Socceroos await the luck of the draw

 

By , 20 Nov 2009 Doug Conway is a Roar Pro

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Revenge against Italy, perhaps? Or the chance to strike an historic blow against mother England? How about a World Cup finals first – a trans-Tasman grudge match against New Zealand?

So many tantalising prospects lie in store for the Socceroos at next month’s draw for the 2010 finals that it’s difficult to know where to start dreaming.

The Italians have probably occupied most Australian player’s dreams, and nightmares, for the past three years, particularly Lucas Neill’s.

No-one could burn with more desire than Neill to turn the tables on Italy after Australia’s fairytale at Germany in 2006 was terminated by Fabio Grosso’s infamous “dive” at Kaiserslautern.

Grosso used the Australian captain as his platform, if it’s possible to dive from a springboard without making any meaningful contact with it.

But he did enough to convince the only man in the world who mattered, a Spaniard wearing black and white and carrying a whistle, and the resultant last-minute penalty buried Australia’s gallant campaign.

As all 32 finalists became clear this week, bitter memories of Kaiserslautern resurfaced as the Socceroos pondered what hand fate will deal them at the FIFA draw in Cape Town on December 4.

If providence pits Australia and Italy in the same group of four again, look out.

Few fixtures could guarantee so much heat under so many collars.

But plenty of other pairings would come close.

What if destiny draws together Australia and England?

Given Australia’s colonial past, the entrenched rivalry between the two nations in cricket and almost every other sport, and the fact that both share the same monarch despite alleged republican leanings down under, the price tag on the bragging rights from this one match would be astronomical.

The two countries are also battling each other to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

They have never met in a World Cup before, and England has suffered all sorts of calumnies since Sir Alf Ramsey’s team prevailed at Wembley in 1966.

The Poms are also smarting from a 3-1 friendly defeat inflicted by Australia on their home soil six years ago.

As former captain David Beckham said: “When you’re wearing an England shirt, there is no friendly game, especially when it’s against Australia.”

The same could be said of Australia’s intense rivalry with New Zealand.

This is the first time the two nations will play at the same World Cup finals, now that Australia is no longer part of the Oceania qualifying route.

The All Whites are very much Australia’s poor cousins these days, in the footballing sense, but there’s no accounting for what national pride and hyper-competitiveness might achieve.

Their coach Ricki Herbert was a player the last time they appeared on the big stage in 1982.

But at least they only had to wait a mere 28 years to reclaim a berth, not quite as long as Australia’s 32 years in the wilderness following their fist appearance in 1974.

The hosts back then were Germany, in those days divided into east and west, but the unified Germany is one nation Australia might want to avoid.

As a sad but perceptive Englishman once said, football is a simple game between two teams of 11 who play for 120 minutes before Germany wins on penalties.

The Socceroos, heavily influenced by Dutch appointments from coach Pim Verbeek down, could draw the mighty Dutch themselves, with whom they ground out a goalless draw in a friendly in Sydney recently.

How might Lucas Neill and goalie Mark Schwarzwer handle Portugal’s world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo?

At some stage in the tournament, unlikely but possible, Australia could face one of its new Asian rivals, perhaps South Korea.

Or even North Korea, the hermetic Stalinist state with whom the Socceroos do have a football history.

At Australia’s first World Cup attempt they lost two matches in neutral Cambodia, 6-1 and 3-1, as North Korea stitched up the last of 16 places for the 1966 finals.
`The Japanese would make for an interesting re-match; surely they are still traumatised by those six minutes of mayhem that turned defeat into a stunning 3-1 victory in Kaiserslautern three years ago?

Africa remains the darkest continent for the Socceroos, but South America could throw up some intriguing possibilities.

Uruguay, for example. Who will ever forget the euphoria of John Aloisi’s qualifying penalty clincher the last time around?

Brazil and Argentina are enough to intimidate any opponents, but believe it or not the Socceroos have beaten both.

The Socceroos had the bad luck to draw Brazil last time, and were beaten 2-0 in Munich though far from disgraced.

But they did upset Brazil 1-0 to win the play-off for third place at the 2001 Confederations Cup in South Korea.

And they hammered Argentina, then the reigning world champions, 4-1 in Sydney to win a friendly for Australia’s Bicentennial Gold Cup in 1988.

Who else might Australia face?

Putting a dent in the ambitions of hosts South Africa wouldn’t win them a local popularity contest next June.

But they would surely accept with alacrity the chance to dish it out to the Americans before a global audience of billions.

What a glorious moment in broadcasting; it would make up for decades of so much bad TV.

© AAP 2012
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