Australia men's national soccer team
| Shirt badge/Association crest | |||
| Nickname(s) | Socceroos | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Association | Football Federation Australia | ||
| Head coach | Guus Hiddink, 2005- | ||
| Most caps | Tony Vidmar (89) | ||
| Top scorer | Damian Mori (29) | ||
| |||
| 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) | |||
| Biggest defeat | |||
| Australia 0 - 8 South Africa (Adelaide, Australia; September 17, 1955) | |||
| World Cup | |||
| Appearances | 2 (first in 1974) | ||
| Best result | Round 1, 1974 | ||
| OFC Nations Cup | |||
| Appearances | 6 (first in 1980) | ||
| Best result | Winners, 1980, 1996, 2000, 2004 | ||
The Socceroos are Australia's national football (soccer) team. They are organised by the Football Federation Australia (until 2005 called the Australian Soccer Association), the national governing body for the game in Australia.
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 difficult 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.
Unfancied Opponents
Australia's first attempt to qualify was for the 1966 tournament in England. As a result of a decision to award very few places to non-European/South American nations, FIFA determined that Australia would playoff against North Korea. In 1965, North Korea was a political entity not recognised by many nations including the United Kingdom. Additionally, the match was scheduled to take place in "neutral" Cambodia who was actually a strong ally of North Korea. Due to their equivocal political status at the time, there were calls from various sides for Australia to claim their place in the World Cup instead of North Korea.
Future campaigns for the 1970, 1978, 1982, and 1986 World Cups would see Australia put into competition with politically isolated or non-aligned nations. Opponents included Israel (who neighbouring Arab nations refused to play), Republic of China or Taiwan (who had lost much political recognition to Beijing), Iran (who had undergone a revolution) and New Zealand (another Oceanian nation). However, this preliminary tournament would always result in a playoff with one or two other stronger countries from Europe or South America.
Protests from the Australian Soccer Federation and attempts to join the Asian Football Confederation at this time were rejected. However, the qualifying process was somewhat simplified from the 1990 World Cup. However, it was not until the 1998 World Cup where the OFC was granted a "guaranteed" 0.5 qualifying spot.
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 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 booking a spot in the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
France 1998 Qualifying Campaign
In 1997, after winning the OFC qualifying tournament, Australia had to play Iran over two legs 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.
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 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.
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.
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 will take effect on January 1, 2006.
Australia has duly been entered into the Asian Cup Qualifying Tournament beginning in February, 2006.
On December 1, the AFC Executive Committee announced that Australia will be put into the ASEAN zone.
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.
.JPG?lang=en)
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 PSV Eindhoven with that of Australia, and will remain the coach of Australia until the end of the 2006 World Cup.
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.
Australia then moved on to play Uruguay in a qualifying rematch of the matches in 2001. Fearing a repeat of the events in Montevideo in 2001, Australia announced that they would hold their training sessions in Buenos Aires in 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 9:00pm 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 pm local time. [1]
Uruguay defeated Australia 1-0 in Montevideo on November 12, 2005, after a header from Dario Rodriguez. 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 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. The Socceroos won the penalty shootout 4-2 and qualified for the
, making it their first Football World Cup appearance in 32 years. Mark Schwarzer was the penalty shootout hero, making two saves. The resulting win lead to scenes of wild jubilation across the country, as fans rejoiced at the Socceroos qualifying for the 2006 World Cup in Germany after 32 years of heartbreak.
Germany were also the hosts the last time Australia qualified for the World Cup back in 1974. Also worth mentioning is the similarity that Brazil, like in 1974, go into the World Cup as defending champions after having defeated a European team in the final. In 1970, Brazil beat Italy in the Final, and in 2002, Brazil beat Germany to take the title.
