With another World Cup campaign looming, I recently found myself checking old Socceroos results. Inevitably I came to the 1997 match against Iran in Melbourne that stopped us from going to France ’98.
Outside of personal tragedy, it remains one of the darkest experiences in my life.
I read some of the match reviews and my stomach started churning, until I was once again gripped by the depression of that night.
I can still vividly remember a 19-year-old Harry Kewell tearing the Iranian defence to shreds time and time again, and the hope that came with his vital first goal.
When Tony Vidmar put away the second, half a dozen friends started a conga-line around my living room, chanting, “We’re going to France, we’re going to France!”
I wondered if I should sell the house so I could afford to take the family with me. There was no question about me not going. No way could a team that had played so poorly for 50 minutes come back against such a dominant Aussie display in front of 85,000 screaming home fans!
They did of course, and the sense of loss, of having had something so tangible in our grasp for 27 minutes, only for it to be snatched away in less than five, was totally crushing.
Today, with over 17 years of hindsight, can I take anything good from that night? Perhaps by itself, it was ultimately of little importance, but in the bigger picture of Australian football it was huge.
Over 85,000 went to the MCG for that game, but 1997 was also the year the Strikers outdrew State of Origin in Queensland to set a then-record attendance of over 40,000 at the NSL grand final.
While everyone had heard countless times that our game was ‘the sleeping giant’, these two matches provided proof at both national and international level.
It may have taken a further seven years to get the answer, but those two matches posed the question: was Football Australia and the NSL up to the task of fulfilling the real potential of the sport in this country?
The answer, of course, was a resounding no, and thankfully they were replaced by the FFA and A-League.
The opening round of the NSL after the Strikers’ victory drew fewer than 34,000 fans across seven games. The opening A-League round this season had 90,013 fans across five games.
At the time, crowds of above 20,000 for the national team were rare. Fewer than 19,000 witnessed Australia defeat reigning world champions Argentina 4-1 in the bicentennial cup, and the national team crowd record was 43,967, at the SFS for the 1993 World Cup qualifier also against that country.
In 1997 we averaged around 8,500 spectators across eight home games for the Socceroos prior to the Iran match.
Today, it is over 10 years since we had less than 20,000 people attend any senior national men’s team match in Australia.
Does the part that November night in 1997 played in the awakening of our sport help to lessen the pain? Actually, looking back at the bigger picture, yes it does.
That night engendered within me a long-lasting feeling of pessimism towards the sport at every level. To now see the many lows our sport has suffered – and the lows don’t come much lower than that night – then see the resilience and progress it has continued to display despite such setbacks fills me with the greatest optimism.
Justin Mahon
Guest
Felt sick watching that again. For all of the big implications resulting from this match covered in the video, one line that stuck out for me was about just how few of the 'Golden Generation' (at their peak) were playing week in and week out at their clubs. Very, very few. I have always been uncomfortable with the notion of a golden generation and to be reminded of this was timely. The A-League is just so important to the Socceroos. Critical.
Justin Mahon
Guest
Great post.
Barca4life
Guest
Okay it might be a bit late and maybe you've had a fair bit to drink to say that team could have won the World Cup against likes of France, Brazil, Holland and even quite a good Croatian team is a bit too much.;) And by the way you show huge disrespect to Ange and the current Socceroos whom are Asian Champions which is no mean feat, shows how out of touch you are with the current times of football. Get used to the times bud.
Bondy
Guest
That was a golden generation and the remnants of it was in Germany for 06 so a quarter final or semi wouldn't have been out of the equation at least for the team of 02 ...
Mister Football
Roar Guru
"Without doubt that team of 1997 would’ve gone close to winning the World Cup if they qualified." Now, now Tom, yes, that team was pretty good and Venables got some decent results in friendlies prior to this game, but to suggest they would have gone close to winning the world cup is speculative in the extreme (and that's putting it mildly).
