Australia qualifies for World Cup Germany 2006 after penalty shootout victory
We’ve done it. We’ve finally done it. After 32 years of intolerable heartache, the Socceroos are going to the World Cup finals. The last time we qualified for football’s showpiece event was for Germany 1974 and now at long last we’re back on the world stage, this time at Germany 2006. This was our time, this was our destiny and we’ve done it. Australia, you little beauty!
Australian football supporters have been made to wait and suffer a long time for this moment and we were made to hold our breath until the very last penalty kick after two hours of high drama in Sydney tonight. First through two regulation 90 minute play-off ties ending in a 1-1 aggregate score line, then through a goalless 30 minutes of extra-time and finally through what proved a victorious penalty shootout
When our hearts weren’t palpating violently, they were well and truly in our mouths as Alvaro Recoba whipped in what seemed like a million deadly free kicks with that wicked left boot of his, but a composed, solid and thoroughly heroic defensive performance saw Australia weather the storm time and time again, until Recoba was eventually substituted with exhaustion in the 70th minute.
Once again the tactical genius of Dutch master Guus Hiddink was the deciding f
actor as he took the bold decision to substitute defender Tony Poppovic for Liverpool’s attacking midfielder Harry Kewell in the 30th minute, when it became apparent that Uruguay had settled for a more defensive formation to see out the entire match. And within just a few minutes it was Kewell’s inspiration that led to Marco Bresciano’s superb finish to see Australia take a 1-0 lead on the night and equalise 1-1 on aggregate.
In a game that Australia needed to win by two clear goals to claim a place in Germany, 82,698 spectators filled Sydney’s Telstra Stadium only to see the score on the night remain 1-0 after 90 minutes and stay that way after a further 30 minutes of extra time. The ensuing penalty shootout saw Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer pull off two magnificent saves to allow John Aloisi to fire home the winning spot kick and send the entire nation in raptures.
In just four short months and with only four weeks of actual player interaction, Guus Hiddink has transformed a team in tactical disarray into a supremely organised and collectively robust unit not only good enough to qualify for the World Cup, but one, that with the same expert preparation on and off the pitch over the coming months, could well make quite a significant impact on the tournament itself.
This one is for all of the those players and coaches, past and present, who contributed tirelessly and without reward, so much to Australia’s epic 32 year World Cup journey and of course for the supporters who campaign after soul destroying campaign supported what seemed like the unattainable goal of World Cup qualification, without ever giving up hope. And finally this is for the single truest believer in Australian football, who is sadly no longer with us, the man who “told us so”, on so many occasions, that we all just kept on believing.
Johnny Warren “told us so” and so it was.
God Bless you Johnny Warren and God Bless SBS!
Australian football supporters have been made to wait and suffer a long time for this moment and we were made to hold our breath until the very last penalty kick after two hours of high drama in Sydney tonight. First through two regulation 90 minute play-off ties ending in a 1-1 aggregate score line, then through a goalless 30 minutes of extra-time and finally through what proved a victorious penalty shootout
When our hearts weren’t palpating violently, they were well and truly in our mouths as Alvaro Recoba whipped in what seemed like a million deadly free kicks with that wicked left boot of his, but a composed, solid and thoroughly heroic defensive performance saw Australia weather the storm time and time again, until Recoba was eventually substituted with exhaustion in the 70th minute.
Once again the tactical genius of Dutch master Guus Hiddink was the deciding f
actor as he took the bold decision to substitute defender Tony Poppovic for Liverpool’s attacking midfielder Harry Kewell in the 30th minute, when it became apparent that Uruguay had settled for a more defensive formation to see out the entire match. And within just a few minutes it was Kewell’s inspiration that led to Marco Bresciano’s superb finish to see Australia take a 1-0 lead on the night and equalise 1-1 on aggregate.In a game that Australia needed to win by two clear goals to claim a place in Germany, 82,698 spectators filled Sydney’s Telstra Stadium only to see the score on the night remain 1-0 after 90 minutes and stay that way after a further 30 minutes of extra time. The ensuing penalty shootout saw Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer pull off two magnificent saves to allow John Aloisi to fire home the winning spot kick and send the entire nation in raptures.
In just four short months and with only four weeks of actual player interaction, Guus Hiddink has transformed a team in tactical disarray into a supremely organised and collectively robust unit not only good enough to qualify for the World Cup, but one, that with the same expert preparation on and off the pitch over the coming months, could well make quite a significant impact on the tournament itself.
This one is for all of the those players and coaches, past and present, who contributed tirelessly and without reward, so much to Australia’s epic 32 year World Cup journey and of course for the supporters who campaign after soul destroying campaign supported what seemed like the unattainable goal of World Cup qualification, without ever giving up hope. And finally this is for the single truest believer in Australian football, who is sadly no longer with us, the man who “told us so”, on so many occasions, that we all just kept on believing.
Johnny Warren “told us so” and so it was.
God Bless you Johnny Warren and God Bless SBS!
posted by aus.footy.fan at 12:23 AM
4 Comments:
Good news aboot the Roos!
And it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of cheating, kicking, diving South Americans.
I was in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico, in 1986 when Uruguay brought shame to the game of football with a disgraceful display of hacking and time-wasting that put Scotland out of the World Cup after a 0-0 draw.
Never liked them since.
The way they treated the Aussies four years ago came as no surprise.
Now the only problem is: Who will be serving drinks behind the bars of Britain when all of your back-packers are in Germany for a month?
Enjoy yourselves! I'm sure you'll do well.
And if you should happen to knock out England, you would make a lot of Scotsmen happy!
G'Day,
John Maclean
(http://celticfcblog.blogspot.com)
congratulations on reaching the big one.
Pity the rep.ireland wont be there.
And if you should happen to knock out England, you would make a lot of Scotsmen /irishmen / frenchmen / germanmen etc.. happy!
Knocking out England would prove to Australians just how insignificant rugby and cricket really are, but it’s too early for that kind of talk, even for an Australian.
Even Ronaldo said that when it comes to gamesmanship, the Uruguayans are the worst. We handled all the mind games well. Kick off times, travel, ‘divine right’, etc etc. We’ve done it!
When Schwarzer saved that first Uruguayan penalty after Kewell had put our first away, it all seemed oh so right - we were bound for the World Cup finals!
It would certainly be apt, continuing our theme of destiny, if we drew Germany in the group games. Not to get ahead of ourselves! Getting there vs South American opposition is a magnificent feat unto itself and it's great to see the media going ballistic, even if they are mostly bandwagoners :-)
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