonable performances against strong European and South American sides, with victories in the
2001 Confederations Cup against
France and
Brazil. Australia finished the competition in 3rd place after a 3rd place play-off win against Brazil.
Australia also drew with France 1–1 in Melbourne in November 2001. A particular highlight for Australian football, and the one that attracted most public attention, was the 3–1 victory over traditional sporting rivals
England in a friendly in London in 2003. Due to England fielding 22 players during the match, the importance of the result was labeled by
The Guardian newspaper as the most meaningless friendly in the history of the game.
[citation needed][edit]Germany 2006 qualifying campaign
Coach
Frank Farina stood down from the position by "mutual consent" on 29 June 2005 after Australia failed to win a game at the
2005 Confederations Cup, citing ever increasing speculation over his position. On 22 July,
Guus Hiddink was announced by FIFA as the new national coach. This announcement came after intense speculation by the Australian media over potential candidates and even a premature announcement from Hiddink himself. Hiddink combined his roles as manager of Dutch club
PSV Eindhoven with that of Australia, and remained the coach of Australia until the end of the Australian team's 2006 World Cup campaign, after which he accepted a position coaching
Russia.
After some initial training sessions with the Australian team in the Netherlands, his first campaign as national coach resulted in a 11–1 aggregate win over the Solomon Islands in the OFC Qualifying Tournament Final. The remaining task for Hiddink and Australia was the
Oceania-South America playoff against the fifth placed team from the
CONMEBOL Qualifying Tournament for a place in the World Cup.
In October 2005, Australia beat
Jamaica 5–0 in a friendly in London. The win was the Socceroos' biggest win against a team ranked higher than them in the FIFA World Rankings list and also Australia's biggest win against a country which has participated in the World Cup.
Australia, ranked #49, then moved on to play 18th ranked
Uruguay in a rematch of the qualifying matches in 2001. Again, there was a huge contrast in preparation. Australia had only two recent qualifying matches, against #138 Solomon Islands, only three days apart. Uruguay's preparation had included four qualifying matches, in the previous two months, including: beaten #26 Colombia, drawn with #33 Ecuador, and beaten #4 Argentina.
Fearing a repeat of security problems which occurred in Montevideo in 2001, Australia announced that they would hold their training sessions in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and would only stay in Montevideo for the game. Uruguay called for the first leg to be moved a day earlier, to 11 November. This idea was rejected by Australia. As a result, Uruguay had announced that they had moved the kick off time back five hours to 9:00 p.m. local time on 12 November. This meant that Australia would miss their direct flight back to Sydney for the second leg. This would also mean that Uruguay would have an extra day of preparation for the second leg.
However, this plan backfired on the Uruguayans. Their plans to charter a plane for a direct flight to Sydney fell through (they ended up flying over in "economy" class seating on a regular commercial flight). When Uruguay asked to move the kickoff back, Australia, which by that time had arranged, with their sponsor
Qantas, a specially fitted out 767 (which included massage tables, and much room and space) for immediately after the game, refused. Eventually, FIFA stepped in and ordered the kickoff moved back to 6:00 p.m. local time.
Australia playing
Uruguay at
ANZ Stadium(formerly Telstra Stadium) in 2005; the match is in the second period of extra time.
Uruguay defeated Australia 1–0 in Montevideo on 12 November 2005, after a header from
Dario Rodriguez. Australia had the better of their Uruguayan opponents for a lot of the match, but they could not capitalise on their opportunities. In Sydney, on 16 November for the second leg of the qualifying series and in front of 83,000 fans at
Telstra Stadium, and 3.4 million more watching the televised broadcast, and an estimated 4 million more watching in pubs and clubs, Australia led Uruguay 1–0 after 90 minutes following a goal by
Mark Bresciano in the first half. The aggregate was tied, and extra time was played. Neither team scored after two periods of extra time, bringing the game to a penalty shootout. Australia
won the penalty shootout 4–2, making Australia the only team to ever qualify for a World Cup via a penalty shootout. Australian
goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer made two saves and
John Aloisiscored the winning penalty.
The resulting win led to scenes of wild jubilation across the country, as fans rejoiced at the Socceroos qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, their first qualification in 32 years.
Germany were also the hosts the last time Australia qualified for the World Cup back in 1974.
Immediately after that qualification, Australia went into the 2006 World Cup as the second lowest-ranked side. Their ranking on the FIFA World Rankings improved in subsequent months, leapfrogging other qualified countries.
[edit]Acceptance into the AFC
Many commentators and fans felt that the only way for Australia to progress was to abandon the
Oceania Football Confederation. Football had developed over time to place increasing importance on tournaments rather than friendly matches. This established the Continental championships and their qualifiers as the major source of competitive matches for national teams. This served to starve Australia of potential opponents and resulted in long gaps between fixtures for the national team.
