Football World Cup 2014 / Australia

This article covers the Australian national football team at the 2014 World Cup . Australia took part in the finals for the fourth time and in a finals in South America for the first time .

qualification

Since Australia left the Oceanic Football Association and joined the Asian Football Association at the end of 2005 , the team has since taken part in the qualifying games of the Asian teams .

Together with Bahrain, Japan, North and South Korea, Australia did not have to compete until the third qualifying round. The team prevailed against Saudi Arabia and Thailand in Group D and qualified for the fourth round together with group runner-up Oman .

In the fourth round, groups were played again, but the teams were only divided into two groups of five teams each. In Group B , Australia finished second behind Japan and ahead of Jordan , Oman and Iraq and qualified for Brazil. The third-placed Jordanian team, which together with Panama played the most qualifying games (20 each), prevailed against Uzbekistan in the fifth round, but then lost to Uruguay in the intercontinental playoffs.

Third round

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Australia	6th	5	0	1	013: 500	+8	15th
2.	Oman	6th	2	2	2	003: 600	−3	08th
3.	Saudi Arabia	6th	1	3	2	006: 700	−1	06th
4th	Thailand	6th	1	1	4th	004: 800	−4	04th

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goalscorers for Australia
02.09.2011	Brisbane	Australia	-	Thailand	2: 1 (0: 1)	Kennedy (58th), Brosque (86th)
09/06/2011	Dammam ( KSA )	Saudi Arabia	-	Australia	1: 3 (0: 1)	Kennedy (40., 56), Wilkshire (77./Elfm.)
10/11/2011	Sydney	Australia	-	Oman	3: 0 (1: 0)	Holman (8th), Kennedy (65th), Jedinak (85th)
11/11/2011	Muscat ( OMA )	Oman	-	Australia	1: 0 (1: 0)
11/15/2011	Bangkok ( THA )	Thailand	-	Australia	0: 1 (0: 0)	Holman (77.)
02/29/2012	Melbourne	Australia	-	Saudi Arabia	4: 2 (1: 2)	Brosque (43., 75.), Kewell (73.), Emerton (76.)

Fourth round

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Japan	8th	5	2	1	016: 500	+11	17th
2.	Australia	8th	3	4th	1	012: 700	+5	13
3.	Jordan	8th	3	1	4th	007:160	−9	10
4th	Oman	8th	2	3	3	007:100	−3	09
5.	Iraq	8th	1	2	5	004: 800	−4	05

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goalscorers for Australia
06/08/2012	Muscat ( OMA )	Oman	-	Australia	0-0
06/12/2012	Brisbane	Australia	-	Japan	1: 1 (0: 0)	Wilkshire (70th / Elf)
09/11/2012	Amman ( JOR )	Jordan	-	Australia	2: 1 (0: 0)	Thompson (86.)
10/16/2012	Doha ( QAT )	Iraq	-	Australia	1: 2 (0: 0)	Cahill (80.), Thompson (84.)
03/26/2013	Sydney	Australia	-	Oman	2: 2 (0: 1)	Cahill (52nd), Holman (85th)
06/04/2013	Saitama ( JPN )	Japan	-	Australia	1: 1 (0: 0)	Oar (81.)
06/11/2013	Melbourne	Australia	-	Jordan	4: 0 (1: 0)	Bresciano (15th), Cahill (61st), Kruse (76th), Neill (84th)
06/18/2013	Sydney	Australia	-	Iraq	1: 0 (0: 0)	Kennedy (77.)

In total, coach Holger Osieck used 33 players, none of whom took part in all the games. Most of the games (13 of 14) were played by the now retired national record player Mark Schwarzer , captain Lucas Neill , Robbie Kruse , who was elected Footballer of the Year in Australia in 2013, and Matt McKay . Thirteen players were able to enter the scorer list, with five goals Joshua Kennedy was the most successful scorer, although he was only used in five games of the third round and the last game of the fourth round. After Australia had lost two friendlies against Brazil and France 6-0 each after qualifying , Holger Osieck was dismissed and Ange Postecoglou was signed as his successor .

preparation

The Australian team prepared for the World Cup in Vitória .

Test matches:

• 0March 5 in London for the first time against Ecuador : 3-4 after 3-0 lead (goalscorers for Australia: Cahill (9th and 32nd) and Jedinak (16th / penalty))
• May 26 in Sydney against South Africa : 1-1 (goalscorer for Australia: Cahill (14th))
• 0June 6 in Salvador ( Brazil ) against Croatia : 0: 1

Finals

Squad

The preliminary list of 30 players had to be submitted to FIFA by May 13, 2014. The final list of 23 players had to be received by FIFA by June 2, 2014 at the latest.

