Nickname	Socceroos
Association	Football Federation Australia
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)
Largest win Australia 31 - 0 American Samoa (Coffs Harbour, Australia; April 11, 2001)
Worst 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

Australia's national football (soccer) team are organised by the Football Federation Australia (until 2005 called the Australian Soccer Association), the national governing body for the game in Australia. The team is nicknamed the Socceroos, a name which, perhaps in light of the discontinuation of the formal use of the term 'soccer' by the national governing body, has been the subject of debate amongst some proponents.

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 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.

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.

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, subject to a possible extension depending on results achieved by the Socceroos in the 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.

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 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 and qualified for the 2006 World Cup, their first Football World Cup qualification in 32 years. Mark Schwarzer was the penalty shootout hero, making two saves. The resulting win led 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.

Upcoming Matches

Australia's upcoming matches are as follows:

• Bahrain v Australia - Asian Cup Qualifier - 22 February 2006 - Bahrain
• Australia v Greece - Friendly - 25 May 2006 - Melbourne, Australia
• Netherlands v Australia - Friendly - 4 June 2006 - Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Australia v Japan - World Cup First Round - 12 June 2006 - Kaiserslautern, Germany
• Australia v Brazil - World Cup First Round - 18 June 2006 - Munich, Germany
• Australia v Croatia - World Cup First Round - 22 June 2006 - Stuttgart, Germany
• Australia v Kuwait - Asian Cup Qualifier - 16 August 2006 - Australia
• Australia v Lebanon - Asian Cup Qualifier - 1 September 2006 - Sydney, Australia
• Kuwait v Australia - Asian Cup Qualifier - 6 September 2006 - Kuwait
• Australia v Bahrain - Asian Cup Qualifier - 11 October 2006 - Australia
• Lebanon v Australia - Asian Cup Qualifier - 15 November 2006 - Lebanon

Current Squad

No. Player 1 Mark Schwarzer ( Middlesbrough) 2 Lucas Neill ( Blackburn Rovers) 3 Scott Chipperfield ( FC Basel) 4 Tim Cahill ( Everton) 5 Tony Vidmar ( NAC Breda) 6 Tony Popovic ( Crystal Palace) 7 Brett Emerton ( Blackburn Rovers) 8 Josip Skoko ( Wigan Athletic) 9 Mark Viduka ( Middlesbrough) 10 Harry Kewell ( Liverpool) 11 Stan Lazaridis ( Birmingham City) 12 Ljubo Milicevic ( FC Thun) 13 Vincenzo Grella ( Parma F.C.) 14 Archie Thompson ( PSV Eindhoven) 15 John Aloisi ( Deportivo Alavés) 16 Michael Thwaite ( FC Naţional Bucureşti) 17 Joel Griffiths ( Leeds United) 18 Zeljko Kalac ( A.C. Milan) 19 Jason Culina ( PSV Eindhoven) 20 Luke Wilkshire ( Bristol City) 21 Ahmad Elrich ( Fulham) 22 Ante Covic ( Hammarby IF) 23 Marco Bresciano ( Parma F.C.)

• Coach: Guus Hiddink
• Assistant Coach: Graham Arnold

Player drain by other countries

One frustrating fact for the Socceroos is the fact that some promising players are lured away by other nations. As many Australians have roots in Europe, European nations can claim native Australians for their squad using the "Granny Rule", i.e. players become eligible if they can prove that they have ancestors of that particular nations. Native Australians players who have chosen another team are:

• Joey Didulica - Croatia
• Jamie McMaster - England
• Ante Seric - Croatia
• Josip Simunic - Croatia
• Christian Vieri - Italy

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 (world record) 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