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Australia men's national soccer team

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Australia
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)Socceroos
AssociationFootball Federation Australia
Head coachNetherlands Guus Hiddink, 2005-2006
Most capsAlex Tobin (87)
Top scorerDamian Mori (29)
First colours
Second colours
First international
New Zealand 3 - 1 Australia
(Dunedin, New Zealand; June 17, 1922)
Biggest win
Australia 31 - 0 American Samoa
(Coffs Harbour, Australia; April 11, 2001)
Qualifier for 2002 World Cup
(World Record)
Biggest defeat
Australia 0 - 8 South Africa
(Adelaide, Australia; September 17, 1955)
World Cup
Appearances2 ' (first in 1974)
Best resultRound 2, 2006
OFC Nations Cup
Appearances6 (first in 1980)
Best resultWinners - 1980, 1996,
2000, 2004

The Australian national football (soccer) team represents Australia in international football competitions. The team is organised by Football Federation Australia, the sport's national governing body, and its official nickname is "the Socceroos". Australia has been represented at two World Cup finals tournaments, in 1974 and 2006. Their best result was in the

where they won against Japan, lost to Brazil, and then drew with Croatia to reach the second round. The 2006 event marked the first time Australia has scored a goal in the competition. They are currently ranked 42nd in the FIFA World Rankings.

History

The first Australian national team was constituted in 1922 for a tour of New Zealand. During that tour, Australia suffered two defeats and scraped together a draw. Australia, New Zealand, China and South Africa would become regular opponents in "Test" or "Friendly" matches for the next 25 years. With the advent of cheap air travel, Australia would diversify its range of opponents. However, its geographical isolation continued to play a role in its destiny for the next 80 years.

Early World Cup qualifying attempts

The national team played at the World Cup finals in West Germany in 1974, which would prove to be their only appearance until 2006. 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 the 1998 and 2002 events.

However, Australia's notoriously roundabout path to World Cup Qualification is not a recent development. Throughout its history of attempted World Cup qualification, FIFA had consistently awarded Australia sequences of matches which could be considered illogical, with very limited preparation - a few friendlies and competition with the minnows of Oceania - before a tough 2 leg play-off in less than a week against a well qualified South American or other contender who had a much better preparation of several competition matches over a campaign of perhaps 2 years.

USA 1994 qualifying campaign

Australia's road to USA 94 is an example of the difficult qualifying path which the Oceania confederation has 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 4 games against Tahiti and the Solomon Islands and scoring 13 goals over the 4 games. Australia played New Zealand in the Oceania playoff. The first leg was played in New Zealand on May 30, 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 3rd round runner up. The first leg was played in Canada on July 31, 1993, with the Canadians winning the 1st leg 2-1. In the second leg, which was played on August 15, 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 October 31, 1993. The 1st leg ended with a 1-1 draw. On November 17 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. 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.

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 and went through on the away goals rule. Uniquely, Australia had failed to qualify despite not losing a single qualifying game. Despite not qualifying for the World Cup finals, Australia was one of two teams who went through the entire world cup campaign undefeated - the other team being France, the eventual winners of the World Cup, who as hosts were granted automatic qualification.

Korea/Japan 2002 qualifying campaign

In 2001 Australia again won the Oceania Confederation qualifying tournament. Second and third-string lineups thrashed a number of tiny island nations in a competition that made a mockery of the Confederation, including a 22-0 win against Tonga, and a world record 31-0 demolition of American Samoa. 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 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 4 months Uruguay's preparation had been 6 World Cup Qualifying matches, including: 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 2 matches in 4 days in June, against #81 ranked New Zealand.

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 5 days later.

Outside qualification campaigns

The team's miserable record in World Cup competition is 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 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.

Acceptance into the OFC

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.

The late Johnny Warren, a respected football broadcaster and former Socceroo captain, described 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 FFA had entered into secret discussions with the AFC on this very issue. On March 23, the AFC Executive Committee made a unanimous decision to invite Australia to join the AFC.

AFC President, Mohammed Bin Hammam, outlined reasons for this decision.

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 April 17, the OFC executive committee unanimously endorsed Australia's proposed move. FIFA approved the move on June 30, and it took effect on January 1, 2006.

On December 1, the AFC Executive Committee announced that Australia will be put into the ASEAN zone.

Australia has duly been entered into the Asian Cup Qualifying Tournament beginning in February, 2006. On 4th January 2006, Australia was drawn into group D, alongside Bahrain, Lebanon and Kuwait.

Australia's first game as a member of the AFC was on 22 February 2006, a 3-1 win away to Bahrain in the Asian Cup qualifier.