Tom Findlay
Guest
Without doubt that team of 1997 would've gone close to winning the World Cup if they qualified. They came second behind Brazil in the subsequent Confederation Cup, never achieved by any Socceroo team since. That was the Socceroos greatest achievement, not winning the Asian Cup. That pest who ran on the pitch , Peter Hoare, just broke a magnificent Socceroo team's concentration, who were wiping the floor with Iran . They would wipe the floor with any Socceroo team since. Look at the names - Viduka, Bosnich, Kewell, Zelic, Okon, Moore. In those days the coach just told them to play their natural game. Henceforth, the players did it with aplomb. None of this ridiculous rigid game plan for football robots, devoid of any individuality, like the current Socceroos under a patriarchal coach. Take Ange Postecoglou away and the current Socceroo team would collapse in a heap. They can't cut the mustard in Europe at club level when taken away from a coach making them play like clones to a rigid game plan.
oly
Guest
Still remember watching that game as a 15 year old and thinking we would win 5-0. As someone else said earlier, it's meant I've never felt comfortable leading a game 2-0 every again. Also, Australia and France were the only two countries to not lose a game during the whole World Cup 98 campaign. I've stumped a lot of people with that trivia question over the years.
Bondy
Guest
Earlier that day she booked our tickets to Europe that included a couple of weeks in Tuscany with family, 10 days in Germany/Switzerland for me, while she was with relatives in England. Lol ....
The artist formerly known as Punter
Guest
She tricked me, we were courting during the '90 WC & despite England (she's English) having a good WC, she was cheering for Cameroon, more especially Cyrille Makanaky. I had mistaken her liking of men with darker skin for a liking for football. Great story Brick.
AZ_RBB
Guest
"My wife, who is no football fan," You married a non-true-believer?
Brick Tamland of the pants party
Guest
Funny i met my wife ( on the heaving dance floor of the Lookout in Scarborough no less,those who know...know ) about 6 months before the 05 game. She'd never watched a game of football in her life before that match and by the end of it was a bigger mess than i was!. One month later we were on the adventure of our lives to Europe which obviously coincided with the World Cup being played while we were there. Travelled around with the team and we got tickets for the Stuttgart match, just a magical time in my life.
The artist formerly known as Punter
Guest
My wife, who is no football fan, but a very understanding wife, watched the '05 game penalties via the mirror at the back of the room because she was so nervous, because she knew how much it meant to me. Earlier that day she booked our tickets to Europe that included a couple of weeks in Tuscany with family, 10 days in Germany/Switzerland for me, while she was with relatives in England.
rusty0256
Guest
Thanks Bondy; my point was, would the Soocer Aus collapse / Crawford etc. happened (or happened in the same way) if we had qualified for France? As I mentioned, it was a huge financial throw of the dice, especially the cost of employing Venables, to get us qualified and when it all went South, it really was the beginning of the slippery slope to Federation insolvency, Crawford and the eventual death of the NSL. Qualifying for France may have just been, financially, a temporary staving off of the inevitable but I have a feeling that a World Cup qualification at that time, and the prize-money that flowed from it may well have papered over a whole lot of cracks, cracks that most certainly would have still have eventually re-appeared, but almost certainly not in the same way they actually did. Despite after all these years of remembering the pain we all felt on that night, perhaps just for a moment we should consider, knowing what we know now, of being careful for what we wished for.
Midfielder
Guest
heard the same ... he can play back to goal which is a good player to have in your side...
Midfielder
Guest
Then there was the offside goal ... the guy on the goal line who received the pass and then sent it on for the tap in was offside by about a meter...
Kaks
Roar Guru
'05 was the best time of every football fans lives in Australia. I was at that game and remember talking to my Dad afterwards (who watched the game at home) and the emotion he said he showed sounded exactly like what happened in the stadium
The artist formerly known as Punter
Guest
A false dawn it might have been. I was in 06' best times of my life.
Midfielder
Guest
astute observation mm
Bondy
Guest
Rusty Milan Iv was a great centre half for Adelaide . Also I dont believe Frank would've got involved financially at the time there needed to be a huge spill and it happened later of course .
dinoweb
Roar Guru
From the time the Western Grandstand was built in 1994 through to its closure for redevelopment in 2001, Lang Park hosted 10 SOO games. The 1997 NSL Grand Final had an official attendance of 40,446 Only two origin games passed that total in that time. 40,665 went to the deciding game 3 in 1994, and 40,447 (only one extra person) went to game 2 in 1998. Fair enough about the only game in 1997, but what were the mitigating circumstances for the other 7 games, only one of which topped 40,000? Regardless, this is not a code war debate about the merits of Football versus League. I'm merely pointing out that for the two games I mentioned, Football proved it had the potential to be as popular as any other code in the country.