What is the Socceroos’ greatest football rivalry?

Roar Guru

By dasilva, 3 Nov 2008 dasilva is a Roar Guru

Tagged:: Asian Champions League, Australia A, Champions League, Japan, Lucas, Lucas Neill, South Korea, Vince Grella, World Cup, World Cup qualifier

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Is it England? We all love to beat them. And that 3-1 victory sure was sweet. But what about Japan? The World Cup match was epic. We also faced them in the Asian Cup and Asian Champions League, and there’s always great competition between two regional powerhouses.

And then there’s Iran.

Anyone who saw ‘that match’ in 1997 is waiting for the day to get revenge. Only when we eliminate Iran from the World Cup Qualifiers will we ever exorcise that ghost.

South Korea?

In the 1974 World Cup qualifier, Australia was 2-0 down, but then came back to equalise. Australia did ‘an Iran’ over the South Koreans and that was their equivalent of that national disaster.

That playoff series was just as bad to South Koreans as what the Iran match was for Australia.

However, all that said, I think our greatest rival is Iraq.

Here’s a history to suggest why:

1. Australia send occupying forces to Iraq in 2003. You can’t have great rivalries without politics and it’s even better when war is involved.

2. Iraq played Oman in the first match of the Asia Cup. When Iraq scored the first goal, the players started hopping like Kangaroos. Already they were taking the piss out of Australia

3. When Iraq scored a goal against Australia, they went to the Australian crowd section and started taunting the fans.

4. Lucas Neill was getting incredibly frustrated (along with many Australian fans) with the diving and time wasting antics of the Iraq national team and started complaining to the referee about it. This got him sent off for dissent.

5. Mark Shield gave Captain, Younis Mahmood, a yellow card for diving in the Asia Cup final, which caused Younis Mahmood to threaten to lead his team off the pitch out of protest. Mark Shield called his bluff and just said go ahead. Hell, there’s even animosity between Iraq team and our Australian referee.

6. Nashad Akram, the star Iraqi player, in an interview with The World Game after the Asia Cup accused Australian players of arrogance and ignorance of Asian culture. He also accused us of complacency and underestimating the opposition. He claimed that Australia did not give the Iraqi team enough respect.

7. Vince Grella then accused the Iraq team (along with other Asian teams) of not giving the Socceroos respect. He complains about Iraqi hopping like kangaroos and taunting our fans and said that the Iraqi team were taking the piss out of our country.

8. Iraqi FA charged Australian fans twenty times more than Arab speaking fans, enraging every Socceroos fan.

9. Every match between Australia and Iraq at senior and Olympic levels has been competitive and a good stoush between two evenly match team. There’s no match where one side has been outclassed.

This has all the elements of an intense rivalry.

To the Iraqi people, Australia may be one of the sides they want to beat the most (along with the USA, Iran, and perhaps Kuwait). It ticks all the boxes for a good rivalry: it has politics, animosity from fans, a war of words between the players of the two teams, and evenly matched encounters.

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The Crowd Says (42) | Page 1 of Comments

Matt said | November 3rd 2008 @ 8:06am | Report comment

Ummm …. Uruguay anyone?

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Dave said | November 3rd 2008 @ 8:38am | Report comment

Interesting article dasilva.
l guess unless we have intimate knowledge of football in those other countries and how the football people there view Oz then we can only speak from the Australian perspective. In terms of general sport it would have to be England…but in terms of football some of the greatest moments/matches have been v Japan, Uruguay and Iran. l think in this new age of football in Oz our true rivals are still to be determined but if l had to go for one country, with many non football related issues thrown in, it would have to be Japan who we will be meeting on a semi regular basis now we are in Asia.

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dasilva said | November 3rd 2008 @ 8:54am | Report comment

Matt
Uruguay is interesting. OBviously the booing of national anthem was intense. The Recoba divine right leads to perfect villain and that’s always help the rivalry. There is a chance however that we may not meet Uruguay again in a competitive match and this rivalry can die sorts of like how the rivalry of South Korea died back in the 70′s

I should have put them on the list of contenders and thank you Matt for pointing out the oversight but I still believe that Iraq tops it. As our rivalries with uruguay and other countries isn’t as politically link as the one with Iraq.

