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Rugby has the Bledisloe Cup. Cricket has the Ashes. League has the State of Origin. And football has the Manchester Derby. Or the El Clasico. Or the Merseyside Derby. Or the Superclasico. Or the Birmingham Derby.
Rivalries are what makes sport great.
There is nothing like two sets of fans watching their teams play and having that little bit of extra feeling being played out on the pitch.
Even the infant A-League is starting to sustain some rivalries.
For the first few years it has been the Sydney v Melbourne clash, but with the introduction of multiple teams in one city, I won’t be surprised if the Melbourne derby or Sydney derby becomes a must see match in the future.
But as I have been watching the Socceroos Asian Cup campaign I’ve noticed that we seem to lack a great footballing rival at the national level. As we are still developing as a footballing nation this may not be surprising, but I thought it might be time to run through the potential candidates.
England
During my travels in South Africa, I think I saw the Australia v England match from 2003 when we won 3:1 about four times. So many great memories; Kewell’s goal; Rooney’s first senior international cap; Bresciano with hair. There are very few sports where Australia v England doesn’t generate some level of excitement.
The problem with having England as our great rival is that we will hardly ever play them. It’s been over seven years since the win at Upton Park and, to be honest, apart from the odd friendly or meeting them at a World Cup, it’s going to be a few more years before we see the re-match.
It’s hard to sustain a rivalry between two countries that may only meet a couple of times in a generation.
New Zealand
The last time Australia and New Zealand played each other was just before the World Cup. At the time I thought New Zealand weren’t the best opposition for Australia to play as part of their World Cup preparation, but I think the calls from the media and the marketing department won out.
Sure the game was played with feeling, but it felt as if that feeling had been transplanted across from sports like league and union. The Anzac spirit wasn’t the best fit for football.
New Zealand are our neighbours, but they play in Oceania, and despite some recent strong showings internationally, I don’t think they are at Australia’s level.
A great rivalry shouldn’t be a one sided affair. The current head to head record is: Played 60, Wins: Australia 36, New Zealand 13, Draws 11. Football in New Zealand is improving, but it’s the same in Australia so the disparity is likely to remain.
Other Countries
In this group are a number of potential candidates. Croatia because of the 2006 World Cup. Holland because of our history with Guus and Pim. Uruguay because of our heartbreak in 2001 and theirs in 2005.
The problem with these candidates, just like England, is that we are unlikely to play them regularly enough and despite football fans having long memories, it is a serious impediment which will stifle the growth of a rivalry. In my mind a rivalry is a relationship that continues to bubble away all the time and reaches a boiling point fairly regularly.
An Asian Country
Australia’s World Cup bid made it clear that Australia views itself as part of Asia (even if some countries don’t see it that way). We qualified through Asia for the World Cup in South Africa. We are making our second appearance in the Asian Cup. Our domestic champions take part in the Asian Champions League.
Our qualifying campaigns mean that Australia is likely to come up against the same Asian countries fairly regularly.
Immediately a country like Iran comes to mind with the pain of 1997 sitting at the centre of the rivalry, but for me this relationship is too one sided in terms of the feelings. Australian fans might still feel the pain, but I doubt it resonates as strongly for the Iranian fans.
There’s no point having a rival if they don’t know about it.
After the recent match, Iraq is another candidate, but I’m going to reserve my judgement on this one as unfortunately the political situation in the country often overflows into the football world and I believe that stability is an often undervalued factor in a footballing rivalry.
Instead I’m going to nominate Japan as the leading candidate.
They come from Asia, so we will play them frequently enough.
They have been one of the dominant teams from Asia and are definitely at Australia’s level.
Japan was top dog in Asia. It has a strong domestic league and competitive national team. The come from behind victory by Australia at Germany 2006 is probably still a painful memory for them and Australian fans will still have memories about them eliminating us at the Asian Cup last time round.
If, as the ad says, Australians thrive under a rising sun, maybe the land of the rising sun should be our rival.
I’ll throw this one out to fellow members of the Roar crowd: Who would you like to see become our great footballing rival?
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