Football World Cup 1974 / Australia

Australia's captain Peter Wilson welcoming the first group game against the GDR ( Bernd Bransch on the right )

This article covers the Australian national team at the 1974 World Cup .

qualification

Australia played along with New Zealand in the Asian zone. The qualification mode initially provided for a group stage with home and away legs. The respective group winners qualified for the semi-finals, the winners of the semi-finals played in the final for the qualification for the World Cup.

Australia met Iraq , Indonesia and New Zealand in Group 3 . Except for the first game, all games were played in Australia. The Socceroos have been coached by Rale Rašić since qualifying against Israel . Under his leadership, the team played twelve games from 1970 to 1972, of which they won nine.

Group stage

The first game against New Zealand took place on March 4, 1973 in Auckland . In that game, the Australians made many mistakes in midfield and defense, but were able to prevent the hosts from leading until half time. The New Zealanders made it 1-0 in the 57th minute when Brian Turner converted a free kick taken by Allan Murrey. The 67th minute substitute Ernie Campbell scored the happy equalizer for Australia five minutes before the end after a mess in the New Zealand defense.

A week after the game in New Zealand, the second group match against Iraq took place in Sydney . Rašić changed the team only in two positions, so Jimmy Mackay replaced Johnny Warren and Jimmy Rooney Max Tolston. Despite dominating the game, the Australians didn't take the lead until the 49th minute when Ray Richards converted a free-kick kicked by Bobby Hogg. The 2-0 came in the 80th minute through Adrian Alston, who scored the 3-0 five minutes later. Riad Nouri shortened to 3-1 in the 89th minute. After this victory, the Australians led the table with 3-1 points.

The third group game against Indonesia took place two days later at the same location. After a mistake by the Indonesian goalkeeper, Ernie Campbell scored the 1-0 for the hosts in the 22nd minute. Iswadi was able to equalize in the 36th minute before Ray Baartz was able to restore the Australian lead six minutes later.

In the following game, the New Zealanders took the lead in the tenth minute through Alan Vest , but Doug Utjesenovic (11th), Ray Baartz (19th) and Branko Buljevic (26th) turned the game in favor of the Australians. Dennis Tindall shortened to 2: 3 five minutes after half-time before Bobby Hogg put a cross into his own net. Australia had given away a victory believed to be safe.

Before the game against the Iraqis, Rašić changed goalkeepers. Jack Reilly replaced Ron Corry, who allowed three goals against New Zealand. The game ended 0-0 as neither team wanted to lose. Australia only needed one point in their last game against Indonesia to advance to the semi-finals. The Indonesians were defeated 6-0 by goals from Mackay (3rd / 40th), Attila Abonyi (23rd / 54th), Ray Richards (72nd) and Ray Baartz (78th). Australia was thus qualified for the semi-finals.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1.	Australia	15: 6	9: 3
2.	Iraq	11: 6	8: 4
3.	Indonesia	6:13	4: 8
4th	New Zealand	5:12	3: 9

New Zealand	-	Australia	1: 1 (0: 0)
Australia	-	Iraq	3: 1 (0: 0)
Indonesia	-	Australia	1: 2 (1: 2)
Australia	-	New Zealand	3: 3 (3: 1)
Iraq	-	Australia	0-0
Australia	-	Indonesia	6: 0 (3: 0)

Semifinals

In the semi-finals, the Socceroos had to face the reigning Asian champions Iran . The first leg took place on August 18, 1973. The hosts won 3-0 thanks to goals from Alston (41st), Abonyi (49th) and captain Peter Wilson (85th minute) and qualified for the final against South Korea despite their 2-0 defeat in Tehran.

Australia	-	Iran	3: 0 (1: 0)
Iran	-	Australia	2: 0 (2: 0)

final

The final was played against South Korea . After a 0-0 home win and a 2-2 win in Seoul , the Australians won the decider in Hong Kong 1-0 and qualified for the World Cup. Jimmy Mackay scored the winning goal in the 70th minute.

Australia	-	South Korea	0-0
South Korea	-	Australia	2: 2 (2: 1)
Australia	-	South Korea	1: 0 (0: 0)

This made Australia the first oceanic team to qualify for a World Cup. The Australian newspapers headlines referring to the final in Munich with Munich here we come .