In any case there’s nothing wrong with having multiple rivalry and all the nations I mention + Uruguay will make interesting encounters

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dasilva said | November 3rd 2008 @ 8:55am | Report comment

Also add the rivalry with Israel that died as well.

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Pippinu said | November 3rd 2008 @ 9:14am | Report comment

Rivalries need years and years of matches and re-matches, talking points, controversy, etc.

I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t have put Iraq ahead of half a dozen other countries – none of which are lay down miseres themeselves.

Too early to call – a decade in Asia will determine it naturally enough – a couple more WC appearances won’t go astray – another meeting with Italy or Uruguay wouldn’t go astray.

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Millster said | November 3rd 2008 @ 9:47am | Report comment

I would say you have to split into historical and future, as the landscape has changed with our entry to the Asian confederation.

Historically, Uruguay and Israel are surely the two to pick. Iran would be there too due to “that” game but I’ll leave them to future as we are likely to meet them in Asia.

Future – Japan, Sth Korea, Iran. Most clearly our rivalries will be with those offering stiffest competition for Asia’s World Cup spots, and for bragging rights as #1 team in the confederation. And in that respect, while I agree with DaSilva that Iraq ticks a few boxes, in the long term I cannot see them being up with these 3 opponents.

I think Japan will end up bubbling up to being our primary rival, especially as national rivalry will also play out in the ACL with the likelihood of many encounters between A-League and J-League clubs. Plus its a rival in a friendly timezone which also helps in terms of the broader fanbase.

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dasilva said | November 3rd 2008 @ 10:13am | Report comment

I guess where I’m coming from with Iraq. A lot of players in Iraq were directly effected by the war. THey had family members who died due the American occupation or the resultant instability. I’m quite sure there are people in that team who oppose the american ocupation and see Australia as a mini America. Watching them play Australia I saw a steely determination to beat Australia specifically which I find frightening. It explains why they lost to Qatar and yet beat Australia comfortably. From the beginning of the Asian Cup they have one eye on winning the Asian Cup and another eye specifically on scalping AustraliaIn Iraq it was celebrated as a victory against an occupying country. You can’t find that in any other country

The drawbacks to this rivalry so far it is a one way rivalry. Most Australian view the Iraq situation with sympathy. They also view Iraq Asian Cup as a romantic sporting achievement of the year. Iraqi are absolutely determine to beat Australia but we aren’t that determine to beat Iraq.

However that is changing due to the Iraqi ticket fiasco as well as the play acting and diving of the team. There has been Australians who then wanted iraq suspended from FIFA. Then there were Australians going for anyone but Iraq and actively supporting Qatar in beating Iraq in that last match of the WCQ. When Qatar didn’t get suspended for cheating and got through instead of IRaq. Many Australians were unsympathetic and said it was poetic justice.

However I admit this rivalry could die if in the future the IRaq football team deteriorates after their golden generation retires. Or by some miracle the history of the western occupation is viewed different by the Iraqi people and Australia is seen as a liberator instead of occupiers etc. However I do see this rivalry be intense in the immediate future.

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True Tah said | November 3rd 2008 @ 10:31am | Report comment

dasilva,

I agree that many Australians were glad when Iraq won Asian Cup, personally I hoped that it somehow might help to draw the nation together and stop the infighting and killing between various factions, but that was proven to be shortlived

I can sort of stomach losing to Iraq though, the country hasnt not much going for it relative to Australia, and its a shame they will not be at the World Cup…however I really dont fancy the idea of ever losing to Qatar, which is a differant kettle of fish, they have a lot going for them in that they have oil wealth, bringing in ring-ins from Latin America and their nation hasn’t got the best human rights record (similar to Dubai)…thats what made the 4-0 drubbing of the Guitars all the more sweeter.

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Grant said | November 3rd 2008 @ 10:46am | Report comment

after the world cup… Italy would have to be a big rival, not much of a history against them, but i think every australian would love to see the socceroos beat them. We almost deserve it after that fricken penalty. Cant wait till they meet next.

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Midfielder said | November 3rd 2008 @ 11:31am | Report comment

In the recent past Uruguay, in the future Japan & SK for bragging rights but I Iraq from their point of view , like we have troops on their land ……..and Iran for a hole mix of reasons past history current political status

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