Australia national soccer team

Early years

The first Australia national team was constituted in 1922 for a tour of New Zealand. During the tour, Australia suffered two defeats and scraped a draw. For the next 36 years, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa became regular opponents in tour (exhibition) matches. During that period, Australia also competed against Canada and India during their tours of Australia in 1924 and 1938 respectively. Australia recorded their worst ever defeat on 30 June 1951 as they lost 17–0 in a test match to a touring England side. Australia had a rare opportunity to compete on the world's stage during the team's very first major international tournament as hosts of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. However, an inexperienced squad proved to be reason for the team's disappointing performance. With the advent of cheap air travel, Australia began to diversify its range of opponents. However, its geographical isolation continued to play a role in its destiny for the next 30 years.

After failing to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 1966 and 1970, losing in play-offs to North Korea and Israel respectively, Australia finally appeared at their very first World Cup in West Germany, 1974. After managing only a draw from Chile and losses from East Germany and West Germany, the team which was made up of mostly amateur players was eliminated at the end of the first round, finishing last in their group without scoring a goal. It would prove to be the only appearance for the Australian team until the World Cup tournament returned to Germany more than three decades later in 2006. Over that 32-year period, as well as the eight years prior, the Australian team was known for its near misses in its attempts to qualify for the World Cup; they lost play-offs in 1966 (to North Korea), 1970 (to Israel), 1986 (to Scotland), 1994 (to Argentina), and most notably in 1998 against Iran and 2002 against Uruguay.

The team's previously poor record in World Cup competition was not reflected in their reasonable performances against strong European and South American sides. In 1988, Australia defeated reigning world champions Argentina 4–1 in the Australian Bicentennial Gold Cup. In 1997, Australia drew with reigning world champions Brazil 0–0 in the group stage and then defeated Uruguay 1–0 in the semi-finals to reach the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup Final. In 2001, after a victory against reigning world champions France in the group stage, Australia finished the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup in third place after defeating Brazil 1–0 in the third-place decider.

"Golden generation"

In early 2005, it was reported that Football Federation Australia had entered into discussions to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFA) and end an almost 40-year association with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). Many commentators and fans, most notably soccer broadcaster and former Australian captain Johnny Warren, felt that the only way for Australia to progress was to abandon Oceania. On 13 March, the AFC executive committee made a unanimous decision to invite Australia to join the AFC. After the OFC executive committee unanimously endorsed Australia's proposed move, FIFA approved the move on 30 June 2005. Australia joined Asia, with the move taking effect on 1 January 2006, though until then, Australia had to compete for a 2006 World Cup position as an OFC member country.

After a successful campaign, the team took the first steps towards qualification for the 2006 World Cup. After coach Frank Farina stood down from the position after Australia's dismal performance at the 2005 Confederations Cup, Guus Hiddink was announced as the new national coach. Australia, ranked 49th, would then have to play the 18th ranked Uruguay in a rematch of the 2001 qualification play-off for a spot in the 2006 World Cup. After a successful friendly match against Jamaica (Australia's biggest high-profile win: 5–0), the first leg of the play-off tournament was lost (1–0), with the return leg still to be played in Australia four days later in Sydney on 16 November 2005.

The second leg of the qualifying play-off was played in front of a crowd of 82,698 at Stadium Australia. Australia led Uruguay 1–0 after 90 minutes following a goal by Mark 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), making Australia the first ever team to qualify for a World Cup via a penalty shootout. Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer made two saves, with John Aloisi scoring the winning penalty for a place in the World Cup, Australia's first qualification in 32 years.

Australia went into the 2006 World Cup as the second lowest-ranked side. Although their ranking vastly improved in subsequent months after a series of exhibition matches against high-profile teams, including a 1–1 draw against the Netherlands, and a 1–0 win at the sold out 100,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground against the then European Champions Greece.

For the 2006 World Cup, Australia was placed into Group F, along with Japan, Croatia and defending champions Brazil. In their opening group game, Australia defeated Japan 3–1, with Tim Cahill scoring two goals (84', 89') and John Aloisi scoring one (90+2') in the last eight minutes. Their goals made history, being the first ever scored by Australia's men's soccer team in a World Cup, as well as all three goals being scored in the last seven minutes of the game, which was never before done in a World Cup match. Australia met Brazil in their second group game, which Australia lost to Brazil 2–0. Australia faced Croatia in their third match. The final score (2–2) was enough to see Australia proceed to the knockout stage, where they were eliminated from the competition after a 1–0 defeat by the eventual champions Italy after conceding a controversial penalty in the 93rd minute. The loss marked the official end of Hiddink's tenure as Australia's national coach. The success achieved at the 2006 World Cup later saw the team named AFC National Team of the Year, as well as being dubbed the "golden generation" in the history of the Socceroos.