Germany 2006 qualifying campaign

In 2004, the team took the first steps towards qualification for the 2006 World Cup by topping the round-robin stage of the Oceania Football Confederation World Cup qualification tournament. The team drew 2-2 with the Solomon Islands, which combined with other results put that team ahead of New Zealand in the standings and meaning that the Solomon Islands qualified for the final playoff rather than the expected New Zealand.

Australia face Germany in the 2005 Confederations Cup

Coach Frank Farina stood down from the position by "mutual consent" on June 29, 2005 after Australia failed to win a game at the Confederations Cup 2005, citing ever increasing speculation over his position. On July 22, Guus Hiddink was announced by FFA 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 now combines his roles as manager of Dutch club PSV Eindhoven with that of Australia, and will remain the coach of Australia until the end of the 2006 World Cup, after which he will coach Russia.

After some initial training sessions with the Australian team in the Netherlands, his first campaign as national coach resulted in a 9-1 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 3 days apart. Uruguay's preparation had included 4 qualifying matches, in the previous 2 months, including: beaten #26 Colombia, drawn with #33 Ecuador, and beaten #4 Argentina.

Fearing a repeat of the disturbing events 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 1st leg to be moved a day earlier, to November 11. This idea was rejected by Australia. As a result, Uruguay had announced that they had moved the kick off time back 5 hours to 9:00 p.m. local time on November 12. 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. When Uruguay asked to move the kickoff back, Australia, which by that time had found a charter for immediately after the game, refused. Eventually, FIFA stepped in and ordered the kickoff moved back to 6:00 p.m. local time.

File:Aus Vs Uru Crowd.jpg
Australia vs Uruguay World cup qualifer 2nd leg, Telstra Stadium, Sydney, 16th November 2005.

Uruguay defeated Australia 1-0 in Montevideo on November 12, 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 November 16 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, Australia led Uruguay 1-0 after 90 minutes following a goal by Marco Bresciano after a miss-pass by Harry Kewell 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; Mark Schwarzer made two saves in the penalty shootout.

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.

File:Socceroos.jpg
Australia vs Uruguay at Telstra Stadium, Sydney 16 November 2005

Immediately after that qualification, Australia were to go into the 2006 World Cup as the second lowest ranked side. Their ranking on the FIFA World Rankings improved in subsequent months, leap-frogging other qualified countries.

Preparation For The 2006 FIFA World Cup

On 7 December 2005, USA National coach Bruce Arena sparked controversy among the Australian supporters after saying that Australia, along with Trinidad & Tobago, were "the weaker sides in the competition". Days later, Arena released a statement saying that he was misinterpreted.

On 9 December 2005, Australia was placed into World Cup Group F along with defending champions Brazil, Croatia and Japan.

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 navy blue with yellow trimmings. 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.

In April 2006, Brazilian striker Ronaldo attempted to intimidate the Socceroos before their World Cup match, by claiming that he had never heard of Socceroo players Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell, despite having twice played against them.

In preparation for the upcoming World Cup, Socceroos player Tony Vidmar was ruled out of the World Cup after being diagnosed with a heart condition.

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 2006. [1]

On 25 May 2006 in Melbourne, Australia played a friendly against Greece, current European Champions, and ranked #20 in the world (just one place below much-fancied Germany). Australia won 1-0 thanks to a Josip Skoko volley early on in the match. The match was at the 98,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground, was sold out in only 2 hours,[1] and was a great sendoff for Australia from home soil, despite the questionable quality of the Greek performance.

Australia played the Netherlands, current head coach Guus Hiddink's country of origin, in a friendly match in Rotterdam on 4 June 2006. Holland, 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 questionable dismissal of defender Luke Wilkshire in the 61st minute, for an altercation with a Dutch player. The referee deemed this to be his second bookable offence and he received a second yellow and consequent red card. The Dutch team claimed afterwards that they were concerned at the rough tackling of the Australian players, with many avoiding tackles against their aggressive opponents. The next day, the Socceroos left for Germany.

Australia played a final pre-World Cup friendly against 123rd-ranked Liechtenstein on 7 June 2006. 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 rivals until the final 15 minutes when a goal each from Joshua Kennedy and John Aloisi won Australia the game 3-1.

2006 FIFA World Cup

While in Germany, the Socceroos are staying in the town of Öhringen. Just days before Australia's first World Cup match, their first opponents, Japan, accused the Socceroos of playing too aggressively, raising the stakes for both teams in their opening match[2].

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+') all 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[3] 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 to over allowing Nakamura's goal to stand after the incident, admitting he had made a mistake,[4] although Abd El Fatah later denied doing this.[5] 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.

Australia was the first team at this tournament to come back after being 1-0 down. Also, no other team has scored three goals in the last 7 minutes of a match in World Cup finals history[6].

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 [7]. Tim Cahill admitted that team mates 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 refering to betting with professional bookmakers, rather than betting within a team [8].