Australian contingent

Number / name		Association at the time	birthday	Sp.	goal	red	yellow
goalkeeper
22nd	Allan Maher	Sutherland Shire	07/21/1950	0	0	0	0
21st	Jim Milisavljevic	Footscray JUST	04/15/1951	0	0	0	0
1	Jack Reilly	Hakoah St. Kilda	08/27/1945	3	0	0	0
Defense
5	Colin Curran	Western Suburbs SC	08/21/1947	3	0	0	0
16	Ivo Rudic	Pan-Hellenic	01/24/1942	0	0	0	0
4th	Manfred Schaefer	St. George Budapest	02/12/1943	3	0	0	0
2	Doug Utjesenovic	St. George Budapest	10/08/1946	3	0	0	0
18th	Johnny Watkiss	Hakoah Eastern Suburbs	03/28/1941	0	0	0	0
15th	Harry Williams	St. George Budapest	05/07/1951	1	0	0	0
3	Peter Wilson	Safeway United	09/15/1947	3	0	0	0
midfield
17th	Dave Harding	Pan-Hellenic	08/14/1946	0	0	0	0
8th	Jimmy Mackay	Hakoah Eastern Suburbs	December 19, 1943	3	0	0	1
6th	Ray Richards	Marconi-Fairfield	May 18, 1946	3	0	1	0
7th	Jimmy Rooney	APIA Leichhardt Tigers	December 10, 1945	3	0	0	0
attack
11	Attila Abonyi	St. George Budapest	08/16/1946	2	0	0	0
12	Adrian Alston	Safeway United	02/06/1949	3	0	0	0
20th	Branko Buljevic	Footscray JUST	09/06/1947	3	0	0	0
19th	Ernie Campbell	Marconi-Fairfield	October 20, 1949	1	0	0	0
10	Gary Manuel	Pan-Hellenic	02/20/1950	0	0	0	0
13	Peter Ollerton	APIA Leichhardt Tigers	05/20/1951	2	0	0	0
14th	Max Tolson	Safeway United	07/18/1945	0	0	0	0
9	Johnny Warren	St. George Budapest	May 17, 1943	1	0	0	0
Trainer
	Rale Rašić ( coach )		08/25/1935
	Les Scheinflug ( assistant trainer )		10/01/1938

Finals

The group draw on January 7, 1974 showed that Australia in Group 1 meets hosts Germany , the GDR and Chile . Ray Baartz, one of Australia's key players, suffered a life-threatening injury to his carotid artery during a friendly against Uruguay and was unable to participate.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1.	GDR	4: 1	5: 1
2.	FRG	4: 1	4: 2
3.	Chile	1: 2	2: 4
4th	Australia	0: 5	1: 5

GDR	-	Australia	2: 0 (0: 0)
FRG	-	Australia	3: 0 (2: 0)
Australia	-	Chile	0-0

Games

DDR - Australia 2: 0 (0: 0)

Goalkeeper Reilly in a fist defense in the game against the GDR

June 14, 1974 in the Volksparkstadion , Hamburg

GDR: Croy - Bransch , Weise , Wätzlich , Kische - Pommerenke , Sparwasser - Irmscher - Löwe (57th Hoffmann ), Streich (captain), Vogel - Trainer: Georg Buschner

Australia: Reilly - Utjesenovic, Wilson (captain), Schaefer, Curran - Richards, Rooney, Mackay - Warren, Alston, Buljevic

Spectators: 10,000 - Referee: N'Diaye ( Senegal ) - Goals: 1-0 Curran (56th, own goal), 2-0 prank (72nd) - Warnings: Wätzlich (32nd), Vogel (58th), Kische (61.)

In their first World Cup game, the Australian team was able to withstand the pressure of the GDR for a long time, only the own goal by Cullan Curran brought the team out of their concept, Joachim Streich scored the game-winning 2-0 in the 72nd minute.

Germany - Australia 3: 0 (2: 0)

June 18, 1974 in the Volksparkstadion , Hamburg

FRG: Maier - Vogts , Breitner , Schwarzenbeck , Beckenbauer (captain) - Cullmann (67th Wimmer ), Overath - Grabowski , Heynckes (46th Hölzenbein ), Müller , Hoeneß - trainer: Helmut Schön

Australia: Reilly - Utjesenovic, Wilson (captain), Schaefer, Curran - Richards, Rooney, Mackay - Campbell (46th Abonyi), Alston, Buljevic (61st Ollerton)

Spectators: 53,300 - Referee: Kamel ( Egypt ) - Goals: 1-0 Overath (12th), 2-0 Cullmann (34th), 3-0 Müller (53rd) - Cautions: Mackay (56th)

The Australians played their second group game against hosts Germany. In the 12th minute of the game, Wolfgang Overath achieved the well-deserved lead for Germany, which was becoming increasingly offensive. Müller could have increased it to 2-0 a minute later, but he only hit the post, Bernd Cullmann increased to 2-0 in the 34th minute. A few minutes after the restart, the Australians had the first big chance of the game when Alston ran up to Maier alone, but the German goalkeeper was able to clear the corner. Gerd Müller scored the 3-0 for the Germans in the 53rd minute, who had further great chances during the second half, but Müller and Hoeneß failed because of Jack Reilly. After this defeat, Australia was eliminated early.

Australia 0-0 Chile

June 22, 1974 in the Olympiastadion , Berlin

Australia: Reilly - Utjesenovic, Wilson (captain), Schaefer, Curran (83rd Williams) - Richards, Rooney, Mackay - Abonyi, Alston (65th Ollerton), Buljevic

Chile: Vallejos - García , Quintano , Arias , Figueroa (captain) - Valdés (captain) (55th Farías ), Reinoso - Caszely , Ahumada , Véliz , Páez (73rd Yávar ) - coach: Luis Álamos

Spectators: 14,700 - Referee: Namdar ( Iran ) - Goals: None - Red: Richards (83rd)

Thus Australia was eliminated as the group last. The Australian national team was only able to qualify for a World Cup again in 2006.

Web links

• Australia's amateur troop 1974. Article in SPIEGEL Online from June 10, 2010, accessed on August 27, 2010