Later success

Led by coach Graham Arnold, Australia went to their first Asian Cup in 2007, sending a strong squad which included 15 players from the previous year's World Cup team. In Group A they played against Oman (1–1 draw), Thailand (4–0 win) and eventual champions Iraq (3–1 loss), assuring Australia's progression to the quarter final stage of the tournament. Though after drawing 1–1 with Japan after extra time, Australia exited the tournament on penalties at the quarter-final stage. An international friendly on 11 September 2007 against Argentina (1–0 loss) was Graham Arnold's last game as head coach, with the position eventually being filled by Pim Verbeek on 6 December 2007.

Australia began their 2010 World Cup campaign in the third round of qualification, drawn into a group, composed of Qatar, Iraq and China PR, in which Australia finished first. Australia eventually saw progression through to the 2010 World Cup after comfortably winning the fourth round of qualification in a group consisting of Japan, Bahrain, Qatar and Uzbekistan. Australia's qualification was already assured before the final two games, finally topping its group ahead of Japan by five points.

Australia were drawn into Group D in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which featured three-time world champion Germany, Ghana and Serbia. On 14 June 2010, Australia faced Germany. Pim Verbeek's surprising decision to play without a recognised striker saw Australia comprehensively defeated 4–0. Verbeek received heavy criticism for his tactics, with SBS (Australia's World Cup broadcaster) chief soccer analyst Craig Foster calling for his immediate sacking. Australia's second group match against Ghana resulted in a draw of 1–1, and their third and final group match against Serbia resulted in a 2–1 win. Ultimately Australia's heavy loss to Germany saw them eliminated in group stage. Pim Verbeek completed his term as Australian coach at the end of the 2010 World Cup and was soon replaced by Holger Osieck.

In 2010, Australia qualified for their second AFC Asian Cup, topping their qualification group. A successful campaign at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup saw Australia become runners-up to Japan, after losing in the Final 1–0 in extra time.

In 2012, Australia agreed to compete in the East Asian Cup. Australia travelled to Hong Kong to compete in a series of qualification matches with the hopes of qualifying for the 2013 East Asian Cup. Despite handing several debuts and fielding an in-experienced squad, Australia was successful, finishing ahead of Hong Kong, North Korea, Guam and Chinese Taipei to progress to the 2013 East Asian Cup, where Australia eventually finished last behind Japan, South Korea and China PR.

Australia's 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification began with a series of friendlies against the United Arab Emirates (0–0), Germany (1–2 win), New Zealand (3–0 win), Serbia (0–0) and Wales (1–2 win). Australia's World Cup campaign started in the third round of qualification, with Australia topping their group to progress to the fourth round. After winning their last fourth round-game, Australia finished as runners-up in their group, qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup on 18 June 2013.

Shortly after achieving qualification to the World Cup, Australia played a series of friendly matches against Brazil and France, suffering consecutive 6–0 defeats. This along with previous poor performances during the 2014 World Cup qualification campaign resulted in manager Holger Osieck's sacking, bringing his four-year tenure as Australia's manager to an end.

New generation: the 2015 Asian Cup triumph

After a two-week search for a new manager, Ange Postecoglou was eventually appointed in the position. Postecoglou was tasked with regenerating the Australian national team, which was deemed to have been too reliant on members of their Golden Generation of 2006, subsequently leading to a stagnation of results, culminating in successive 6–0 defeats to Brazil and France. In his first game as Australia's manager, a home friendly match against Costa Rica, Australia won 1–0 courtesy of a goal from Tim Cahill.

For the 2014 World Cup, Australia were drawn in Group B alongside reigning Cup holders Spain, 2010 runners-up Netherlands and Chile. Their first match was off to a lacklustre start, having conceded two goals in the opening 15 minutes from Alexis Sánchez and Jorge Valdivia. Despite a goal from Tim Cahill that inspired a late resurgence from Postecoglou's team, they ultimately lost to Chile 3–1. Their second match against the Netherlands was a close one, but their efforts ended in a 3–2 loss, thus earning their early exit along with the Spanish team. Australian fans praised the team for their outstanding efforts in a tough group. In the end, Australia finished Group B with a third, consecutive defeat to former world champions Spain, 3–0. Australia's competitive World Cup performances in a difficult group lead to belief that a new Golden Generation was about to begin.

In their first international match proceeding the World Cup, Australia played World Cup quarter-finalists Belgium in Liège, with Australia going down 2–0. Four days later, Australia achieved their first international win in ten months, and just their second win under Ange Postecoglou, with a 3–2 victory of Saudi Arabia in London. After drawing against the United Arab Emirates, and suffering successive losses against Qatar and Japan, combined with previous poor results earlier in the year, saw Australia slip to 94 and 102 in the FIFA World Rankings, their lowest ever ranking.