Australia met Brazil in their second Group F game in Munich on June 18. The Australians held Brazil to a 0-0 half time scoreline before Brazilian player Adriano put Brazil in front in the 49th minute. Brazil substitute Fred scored in the 90th minute 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 they would be looking into it. On 20 June, charges were dismissed against Kewell due to "inconsistent reporting by match officials"[9] allowing him to play the next game against Croatia.

On 22 June, Australia faced Croatia. 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 in the 38th minute. Niko Kovac gave Croatia a 2-1 lead before Australia equalised again through Harry Kewell in the 79th minute, from clear offside position. It was a game of many yellow and red cards, including much controversy over referee Graham Poll's mistake in presenting Croatia's Josip Simunic with three yellow cards before sending him off after the final whistle. Brett Emerton was red carded and will not appear in the next match. As Brazil beat Japan 4-1, Australia will proceed to the next round and face Italy.

Upcoming Matches

Australia's upcoming matches are as follows:

2006 World Cup squad

Coach: Guus Hiddink, until the conclusion of the 2006 World Cup

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Club
1 1GK Mark Schwarzer 06 October 1972 39 England Middlesbrough
2 2DF Lucas Neill 09 March 1978 27 England Blackburn Rovers
3 2DF Craig Moore 12 December 1975 35 England Newcastle United
4 3MF Tim Cahill 06 December 1979 18 England Everton
5 3MF Jason Čulina 05 August 1980 15 Netherlands PSV Eindhoven
6 2DF Tony Popović 04 July 1973 57 England Crystal Palace
7 3MF Brett Emerton 22 February 1979 50 England Blackburn Rovers
8 3MF Josip Skoko 10 December 1975 46 England Wigan Athletic
9 4FW Mark Viduka 09 October 1975 35 England Middlesbrough
10 4FW Harry Kewell 22 September 1978 22 England Liverpool
11 3MF Stan Lazaridis 16 August 1972 59 Unattached
12 1GK Ante Čović 13 June 1975 1 Sweden Hammarby
13 3MF Vince Grella 05 October 1979 18 Italy Parma
14 2DF Scott Chipperfield 30 December 1975 48 Switzerland FC Basel
15 4FW John Aloisi 05 February 1976 43 Spain Deportivo Alavés
16 2DF Michael Beauchamp 08 March 1978 1 Australia Central Coast Mariners
17 4FW Archie Thompson 23 October 1978 20 Australia Melbourne Victory
18 1GK Željko Kalac 16 December 1972 52 Italy A.C. Milan
19 4FW Joshua Kennedy 20 August 1982 2 Germany Dynamo Dresden
20 3MF Luke Wilkshire 02 October 1981 10 England Bristol City
21 3MF Mile Sterjovski 27 May 1979 23 Switzerland FC Basel
22 2DF Mark Milligan 04 August 1985 1 Australia Sydney FC
23 3MF Mark Bresciano 11 February 1980 26 Italy Parma

Player drain by other countries

One frustrating fact for the Socceroos is the fact that some promising players end up playing for other nations due to the lack of a strong professional league in Australia. As many Australians have roots in Europe and qualify for European passports, they are eligible to play for non-Australian national teams. Native Australians players who have chosen other teams are:

The following non-natives were eligible to play for Australia but chose other national teams:

The most common destination has been Croatia: three Australian Croats play for Croatia (Didulica, Šerić and Šimunić) and seven for Australia (Čulina, Popović, Skoko, Viduka, Čović, Kalac and Bresciano [whose mother is Croat]).

Tournament records

World Cup record

Records

Top Ten "A" Caps

Top Ten "A" Goals

Most goals in a match

Highest team score

Record in World Cup Finals

Notable Former Players

References

  1. ^ "G, its a sellout for World Cup send-off". Herald Sun. 5 April 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "Hiddink dismisses dirty Roos claims". ABC News. 11 June 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Key moments of the match". Australian Associated Press. 13 June 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "Ref says sorry over Japan goal". Australian Broadcasting Commission. 13 June 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Abdul-Fattah: I did not apologize to the Aussies". FilBalad.com. 13 June 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  6. ^ "Australia 3-1 Japan". BBC Sport. 12 June 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Aussies could face betting probe". Sky Sports. 18 June 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "AUSSIES GET FIFA BETTING ALL-CLEAR". Sporting Life.com. 18 June 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "Ref's retaliation may have saved Kewell". Australian Associated Press. 21 June 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
Soccer in Australia
League competitions National State Federations
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Northern NSW State Football League Professional Footballers Australia Northern NSW Football
Brisbane Premier League (Div 1) List of clubs Football Queensland
National Premier Leagues South Australia Football South Australia
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National Soccer League (Defunct) Football Tasmania
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