Australia, the next stumbling block for the national team: a starting World Cup and the memory of the play-off with Maradona in 1993

Australia is playing its sixth World Cup, the fifth consecutive and the fourth – also consecutive – as a representative of the AFC (the Asian Confederation). In any case, a regular for the past two and a half decades.

It is a curious case: he left the Confederation of Oceania to avoid the repechage and qualify directly, without so much agony or suspense. However, he also had to play repechage in Asia. Without going any further, she was -perhaps- the team that suffered the most to access the big Qatar event.

He had to reach the penalty shoot-out in the tie-break against Peru, after drawing without goals, to shout his relief for qualification in Al Rayyan, Qatar territory. It was the afternoon that goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne danced to distract the Inca football players and became a national hero.

Thus, the team that regularly wears yellow – representative of a country that is a sporting power – was the penultimate to access the World Cup, on June 13 this year. The next day, with a goal from Joel Campbell, Costa Rica defeated New Zealand and earned 32nd place.

Other Australian trivia: It is the only national team that has participated in the World Cup representing various confederations. He is also the only continental champion in several confederations (four times in Oceania and in 2015, at home, in Asia). They are also the only team from the Pacific to enter a final of a FIFA competition: the missing Confederations Cup, in 1997.

The Socceroos They point out in each presentation what goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer once commented (he holds the record for international caps with 109 between 1993 and 2013; and the most unbeaten fences): “Australia always looks like a team that will stay in the first round. But it’s always difficult to face each other. We showed it in 2006 and 2010. There, in Germany, we reached the round of 16 and Italy knocked us out, all the time ‘last minute with a criminal goal’. Schwarzer was in that match. He was unable to shine in one of his strong points, penalties: Francesco Totti’s shot was a goal and also the door that opened up for Italy to become champions. In South Africa 2010 they didn’t get past the first round on goal difference. The beneficiary was Ghana.

Now Australia are in the round of 16 and will face Argentina on Saturday thanks to their resilience. He fell off a landslide on the first date, but in his own way, with his pragmatic and very physical football, he put together two 1-0 victories and entered.

The record against Argentina has the Albiceleste as a broad ruler. They played a total of 7 matches, played since 1988. In that first half, for the Bicentennial Gold Cup in Australia, there was a historic defeat for the team that had been world champions in Mexico: 1-4 with goals from Paul Wade , Charlie Yankos -twice- and Vlado Bozinoski. Oscar Ruggeri scored the goal for those led by Carlos Bilardo. Since that fateful day, Argentina has never lost. won 5 times and drew 1.

The only draw concerns a historic series in this part of the world, the playoffs for access to the World Cup in the United States in 1994. Basile’s team fell 0-5 at the Monumental against Colombia and was condemned to comeback and on. before Socceroos. For those two transcendent duels, Coco’s first decision was to call Diego Maradona and 10 automatically became the owner of the team. In Sydney it was drawn 1-1, and the second leg was immediately 1-0 by a brave Gabriel Batistuta, who saved Argentina from the world card.

In 2011, almost 20 years later, and after his controversial departure as coach of the national team, Maradona remembered those two matches with a sentence that made a stir. “Why was there no doping control in the match with Australia if we had it in all the matches? They gave you a quick coffee and you nailed it in a corner there,” he said on the El Show del Fútbol programme, ​​​conducted by Alejandro Fantino.

Graham Arnold, the coach

There shouldn’t be anyone in the world who identifies with a team like Graham Arnold with Australia. He was born in Sydney 59 years ago. He was an outstanding striker in the A-League and had almost eight seasons’ European experience (between Roda and NAC Breda, from the Netherlands; and Liège and Charleroi, from Belgium). Already towards the end of his career he played for Sanfrecce Hiroshima, from Japan, and Northern Spirit, from his country. He played 453 matches and scored 161 goals.

In the national team he also had a precious passage: between 1985 and 1997 he offered 56 appearances and scored 20 goals. In 1986 he was named player of the year; in 2004 he was inducted into the Australian Soccer Hall of Fame.

He also excelled as a coach. He succeeded in the A-League, won six titles (between Sydney FC and Central Coast Mariners) and three times he was awarded coach of the year.

As far as the national team is concerned, he was assistant, youth coach, of the Olympic team and from 2018 he took charge of the national team to try to bring it to Qatar, More, also in the field of curiosities, beyond the meaning of the data: with Arnold as technician, Australia became the first team in FIFA qualifying history to win eleven consecutive matches in the same edition. It happened quite recently: between September 2018 and October 2021. From 10/12/21, difficulties began: the team scored 6 points out of 24 possible. And to get to the World Cup they had to win a tie-break (2-1 against the United Arab Emirates) and the repechage (0-0 and 5-4 on penalties against Peru).

He even has a mirror to look at himself in…

Australia, after its last Oceanic Qualifiers, played the repechage to access Germany 2006. In that two-way duel they had touched a two-time world champion accustomed to the epic: Uruguay. Recently, Dutchman Guus Hiddink had taken over the squad and at the same time spearheaded PSV Eindhoven’s latest round of success.

In that context, in a short dialogue he offered a clarion on his 59th birthday, he replied:

​ -In such a short time, could you change the mindset of Australian players?

–It’s difficult. You have to think two steps ahead and sometimes that’s not easy for an Australian player. I challenged the whole team to improve. and in this we are.

Today they are encouraged to do more. But Argentina will be ahead. The Argentina of this Maradonian Messi. Nothing less. We will see…