Australia men's national soccer team

 ( Official Website ) 

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 first World Cup in West Germany in 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 returned to Germany more than three decades later in 2006. Over a 40-year period, 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, 1998 to Iran and 2002 to Uruguay.

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 match. Australia defeated England 3–1 at West Ham United's Boleyn Ground in 2003 as Wayne Rooney made his international debut.

In early 2005, it was reported that Football Australia had entered into discussions to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and end an almost 40-year association with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). Many commentators and fans, including 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 FIFA 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 FIFA 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 FIFA World Cup. After a 5–0 Exhibition game win against Jamaica, 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. The goals were the first ever scored by Australia's men's soccer team in a World Cup and it was also the first victory of an Oceanian team in the tournament's history, 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. The Socceroos faced Croatia in their third match. The final score (2–2) was enough to see Australia proceed to the round of 16, 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.

Australia began their 2010 FIFA World Cup campaign in the third round of qualification, drawn into a group consisting of Qatar, Iraq and China PR, in which Australia finished first. Australia eventually saw progression through to the tournament in South Africa 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 was drawn into Group D in the World Cup, which featured three-time world champion Germany, Ghana and Serbia. On 14 June, 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 1–1 draw, and their third and final group match against Serbia resulted in a 2–1 win. Ultimately, Australia were eliminated on goal difference behind Ghana. 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 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. On 26 August 2013, Australia became full members of the ASEAN Football Federation but as part of their entrance agreement with the sub-confederation, their national team is barred from participating in the AFF Championship due to their perceived wide gap in playing standards between Australia and the rest of the region.

in Arena Pantanal, at the 2014 World Cup.]] Australia's 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign began with a series of friendlies against the United Arab Emirates (0–0), Germany (a 2–1 win), New Zealand (a 3–0 win), Serbia (0–0) and Wales (a 2–1 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 finals tournament in Brazil 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.

At the World Cup, Australia were drawn in Group B alongside defending world champions 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, with the Socceroos giving up a 2–1 lead, eventually resulting in a 3–2 loss, thus earning their early exit along with the Spanish. In the end, Australia finished Group B with a third consecutive defeat to Spain, 3–0. Australia's competitive World Cup performances in a difficult group led to believe that a new Golden Generation was about to begin.

In their first international match after the World Cup, Australia played 2014 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 over 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, Australia slipped 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 the United Arab Emirates and advanced to the final for the second time in a 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.

After Australia qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in November 2017, Ange Postecoglou resigned from his position as coach; and former manager of the Netherlands national team, Bert van Marwijk, was subsequently appointed as his replacement. On 8 March 2018, after van Marwijk's first squad announcement, the FFA announced that Graham Arnold will take the coaching role from after the 2018 World Cup until the 2022 World Cup.

With van Marwijk, Australia was grouped with Denmark, France and Peru. The Socceroos' first group match against eventual world champions France was praised by a valiant effort, in which Australia only lost 1–2 by a virtual own goal from Aziz Behich. After the defeat to France, Australia produced another outstanding performance, drawing Denmark 1–1. However, in the crucial match against already eliminated Peru, Australia lost 0–2 and crashed out from the World Cup with only a point, becoming the only team from the AFC to be winless in the 2018 World Cup. Subsequently, van Marwijk left his post and Arnold replaced him as the new coach of the Socceroos.

Under Graham Arnold, Australia started their 2019 AFC Asian Cup in hope of defending the title, being grouped with Jordan, Syria and Palestine, but their hope was shattered by a shocking 0–1 defeat to Jordan. Australia soon returned to the race by beating Palestine 3–0 before winning an important encounter with a hard-fought 3–2 win over Syria, eliminating both Palestine and Syria in the process. The win gave Australia to qualify for the round of sixteen, where they overcame Uzbekistan after winning on penalties 4–2, having drawn 0–0 for 120 minutes. In the quarter-finals, however, in the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, where Australia had lost their opening match against Jordan, Australia once again failed to register a win in the same ground, losing to the host United Arab Emirates 0–1 due to a mistake from Miloš Degenek, eventually failing to defend the title.

