Australia at the 2022 World Cup: The golden times are in the past

We continue to introduce the participants of the World Cup in Qatar, who will start the tournament in Group "D". Next up is Australia.

Australia

The state on the continent of the same name, once inhabited by Aborigines, appeared after British colonization in the 17th-18th centuries. Today Australia is one of the most developed countries in the world.

Geographical remoteness has contributed to the fact that on the territory of Australia you can find animals that are not present on other continents: koalas, kangaroos, platypus.

Australia has twice hosted the summer Olympic Games: in 1956 they were held in Melbourne, and in 2000 in Sydney. Summer sports and some winter ones are well developed here. Australian Rules Football is very popular here. It's very similar to rugby but more dynamic and requires phenomenal endurance - the players can run up to 20 kilometers over a match. Classical soccer is less popular on the mainland - it's called soccer, just like in the United States, but not its local cousin.

Australian national soccer team

This year it's one hundred years since the first match of the Australian national team: in June 1922 it played away with New Zealand and was defeated 1:3.

The geographical remoteness of Australia in the early decades strongly hindered its progress in the international arena. The first tournament, in which the team played, became the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, where the hosts defeated Japan - 2:0 and lost to India - 2:4.

Soccer in Australia has long remained amateur, and against this background, getting to the World Cup in 1974 was a great success. All the more so, that a separate ticket from Oceania to the World Cup was not: always had to fight with the Asians for a ticket. In '74, Australia failed to score a single goal at the World Cup, losing to East Germany 0-2 and Germany 0-3 and playing a 0-0 draw with Chile.

In 2005, Australia switched from the Oceania Confederation to the Asian Confederation, but finished the World Cup 2006 qualifying tournament as a representative of Oceania - and made it to the finals. It was here that Guus Hiddink, the future head coach of Russia, took the team to the play-offs for the first time. In the group the Australians beat Japan 3-1, lost to Brazil 0-2 and played a draw with Croatia 2-2. In the 1/8 finals the Socceroos put up serious resistance to Italy and lost only after a Francesco Totti goal in the 95th minute.

Since then, the Australian national team has not missed a single World Cup, although they have never managed to repeat their success and reach the playoffs.

Australia's national team stars

Right now the Socceroos are without goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer or forward Tim Cahill, who used to shine in the noughties. Closely following the European leagues may be famous Sunderland defender Bailey Wright, former Hull midfielder Jackson Irwin, Maccabi Haifa striker Nikita Rukavica.

Group D opponents.

France, Denmark and Tunisia.

Prediction on Australia's performance

The Australians will not make it out of the group: the French and Danes are obviously better, and Tunisians are a stronger team. The Hamburg score puts Australia in fourth place and they can't dream of a playoff.