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 2006 FIFA World Cup where they won against Japan, lost to Brazil, and then drew with Croatia to reach the second round, where they lost 0-1 to eventual winners Italy. The 2006 event produced Australia's first ever World Cup finals goal during their match against Japan. As of July 2006, they are ranked 33rd in the FIFA World Rankings (moving up nine places since before the World Cup) making them the highest ranked member of the Asian Football Confederation. They are 18th in the World Football Elo Ratings.. 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 America 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 four months Uruguay's preparation had been six 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 two 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 five 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 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.
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.
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 was duly entered into the Asian Cup Qualifying Tournament which began in February, 2006. On 4 January 2006, Australia was drawn into group D, alongside Bahrain, Lebanon and Kuwait. Lebanon have since withdrawn due to violence in the area.
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 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 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 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 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 November 11. 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 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.
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, 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 after a mis-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.
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, leapfrogging other qualified countries.
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 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.[1].
On 25 May 2006 in Melbourne, Australia played a friendly against Greece, 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 was at the 98,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground, was sold out in only 2 hours, 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 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. 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 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, the Japan Football Association chairman claimed the Socceroos were "guilty of a lot of dirty fouls" and that "they target ankles in particular." .
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 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, 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." 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 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.
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 . 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.
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 (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", 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'). Niko Kovac gave Croatia a 2-1 lead before Australia equalised again through Harry Kewell (79'), although he may have been offside. In a match riddled with errors, the referee Graham Poll issued eight yellow cards, resulting in three expulsions, and made the mistake of presenting Croatia's Josip Simunic with three yellow cards before sending him off after the final whistle. Brett Emerton was 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". As Brazil beat Japan 4-1, Australia proceeded to the next round to face Italy.
On 26 June, Australia met Italy in Kaiserslautern. Harry Kewell was unavailable for the game, entering the stadium on crutches reportedly suffering from an attack of gout and infected blisters rather than a recurrence of a groin injury. The score at half-time was 0-0. Italy went down to 10 men due to the controversial red card (51') given to Marco Materazzi. Otherwise, six yellow cards were issued in total. Almost three minutes into stoppage time, a controversial penalty was awarded to Italy when Fabio Grosso went down under a Lucas Neill challenge in the final seconds of the match. Francesco Totti scored from the spot (95') and the game ended moments later. The final score was 1-0 in favour of Italy, eliminating Australia from the tournament. Italian coach Marcello Lippi denied that Grosso had dived, describing the incident as "a clear foul". Australian assistant coach Graham Arnold, however, branded the penalty a "joke", to the agreement of several Australian players, including Tim Cahill, who believed Grosso should have been cautioned for diving.
Coach Guus Hiddink officially ended his reign as the coach of the Socceroos following the 1-0 loss to Italy and will now coach Russia.
Post 2006 World Cup
Following the success of the socceroos and Guus Hiddink at the 2006 World Cup there has been much speculation as to who will be the next Australian coach.
Graham Arnold holds the Head Coach position in a caretaker capacity.
John Kosmina holds the Assistant Coach position for the upcoming Asian Cup Qualifiers. Ron Smith, the technical director under Guus Hiddink, took up the position of head coach with A-League club Perth Glory in July 2006.
Martin O'Neill was previously being considered but in August 2006 took up the position of manager at Aston Villa FC in England.
FFA reportedly approached Gerard Houllier and made an offer, but no agreement was reached.
Lucas Neill, appearing on the Australian television program Rove Live on July 4, 2006, claimed that Guus Hiddink's contract with Russia is only for two years (most likely for Euro 2008), and that the players are not ruling out a return from him to Australian soil for 2010 in South Africa.
In the July 2006 FIFA World Rankings, Australia moved up nine places since May 2006 to 33rd, one place above Hiddink's Russia.
One frustrating fact for the Socceroos is that some promising players end up playing for other nations. As many Australians have roots in Europe and qualify for European passports, they are eligible to play for non-Australian national teams. Australian-born players who have chosen other national teams are: *Joey Didulica - Croatia *Tony Dorigo - England *Anthony Šerić - Croatia *Josip Šimunić - Croatia *Saša Ilić - Serbia and Montenegro
The following non-natives were eligible to play for Australia but chose other national teams: *Christian Vieri - Italy. Vieri was born in Bologna, but raised in Australia, and was eligible for both. *Craig Johnston - England. Johnston grew up in Australia but was born in South Africa to Australian parents. He played for England at the Under-21 level, but did not earn a senior cap despite a callup late in his career. *Ivan Ergić - Serbia and Montenegro. Born in Croatia, raised in Australia. *Georgios Samaras - Greece. His father was born in Australia. "My father was born here in Melbourne … I had the opportunity to do that (play for Australia), but I preferred Greece," he said. "It was a possibility and I was close to doing it."
The most common destination has been Croatia: three Croatian Australians play for Croatia (Didulica, Šerić and Šimunić) and seven for Australia (Čulina, Popović, Skoko, Viduka, Čović, Kalac and Bresciano, whose mother is Croatian).