One respected football (soccer) broadcaster and former Socceroos captain (
Johnny Warren), expressed his desire for Australia to join Asia. Despite previous attempts to do so, each notoriously ending in failure, a story was leaked from Tokyo in March 2005 suggesting that FIFA had entered into secret discussions with the AFC on this very issue. On 23 March, the AFC Executive Committee made a unanimous decision to invite Australia to join the
AFC.
- As well as being a developed football nation, Australia brings a developed economy and this is actually what we want in football. Besides Japan, Korea, China and Saudi Arabia if Australia joins the benefits are huge, this is what we're after.
On 17 April, the OFC executive committee unanimously endorsed Australia's proposed move. FIFA approved the move on 30 June, and it took effect on 1 January 2006. Earlier, on 1 December, the AFC Executive Committee announced that Australia will be put into the
ASEANzone. Currently, Australia is an invitee member of
ASEAN Football Federation.
[edit]Preparation for Germany 2006
In late December 2005, Coach
Guus Hiddink appointed former Dutch player,
Johan Neeskens, as Assistant Coach, to work alongside Graham Arnold, Ron Smith, Tony Franken and Anthony Crea.
On 13 February 2006, Australia launched a new home and away strip for the World Cup. The home strip, similar to the
1974 outfit, is an entirely yellow shirt with green shorts. The away strip is entirely obsidian blue with yellow trimmings (the heraldic colours of Australia). The jerseys were launched at a lavish ceremony at the Berlin Olympic Stadium in Berlin. On 17 March 2006, the FIFA World Cup trophy visited Sydney on its tour around the world.
As part of a national support effort for the Socceroos in Australia, the television network
SBS put on a competition, "Song for the Socceroos", in order to select a World Cup anthem for the Socceroos. The winning song "Green and Gold" was announced on 16 May.
[3].
On 25 May 2006 in Melbourne, Australia played a friendly against
Greece, then current
European Champions, and ranked #20 in FIFA rankings. Australia won 1–0 thanks to a Josip Skoko volley early on in the match. The match, at the 100,000 capacity
Melbourne Cricket Ground, was sold out in only 2 hours,
[4] and was a great sendoff for Australia from home soil, despite the questionable quality of the Greek performance.
Australia played the
Netherlands in a friendly match in
Rotterdam on 4 June. The Dutch, ranked #3 in the world, went ahead in the 9th minute after goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer parried a
Ruud van Nistelrooy shot, the Socceroos failed to clear the ball and van Nistelrooy scored with a follow-up strike. Australia's
Tim Cahill equalised in the 53rd minute following a goal-line scramble after
Mark Viduka hit the crossbar from a
penalty kick. The match ended in a 1–1 draw. The only blemish was the dismissal of defender
Luke Wilkshire in the 61st minute, after a wild challenge on
Giovanni van Bronckhorst. The next day, the Socceroos left for Germany.
Australia played a final pre-World Cup friendly against 123rd-ranked
Liechtenstein on 7 June. Defender
Lucas Neill headed an
own goal in the 8th minute, giving Liechtenstein the lead until
Mile Sterjovski equalised in the 20th. Australia struggled to gain a lead on their opponents until the final 15 minutes when a goal each from
Joshua Kennedy and
John Aloisi won Australia the game 3–1.
[edit]Germany 2006
While in Germany for the
2006 FIFA World Cup, the Socceroos stayed in the town of
Öhringen. Just days before Australia's first World Cup match against
Japan, it was reported in the west that the
Japan Football Association chairman claimed the Socceroos were "guilty of a lot of dirty fouls" and that "they target ankles in particular."
[5] However, a further scrutiny of the original Japanese script reveals that there was a misinterpretation by the western media, possibly to spice up the competition. While it is unclear who started this mistranslation, deliberately or otherwise, Saburo Kawabuchi of
Japan Football Association later commented that this would not be the first or the last time mistranslation happens and should not be taken too seriously.
On 12 June, the Socceroos defeated Japan 3–1 in their opening game in
Kaiserslautern, with
Tim Cahill scoring two goals (84', 89') and
John Aloisi scoring one (92+') in the last eight minutes to claim their first World Cup finals victory. An early controversial call by Egyptian referee
Essam Abd El Fatah, that awarded a goal (26') to
Shunsuke Nakamura, despite an apparent foul
[6] to Australian goalkeeper
Mark Schwarzer, had the Australians playing catch-up until the last eight minutes. Schwarzer and Viduka claimed that Abd El Fatah apologised over allowing Nakamura's goal to stand after the incident, admitting he had made a mistake,
[7] although Abd El Fatah later denied making an apology and said that "FIFA's refereeing committee... agreed unanimously that Japan's goal against Australia was correct."