The new year saw Australia host the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, with the team making their third consecutive appearance in the tournament. Australia won their first two group matches against Kuwait and Oman comfortably, with scorelines of 4–1 and 4–0 respectively. This guaranteed their qualification for the knockout stage, despite losing their final group match against South Korea in Brisbane 1–0. They faced China PR in the quarter-finals and won 2–0, courtesy of a second-half brace from Tim Cahill. In the semi-finals, Australia won 2–0 over United Arab Emirates and advanced to the final for the second time in row. They faced South Korea in the final on 31 January at Stadium Australia, winning 2–1 after extra time to claim their first Asian title and qualify for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Following the Asian Cup Victory, the team travelled to Europe for friendly matches, drawing 2–2 with defending World Champions Germany and 0–0 with Macedonia.

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification

Following the Asian Cup triumph, Australia went into the 2018 World Cup qualification, drawn in a group with Jordan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh.

They began the qualifying group with an away match against Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek, where they achieved a 2–1 win. In their first home match of the campaign, they beat Bangladesh 5–0 at nib Stadium, with almost 19,500 fans in attendance. After that, they played against Tajikistan in Dushanbe, winning comfortably 3–0 with Tim Cahill scoring a brace. They blotted their perfect record with a loss 2–0 to Jordan. However, they had managed a good comeback from behind, winning their last 4 matches in the group, including a 5–1 revenge to Jordan at home. This win also eliminated Jordan from entering the last round of World Cup qualification, having lost 0–1 to Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek, while Australia continued their journey.

Media coverage

Australian matches have been broadcast by free-to-air network SBS and subscription sports network Fox Sports, with the national team having set multiple ratings records for both television networks. Australia's final 2006 World Cup qualifying match against Uruguay was the highest rating program in SBS history with an audience of 3.4 million viewers, while a 2010 World Cup qualifying match against Uzbekistan set a record for the highest subscription television audience, with an average of 431,000 viewers. The 2015 Asian Cup Final against South Korea had a total reach of 5.3 million Australians overall.

Colours

Australia's first kit was sky blue with a maroon hoop on the socks, the colours representing the states of New South Wales and Queensland. A look that was reminiscent of the Australian national rugby league team's strips of the period. They wore the predominantly light blue kit until 1924 when they changed to green and gold.

Australia have worn a yellow jersey, usually accompanied by green shorts, and yellow socks since the 1960s. The colour of the socks has altered throughout the 1970s, 1980 and 1990s from white to the same green as the shorts to the same yellow colour as the jersey. Their current away kit is a dark blue jersey accompanied by dark blue shorts and socks. Australia's kits have been produced by manufacturers including Umbro, Adidas, KingRoo (from 1990 until 1993), Adidas again (from 1994 until January 2004) and recently Nike (since February 2004).

Rather than displaying the logo of Football Federation Australia, Australia's jersey traditionally features the coat of arms of Australia over the left breast. The team first wore the traditional green and yellow colours in 1924. Australia's 1974 World Cup kits were produced by Adidas as were all other national team kits in the tournament, with Adidas sponsoring the event. The kits, however, contained Umbro branding, due to the manufacturer's Australian partnership at the time. Nike renewed the kit manufacturer deal with FFA for another 11 years in 2012, handing them the rights to make national team kits until 2022. In the lead-up to the 2014 World Cup, the new kits to be worn by the team were revealed. The design of the new kits included a plain yellow shirt with a green collar, plain dark green shorts and white socks, a tribute to the 1974 Socceroos. Inside the back of the neck also had woven the quote, "We Socceroos can do the impossible", from Peter Wilson, the captain of the 1974 Australian team. This kit was well received. In March 2016, FFA revealed the new Socceroos kit, which featured a yellow jersey, yellow shorts and green socks. This was reportedly in accordance with a FIFA directive, instructing all national teams to have matching shirts and shorts. This kit was met with wide public contention, primarily due to the colour change of the shorts from the traditional green to yellow.

Nickname

Australia's nickname, "Socceroos", was coined in 1967 by Sydney journalist Tony Horstead in his coverage of the team on a goodwill tour to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It is commonly used by both the Australian people and the governing body, the FFA. The nickname represents a cultural propensity for the use of colloquialisms in the country. It also represents the Australian English use of the sport's name.

The name itself is similar to most other Australian national representative sporting team nicknames; used informally when referring to the team, in the media or in conversation. Similarly, the name is derived from a well-known symbol of Australia, in this case the kangaroo. The words soccer and kangaroo are combined into a portmanteau word as soccer-roo; such as Olyroos for the Australia Olympic soccer team.