Immediately after that qualification, Australia were to go into the 2006 World Cup as the second lowest ranked side. Their ranking on the somewhat contentious FIFA/Coca-Cola system improved in subsequent months, leap-frogging other qualified countries. In preparation for the tournament, the Socceroos are planning friendly matches against Greece and the Netherlands, although a proposed match against Croatia had to be cancelled following the World Cup draw. Australia will play the Netherlands in June 2006 in the lead up to the World Cup. No date has been set for the friendly against Greece.
Preparation For The 2006 FIFA World Cup
In early December 2005, just days prior to the groups for the World Cup being allocated, Australia were seeded in pool 3, along with the 5 African qualifiers (Ghana, Togo, Angola, Ivory Coast and Tunisia), as well as the 2 lowest ranked South American sides (Ecuador and Paraguay). This meant that Australia would NOT face these teams in the group stage.
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. Both the Australian & Croatian media are heavily anticipating the Australia-Croatia match, which will be the final Group game for the 2 teams, because several players on both sides have close ties to the other country. Among the Australian players of Croatian background are Mark Viduka, Zeljko Kalac and Josip Skoko. Three Croatian players were born in Australia—regular starter Josip Simunic and fringe players Joey Didulica and Anthony Seric.
In late December 2005, Coach Guus Hiddink appointed former Dutch player Johan Neeskens as Assistant Coach who will work alongside Graham Arnold, Ron Smith, Tony Franken and Anthony Crea.
Current Squad
As of October 28, 2005 and competed in the OFC/CONMEBOL Playoffs
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
|
- Coach: Guus Hiddink
- Assistant Coach: Graham Arnold
World Cup record
- 1930 to 1962 – Did not enter
- 1966 - Did not qualify
- 1970 - Did not qualify
- 1974 - Round 1
- 1978 to 2002 - Did not qualify
- 2006 - Qualified
Confederations Cup record
- 1992 - Not invited
- 1995 - Not invited
- 1997 - Runner Up
- 1999 - Did not qualify
- 2001 - Third Place
- 2003 - Did not qualify
- 2005 - First Round
Oceania Nations Cup record
- 1973 - Did not enter
- 1980 - Champions
- 1996 - Champions
- 1998 - Second place
- 2000 - Champions
- 2002 - Second place
- 2004 - Champions
Records
Most appearances
- 89 - Tony Vidmar (1991-)
- 87 - Alex Tobin (1988-2000)
- 84 - Paul Wade (1986-96)
- 64 - Peter Wilson (1970-79)
Most goals
- 29 - Damian Mori (45 caps, 1992-2002)
- 25 - Attila Abonyi (62 caps, 1967-1977)
- 25 - John Kosmina (60 caps, 1977-1988)
Most goals in a match
- 13 - Archie Thompson v American Samoa, 2001
- 8 - David Zdrilic v American Samoa, 2001
- 7 - Gary Cole v Fiji, 1981
Highest team score
- 31 v American Samoa, 2001
- 22 v Tonga, 2001
- 17 v Cook Islands, 2000
Record in World Cup Finals 1974
- v East Germany in Hamburg, 0-2
- v West Germany in Hamburg, 0-3
- v Chile in West Berlin, 0-0
Notable Former Players
- Paul Okon
- Ned Zelic
- Mark Bosnich
- Craig Johnston
- Frank Farina
- Graham Arnold
- Aurelio Vidmar
- Robbie Slater
- Charlie Yankos
- Eddie Krncevic
- David Mitchell
- Mike Petersen
- Ray Baartz
- Alan Davidson
- Milan Ivanovic
- Johnny Warren
- Manfred Schaefer
- Joe Marston
External links
- Official Website of Football Federation of Australia
- Archive of results 1922-
- RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers
- RSSSF archive of coaches 1922-1998
- Socceroos Realm
International association football | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World |
|  | |||||||||||||||||
| Africa |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Asia |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Europe |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| North, Central America & the Caribbean |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Oceania |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| South America |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Intercontinental |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Non-FIFA |
| ||||||||||||||||||