[7] Both Cahill and Aloisi came in as substitutes in the second half of the game. Their goals are the first ever scored by Australia in the World Cup Finals, and Australia became the first team in the 2006 tournament to come back after being 1–0 down. Also, no other team has scored three goals in the last seven minutes of a match in World Cup finals history
[8].
On 18 June, hours before Australia's second game against world champions Brazil, a British newspaper claimed that several Australian players had placed bets amongst themselves, which was said to be against
FIFA regulations
[9]. Tim Cahill admitted that teammates
Lucas Neill and
Archie Thompson bet that Cahill would score the first ever Australian goal at the World Cup.
Mark Viduka also said that the players were taking bets on who was going to be the first to score, and that goalkeeper
Zeljko Kalac was the bookmaker. FIFA have since cleared all players of any wrongdoing, by interpreting their regulations as referring to betting with professional bookmakers, rather than betting within a team.
[10]Australia met
Brazil in their second Group F game in
Munich on 18 June. The Australians held Brazil to a 0–0 half time scoreline before
Adriano put Brazil in front (49'). Brazil substitute
Fred scored (90') with the help of substitute
Robinho to give Brazil a 2–0 win, which saw the Brazilians go through to the second round.
A day later, following the Brazil game,
Harry Kewell was in hot water after an altercation with the referee from the Brazil game. FIFA announced that it would investigate the incident. On 20 June, charges were dismissed against Kewell due to "inconsistent reporting by match officials",
[11] allowing him to play the next game against Croatia.
On 22 June, Australia faced
Croatia in
Stuttgart. The final score was 2–2. A goal from
Darijo Srna in the second minute put Australia on the back foot. Australia equalised with a penalty goal from
Craig Moore (38') after Croatian defender
Stjepan Tomas handballed near the Croatian goal.
Niko Kovac gave Croatia a 2–1 lead after halftime before Australia equalised again through
Harry Kewell (79') in a moment described by
SBS broadcast commentator
Simon Hill as "well, it just had to be Harry". Kewell appeared to be offside for the goal, in a match riddled with errors.
[12] The referee
Graham Poll dismissed calls for a penalty in the 5th minute when Croatia's
Josip Šimunić literally wrestled striker
Mark Viduka to the ground near goal. Despite penalising Croatia for Stjepan Tomas' handball in the 39th minute, he failed to penalise Tomas for exactly the same deed in the 74th minute, when Australia were trying to equalise again. Towards the end of the match, Poll blew the final whistle at the moment that
John Aloisi scored what would have been a winning goal, and then blew the final whistle again. And finally, in a most extraordinary error, Poll presented Simunic with three yellow cards before sending him off after the final whistle.
[13] Here, Simunic is the world record holder for "Most Yellow Cards in a Football Match." Poll issued eight yellow cards resulting in three expulsions.
Brett Emertonwas sent off for his second bookable offence (although he was already suspended for the next match for receiving his second yellow card of the group stage earlier in the match).
The Daily Telegraph reported on 25 June that Graham Poll was dismissed from World Cup refereeing duties by FIFA, who claimed that his mistake was "unacceptable".
[14] As Brazil beat Japan 4–1, Australia proceeded to the next round to face Italy.
On 26 June, Australia met
Italy in
Kaiserslautern. Kewell was unavailable for the game, entering the stadium on crutches reportedly suffering from an attack of
gout[15] and infected
blisters (later diagnosed as septic arthritis). The score at half-time was 0–0. Italy went down to 10 men due to the red card (51') given to
Marco Materazzi for a two-footed tackle on
Mark Bresciano. Otherwise, six yellow cards were issued in total. Almost three minutes into stoppage time, with the score still at 0–0 and Australia being pushed into their own half, a controversial penalty was awarded to Italy when
Fabio Grosso fell under a
Lucas Neill challenge in the final seconds of the match.
Francesco Totti scored from the spot (95') and the game ended immediately with Australia eliminated. Coach
Guus Hiddink officially ended his reign as the coach of the Socceroos following the 1–0 loss to Italy and took the managerial job with
Russia. Australian assistant coach
Graham Arnold branded the penalty a "joke", to the agreement of several Australian players, including
Tim Cahill, who believed Grosso should have been cautioned for diving.
[edit]Asian Cup 2007
In their first match, Australia were only able to earn a 1–1 draw against a lower-ranked
Oman team. Australia played poorly, with Oman leading for most of the match after
Badar Al-Maimani scored in the 32nd minute, but were once again saved by
Tim Cahill who scored a late equaliser in the 92nd minute after coming on as a substitute in the second half.
Australia lost their second group match 3–1 to eventual
Asian Cup winners
Iraq, with
Lucas Neill receiving a red card (90'), following two yellow cards.