Australia was drawn in group D along with France, Denmark and Tunisia. Australia's qualification also meant that the Asian confederation had the largest number of teams in their World Cup history, with six countries qualifying.

As preparation for the World Cup, Australia played two friendlies against neighbouring New Zealand, winning both games. It began its World Cup quest on 23 November against France, losing 4–1 after initially taking the lead with goal from Craig Goodwin. Three days later Australia registered its first World Cup win since 2010, overcoming Tunisia with a header from Mitchell Duke to seal a 1–0 win, sending Australia from bottom to second place. Four days later, against UEFA Euro 2020 semi-finalists Denmark, Australia won 1–0, thanks to a Mathew Leckie goal. Australia finished the group stage in second place behind France on goal difference, making Australia the first Asian representative to reach the knockout stage in Qatar 2022. Australia's resurgence in the group stage was widely watched and followed by Australian supporters. Mass celebrations occurred after the upsets over Tunisia and Denmark, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the achievement "magnificent". In the round of 16, Australia lost 2–1 to Argentina, with Lionel Messi opening the scoring and Julián Álvarez getting the second after dispossessing Mathew Ryan. Australia pulled one back when Goodwin's shot deflected into goal off Enzo Fernández and Garang Kuol almost scored the equaliser in injury time, but his shot was smothered by Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez.

Previous coverage has been provided by Fox Sports (2018–2021), Ten network on its 10 Bold channel, ABC, SBS until 2016 and Nine Network on its 9Go! channel (2016–2017).

The national team has set multiple ratings records for both subscription and free-to-air television. 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.

Australia has worn a yellow jersey, usually accompanied by green shorts, and yellow socks since the 1960s. The colour of the socks altered throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s from white to the same green as the shorts to the same yellow colour as the jersey.

Rather than displaying the logo of Football 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 kits have been produced by manufacturers including Umbro, Adidas, KingRoo, and since 2004 by Nike. 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.

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 or Hockeyroos for the Australian national women's hockey team.

Previously, the team was known as "Caltex Socceroos" under the sponsorship of Ampol from 2017 to 2019. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, some of Caltex's service stations were re-branded as "Cahilltex" as a nod to Socceroos player Tim Cahill.

Football Australia has been sponsored by Qantas as its official airline since 2004.

Australia has played at the Gabba in Brisbane, which hosted Australia's first international match on home soil in 1923, a 2–1 win over New Zealand. It was the fourth Australian team match overall, with the first three internationals played in New Zealand. Other venues which regularly hosted international home matches included Olympic Park Stadium in Melbourne, the Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Sports Ground, Sydney Showground, and Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, and Subiaco Oval in Perth.

Notes

• ^INJ = Injured
• ^WD = Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue

Two days before the 31–0 win, Australia broke the record for largest win with a 22–0 win over Tonga. 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.

---

Most capped players

1	Mark Schwarzer	109	0	GK
2	Tim Cahill	108	50	FW	2004–2018
3	Mathew Ryan	100	0	GK	2012–present
4	Lucas Neill	96	1	DF	1996–2013
5	Brett Emerton	95	20	MF	1998–2012
6	Alex Tobin	87	2	DF	1988–1998
7	Mark Bresciano	84	13	MF	2001–2015
	Paul Wade	84	10	MF	1986–1996
9	Aziz Behich	81	3	DF	2012–present
10	Mark Milligan	80	6	MF	2006–2019
	Luke Wilkshire	80	8	DF	2004–2014

---

Top goalscorers

1	Tim Cahill (list)	50	108
2	Damian Mori	29	45		1992–2002
3	Archie Thompson	28	54		2001–2013
4	John Aloisi	27	55		1993–2008
5	John Kosmina	25	60		1977–1988
	Attila Abonyi	25	61		1967–1977
7	David Zdrilic	20	31		1997–2010
	Mile Jedinak	20	79		2008–2018
	Brett Emerton	20	95		1998–2012
10	Graham Arnold	19	56		1985–1997

---

Most clean sheets

1	Mark Schwarzer	44	109		1993–2013
2	Mathew Ryan	38	100		2012–present
3	Zeljko Kalac	24	54		1992–2006
4	Jeff Olver	13	37		1985–1989
5	Robert Zabica	12	27		1990–1994