Rivalries

Australia's long time rivals are trans-Tasman neighbours New Zealand. The two teams' history dates back to 1922, where they first met in both their international debuts. The rivalry between the Socceroos and the All Whites (New Zealand) is part of a wider friendly rivalry between the neighbours Australia and New Zealand, which applies not only to sport but to the culture of the two countries. The rivalry was intensified when Australia and New Zealand were both members of the OFC, regularly competing in OFC Nations Cup finals and in FIFA World Cup qualifications, where only one team from the OFC progressed to the World Cup. Since Australia left the OFC to join the AFC in 2006, competition between the two teams has been less frequent. However, the rivalry between the two teams is still strong, with the occasional match receiving much media and public attention.

After joining the AFC, Australia began to develop a fierce rivalry with fellow Asian powerhouse Japan. The rivalry began at the 2006 World Cup, where the two countries were grouped together. The rivalry continued with the two countries meeting regularly in various AFC competitions including the 2011 Asian Cup final and qualification for the World Cup's of 2010, 2014 & 2018.

Supporters

The main supporter group of the Australian national team is Socceroos Active Support (SAS). SAS was founded in January 2015 as an independent group, who uses social media to organise and keep in touch. This replaced the former active support group Terrace Australis, who were founded by Football Federation Australia and fans in 2013, during Australia's 2014 World Cup qualification campaign. Its establishment came in the wake of poor off-field action and minimal community engagement. Previously, the emergence of Terrace Australis saw the Green and Gold Army relinquish its role as a hub for active support, which it had claimed since its establishment in 2001. Since the 2015 AFC Asian Cup triumph, the supporters had encouraged people in Australia to focus more on the national team, and the nation's soccer pride.

Home stadium

Australia does not have a dedicated national stadium, instead the team plays at different venues throughout the country for exhibition or tournament purposes. In recent years, major international matches have usually been rotated around various large grounds, include Stadium Australia and Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, Docklands Stadium in Melbourne and Lang Park in Brisbane. International matches have also been played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Melbourne Rectangular Stadium in Melbourne, Hindmarsh Stadium and Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, Subiaco Oval in Perth and Canberra Stadium in Canberra.

Australia historically played at the Gabba in Brisbane, which hosted Australia's first international match on home-soil on 9 June 1923. Other historic venues which regularly hosted international home matches include Olympic Park Stadium in Melbourne as well as the Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Sports Ground and Sydney Showground.

Australia has also played several "home" games in recent years at Craven Cottage in Fulham (Fulham Football Club's home ground), and Loftus Road, Shepherd's Bush (Queens Park Rangers' home ground), owing to the fact there is a large Australian expatriate community in West London, and that a high proportion of the senior team play in European leagues.

Players

For all past and present players who have appeared for the national team, see Category:Australia international soccer players.

Current squad

The following 23 players were called up for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Thailand on 15 November 2016.
Caps and goals correct as of 15 November 2016 after the game against Thailand.

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Australia squad within the last 12 months.

^INJ Withdrew due to an injury.

^PRE Preliminary squad.

Results and fixtures

For all past match results of the national team, see the team's results page.

The following matches were played or are scheduled to be played in the current or upcoming seasons.

Records

Mark Schwarzer holds the record for most Australia appearances with 109. He is the only Australia player to have reached 100 caps. Lucas Neill is second with 96 caps and Brett Emerton is next, having played 95 times. Tim Cahill has played 'A' Internationals for Australia 94 times and is the fourth-most capped player.

Tim Cahill holds the title of Australia's highest goalscorer. He has scored a record 48 goals since his first appearance for Australia in March 2004, during which time he has played for Australia on 94 occasions. Damian Mori (29 goals) and Archie Thompson (28 goals) complete the top three.

Australia currently hold the world record for the largest win and the most goals scored by a player in an international match. Both records were achieved during the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification match against American Samoa on 11 April 2001. Australia won 31–0 with Archie Thompson scoring 13 goals and David Zdrilic scoring 8. Two days before the 31–0 win, Australia broke the record for largest win with a 22–0 win over Tonga. Both wins surpassed the previous record held by China, who beat Bhutan 20–0 on in a qualifying game for the Asian Cup in 2000. With 13 and 8 goals respectively, both Thompson and Zdrilic broke the previous record jointly held by another Australian, Gary Cole, who scored seven goals against Fiji in 1981, and Iranian Karim Bagheri, who also scored seven goals against Maldives in 1997.

Competitive record

For the all-time record of the national team against opposing nations, see the team's all-time record page.

Honours

FIFA Confederations Cup

Runners-up (1): 1997 Third place (1): 2001

OFC Nations Cup

Winners (4): 1980, 1996, 2000, 2004 Runners-up (2): 1998, 2002

AFC Asian Cup

Winners (1): 2015 Runners-up (1): 2011

AFC Men's Team of the Year: 2006, 2015

Minor tournaments

1967 Quoc Khanh Cup – Champions

1982 and 1983 Merlion Cup – Champions

1988 Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup – Runner-up

1990 Indonesian Independence Cup − Champions

1994 Kirin Cup – Runner-up