Mark Viduka scored the lone goal for the Australians in the 47th minute of the match which at that point in the game was the equaliser but
Iraq scored another two goals to win.
In the third match of the group stage, Australia defeated
Thailand 4–0 with
Mark Viduka scoring two goals, with
Michael Beauchamp and
Harry Kewell scoring one goal each. The victory assured Australia's progression to the quarter final stage of the tournament.
After drawing 1–1 with
Japan after extra time, Australia exited the tournament on penalties at the quarter final stage. The first two Australian penalty kicks were both unsuccessful by
Harry Kewell and
Lucas Neill with Australia eventually bowing out 4–3 to end their inaugural participation in Asia's most prestigious football tournament.
In a friendly international at the MCG on 11 September 2007, the Socceroos were defeated by Argentina one goal to nil. The friendly was Graham Arnold's last game as head coach. It had been widely speculated that Dutchman
Dick Advocaat would take over as Head Coach for the Socceroos 2010 World Cup Qualifiers by the end of 2007 but he backed out of a contract with the FFA to continue coaching Zenit Petersburg. It has been reported that FFA is considering legal action against both person and club. As a result the Socceroo's head coach position was left open, with technical director Rob Baan the caretaker for a match against Nigeria at Loftus Road, London (Australia winning 1–0.) The position was filled on 6 December 2007 when the FFA announced Pim Verbeek as the new head coach.
[edit]South Africa 2010 qualifying campaign
The Socceroos were seeded to enter the
AFC qualification campaign in the third round alongside
Iran,
Saudi Arabia,
South Korea and
Japan. They were drawn into a group comprising of
Qatar,
Iraq and
China with the media dubbing it the "group of death". Fixtures started in February 2008, with a home match against Qatar at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne giving Australia a 3–0 victory. This was Pim Verbeek's first competitive match in charge of the Socceroos. The majority of the Australian squad consisted of overseas, mainly European based, players after Pim Verbeek announced the local A-league was not yet up to World Cup standards. A week after the match, Australia moved up to 38th on the
FIFA World Rankings.
In the second group game, Australia drew 0–0 with China with Mark Schwarzer saving a penalty in the last few minutes. In their 3rd out of 6 qualifiers on Sunday, 1 June, Australia beat Iraq at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, 1–0, with a headed goal from
Harry Kewell proving the difference between the two teams early in the 2nd half of play. In the return match in
Dubai, Iraq defeated Australia 1–0 through a wonder strike from
Emad Mohammed. Australia then defeated Qatar 3–1 on 14 June in
Doha to progress to the fourth round of the
AFC qualifiers. Their final game in 3rd round qualifying ended in a 1–0 home defeat to
China.
Australia have been drawn alongside
Japan,
Bahrain,
Qatar and
Uzbekistan in the fourth round of Asian World Cup qualification, which commenced with a 1–0 victory over the Uzbeks in Tashkent on 10 September 2008. Scott Chipperfield's run was unmarked and he comfortably headed in a Luke Wilkshire cross. They then proceeded to beat Qatar 4–0 at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, to go top of the group, with goals scored by Tim Cahill and Josh Kennedy with Brett Emerton scoring a brace for the home side. The game was delayed 30min (and close to abandoned) after a torrential rainstorm hit Brisbane Stadium prior to the match. Their next match was against Bahrain on the 19th of November. Australia managed a 1–0 victory despite a brilliant performance by the Bahrainis and a disappointing performance by Australia. Both the Australian coach and players admitted they were lucky to take the points which came courtesy of a Marco Bresciano goal in the 93rd minute. They dedicated the win to Craig Moore who missed the match following surgery for testicular cancer. Australia remained top of the group with 10 points after 4 games following a 0–0 draw away against Japan. The Socceroos were on the brink of qualifying after a convincing 2–0 win over Uzbekistan on 1 April in Sydney. After a lacklustre first half, the Socceroos scored two goals with a Josh Kennedy header in the 66th minute and a Harry Kewell penalty in the 73rd minute after Richard Garcia was taken down in the penalty box. Australia then secured their place in South Africa after holding Qatar 0–0 at Doha on 5 June. Australia's qualification was already assured before the final two games, both home fixtures. In Sydney on Wednesday 10 June, goals to Mile Sterjovski and David Carney gave Australia a 2–0 victory over Bahrain. Australia's final qualification game ended with a 2–1 victory over Japan, Australia coming back from a goal in the 40th minute by Japan's Marcus Tulio Tanaka with Tim Cahill's equalising header in the 59th minute, and his winning goal 17 minutes later off a Nicky Carle corner. This victory left Australia top of Group A ahead of Japan by 5 clear points.