---

Competitive record

---

FIFA World Cup

---

FIFA Confederations Cup

1992

No OFC representative invited

1995

1997

Runners-up

2nd

5

2

1

2

4

8

1999

Did not qualify

2001

Third place

3rd

5

3

0

2

4

2

2003

AFC Asian Cup ASEAN Championship Not an AFC member 1998 2000 2002 2004 Not an AFF member 2008 2010 2012 Did not enter 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Summer Olympics 1908–1952 Did not participate 1956 Quarter-finals 5th 2 1 0 1 4 4 Qualified as Host 1960 Withdrew Withdrew 1964 Did not enter Did not enter 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 Quarter-finals 7th 4 2 0 2 2 6 8 6 2 0 18 4 1992–present See Australia men's national under-23 soccer team OFC Nations Cup 1973 Did not participate 1980 Champions 1st 4 4 0 0 24 4 1996 Champions 1st 4 3 1 0 14 0 1998 Runners-up 2nd 4 3 0 1 23 3 2000 Champions 1st 4 4 0 0 26 0 2002 Runners-up 2nd 5 4 0 1 23 2 2004 Champions 1st 7 6 1 0 32 4 Not OFC member AFC–OFC Challenge Cup 2001 3 2003 Did not qualify ASEAN Championship Since joining the AFF in 2013, Australia has never competed in this event. Minor tournaments 7 8 8 2 0 4 6 2 4 5 3 0 2 0 1 2 4 1 0 1 0 1 2 0 2 3 4 3 All-time record FIFA Rankings Last update was on 23 March 2025 Source: '''Best Ranking''' '''Worst Ranking''' '''Best Mover''' '''Worst Mover''' 1 - 16 2 8 2 13 6 10 2 0 1 10 3 11 7 13 10 10 9 14 2 11 14 12 7 13 9 17 2 13 6 12 10 13 5 10 6 13 4 12 4 12 9 3 13 4 3 16 5 15 6 0 11 9 6 19 4 12 9 9 8 6 6 10 13 Honours Worldwide FIFA Confederations Cup Runners-up (1): 1997 Third place (1): 2001 Intercontinental AFC-OFC Challenge Cup Runners-up (1): 2001 Continental AFC Asian Cup Champions (1): 2015 Runners-up (1): 2011 OFC Nations Cup Champions (4): 1980, 1996, 2000, 2004 Runners-up (2): 1998, 2002 Friendly Trans-Tasman Cup (4): 1986, 1988, 1991, 1995 Soccer Ashes (5): 1933, 1936, 1948, 1954, 2023 Indonesian Independence Cup (1): 1990 South Vietnam Independence Cup (1): 1967 Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup (1): 1988 Merlion Cup (2): 1982, 1983 Awards AFC Men's Team of the Year (2): 2006, 2015 AFC Asian Cup Fair Play Award (1): 2015 Summary FIFA Confederations Cup 2 AFC Asian Cup 2 OFC Nations Cup 6 AFC–OFC Challenge Cup 1 See also Australia women's national soccer team Soccer in Australia List of Australia men's national soccer team captains Australia 31–0 American Samoa Trans-Tasman Cup Australia national futsal team Australia women's national futsal team Notes External links Australia at AFC Australia at FIFA Categories: Official Website, Oceanian National Association Football Teams, Asian National Association Football Teams, Afc Asian Cup–winning Countries, 1922 Establishments In Australia, National Sports Teams Established In 1922 Page 1 of 1 1 Post Comment Page 1 of 1 1 Account Social: Privacy Policy Pages: Scavenge .. QRCode .. Tags Items: Shopping Cart .. Favorites UPC Scavenger Android App Navigation General: Atom Feed .. Entire Sitemap Help: Index .. Editing .. Full List Category: All .. Products .. Vendors Media: Product .. Wiki .. User Posts: Product .. Wiki .. User .. Forum Statistics Page: Revisions .. Tag Cloud Summary: Database .. Activity 1 Tags 10/10 Page Rank 5 Page Refs 4s Time