Australia is the sixth name from the Asian subcontinent to participate in the twenty-second edition of the FIFA men’s World Cup. Australia is one of the nations representing in the World Cup football from two confederations; AFC and OFC. The Australian team made it into the Qatar World Cup through an intercontinental playoff with Peru (CONMEBOL).
AFC Asian Cup and 3 Oceana Nations Cup Champion Aussie national team nickname is Socceroos. The Socceroos has made six appearances in the FIFA World Cup football, including the 2022 edition. Let’s read more about Australian football history, playing squad, and preparation for the Qatar World Cup 2022.
Brief History of Australian Football | Soccer
Football/soccer is an integral part of Australia. Australians became familiar with football pretty early. They formed a national team to play tour matches with neighbor New Zealand in 1922. During that period, Australia also toured several nations, Canada, India, and South Africa, and played football matches with them.
Moreover, Australia faced the most significant defeat of 17 goals from England after the Second World War in 1951. After playing for decades, in 1956, Australia hosted the Melbourne Olympics, including Soccer. Despite being the host country, Australia performed weakly in football games and ended the competition with the fourth position.
Australia OFC Journey
In the mid-1960s, Australia proposed Oceana nations form a regional soccer association to represent in the international tournament. In 1966, Oceana Football Confederation (OFC) was established to improve the game of Oceana’s men’s football and participate internationally.
Australia participated in the FIFA World qualifying round of the 1966 World Cup but failed and repeated the same in the next tournament of 1970. Finally, it became the first Oceana nation to qualify for Soccer’s most prominent event FIFA World Cup 1974, held in West Germany. It won four Oceana nations Cup trophies as a part of OFC before leaving it in 2006.
Australia AFC Journey
Even though Australia was the most successful OFC nation, they decided to leave the association to improve their performances. In 2006, Australia left OFC and joined the Asian subcontinental football confederation (AFC).
Next year, they participated in the AFC Asian Cup for the first time and finished in the fourth position. The Aussie team’s progress was shown in the field, becoming a runner-up in the next Asian Cup in 2011.
And in 2015, the Aussie team hosted the sixteenth edition of the Asian Cup and bagged the title defeating South Korea in the final. That time, Asia found a new champion. However, Australia only surpassed the pre-quarterfinals of the 2019 Asian Cup, whose winner was Qatar.
Australia at the FIFA World Cup Football
One of the strong contenders of current AFC and former OFC Australia has participated in six Soccer World Cups, including Qatar World Cup. It seems Asian representation is lucky for the Aussie team as they have qualified for the FIFA World Cup since they joined AFC even though they have participated in the tournament but have not brought the best result for them to date.
Also Read: FIFA World Cup 2022 Iran National Team|History
In the Qatar World cup qualification round, Australia was third in group B behind Saudi Arabia and Japan. Then, it plays the fourth round with group A third team UAE. After beating UAE, Australia was selected for the intercontinental playoff match, Where it made victory over CONMEBOL Peru and finally made it into the Qatar world cup.
FIFA World Cup 2022 Australia National Team| History
Australia is the sixth team from Asia to represent in the soccer world cup. It made a spot after winning the intercontinental playoff. The Aussie teams have planned a few friendly matches before starting the tournament. They will play against New Zealand in September 2022 and then practice for the world cup.
Furthermore, Australia will face defending champions France, Tunisia, and Denmark in group matches of the Qatar World Cup 2022. A former footballer Graham Arnold is the head coach, and Matthew Ryan is the team captain. Although it has not announced the final playing squad, these players have the potential to be on the list.
- GK: Mat Ryan (Real Sociedad)
- GK: Andrew Redmayne (Sydney FC)
- GK: Danny Vukovic (NEC)
- DF: Milos Degenek (Columbus Crew)
- DF: Fran Karacic (Brescia)
- DF: Nathanial Atkinson (Hearts)
- DF: Bailey Wright (Sunderland)
- DF: Aziz Behich (unattached)
- DF: Kye Rowles (Hearts)
- DF: Trent Sainsbury (unattached)
- DF: Jason Davidson (Eupen)
- DF: Joel King (OB)
- MF: Denis Genreau (Toulouse)
- MF: Ajdin Hrustic (Eintracht Frankfurt)
- MF: Aaron Mooy (Shanghai Port)
- MF: Riley McGree (Middlesbrough)
- MF: Craig Goodwin (Adelaide United)
- MF: Jackson Irvine (St. Pauli)
- MF: Gianni Stensness (Viking Stavanger)
- MF: Kenny Dougall (Blackpool)
- FW: Martin Boyle (Al-Faisaly)
- MF: Mathew Leckie (Melbourne City)
- FW: Jamie Maclaren (Melbourne City)
- FW: Awer MaFourbil (Cadiz)
- FW: Mitchell Duke (Fagiano Okayama)
- FW: Marco Tilio (Melbourne City)
- FW: Nicholas D’Agostino (Melbourne Victory)
- FW: Adam Taggart (Cerezo Osaka)
Source: Four Four Two