The preliminary roster for the World Cup was named on May 13th. Six players were already in the squad at the last World Cup , four of whom were already there in 2006 , but only Mark Bresciano and record goal scorer Tim Cahill were considered for the World Cup. With his three appearances at the World Cup, Mark Bresciano is now the sole Australian World Cup record holder with 9 games, as Tim Cahill was suspended for the last game. Cahill, who was the Socceroos' top scorer at the World Cup, has now set himself apart from the other scorers with two more goals.

No.	Surname	society	International matches (*)	Länderspiel- gates (*)	Date of birth	Games	Gates				World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2014)	World Cup goals (before 2014)
goal
18th	Eugene Galekovic	Adelaide United	8th	0	June 12, 1981	0	0	0	0	0
12	Mitch Langerak	Borussia Dortmund	3	0	August 22, 1988	0	0	0	0	0
01	Mathew Ryan	Club Bruges	7th	0	April 8, 1992	3	0	0	0	0
Defense
03	Jason Davidson	Heracles Almelo	7th	0	June 29, 1991	3	0	0	0	0
02	Ivan Franjic	Brisbane Roar M	9	0	September 10, 1987	1	0	0	0	0
16	James Holland	FK Austria Vienna	14th	0	May 15, 1989	0	0	0	0	0
15th	Mile Jedinak	Crystal Palace	44	4th	3rd August 1984	3	1	2	0	0	2010	1	0
19th	Ryan McGowan	Shandong Luneng Taishan	9	0	August 15, 1989	3	0	0	0	0
06th	Matthew Spiranovic	Western Sydney Wanderers	18th	0	June 27, 1988	3	0	1	0	0
22nd	Alex Wilkinson	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	3	0	August 13, 1984	3	0	0	0	0
08th	Bailey Wright	Preston North End #	0	0	July 28, 1992	0	0	0	0	0
midfield
13	Oliver Bozanic	FC Luzern	3	0	January 8, 1989	2	0	0	0	0
23	Mark Bresciano	al-Gharafa Sports Club	74	13	February 11, 1980	3	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	6th	0
21st	Massimo Luongo	Swindon Town #	1	0	September 25, 1992	0	0	0	0	0
05	Mark Milligan	Melbourne Victory	29	2	4th August 1985	1	0	1	0	0	2010	0	0
17th	Matt McKay	Brisbane Roar M	47	1	January 11, 1983	2	0	0	0	0
11	Tommy Oar	FC Utrecht	15th	1	December 10, 1991	3	0	0	0	0
14th	James Troisi	Melbourne Victory	11	1	3rd July 1988	2	0	0	0	0
20th	Dario Vidosic	FC Sion	23	2	April 8, 1987	0	0	0	0	0
attack
04th	Tim Cahill	Red Bull New York	69	32	6th December 1979	2	2	2	0	0	2006, 2010	6th	3
10	Ben Halloran	Fortuna Dusseldorf *	2	0	June 14, 1992	3	0	0	0	0
07th	Mathew Leckie	FSV Frankfurt *	8th	1	4th February 1991	3	0	0	0	0
09	Adam Taggart	Newcastle United Jets	5	3	2nd June 1993	2	0	0	0	0

(*) only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup are given, updated after the games against South Africa on May 26th and Croatia on June 7th, 2014.

1. ↑ M = The club won its country's championship in the 2013/14 season, * = The club plays in the second highest league in its country, # = The club plays in the third highest league.

Group stage

Curitiba Cuiabá Porto Alegre Vitória

Venues (red) and quarters (blue)

When the final round was drawn on December 6, 2013, Australia was drawn into Group B with world champions Spain (group head), runner-up world champions Netherlands and Chile. Australia had never played against Spain until the World Cup. Before that, there were only friendly matches against the Netherlands (1 win, 2 draws) and against Chile Australia played the last group game in their first World Cup participation in 1974, which ended goalless and brought Australia the first point at a World Cup. Then there were three friendlies against Chile, all of which were lost.

Two of the preliminary round venues are on the Atlantic coast, Cuiabá inland. Australia had not played in any of the venues before the World Cup.

The team's quarters were the Hotel Escola Senac Ilha do Poi in Vitória .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Netherlands	10: 3	9
2	Chile	5: 3	6th
3	Spain	4: 7	3
4th	Australia	3: 9	0

• Friday, June 13, 2014, 6:00 p.m. (00:00 a.m. CEST) in Cuiabá Chile - Australia 3: 1 (2: 1)
  
• Wed., June 18, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Porto Alegre Australia - Netherlands 2: 3 (1: 1)
  
• Mon., June 23, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Curitiba Australia - Spain 0: 3 (0: 1)
  

Sports impact

Australia, already the worst-placed World Cup participants in the FIFA world rankings , fell even further due to the three defeats in the preliminary round and suffered the biggest crash of all World Cup participants: from 62nd place to 76th place.

Web links

• All Australia qualifiers
• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Holger Osieck released. In: fussball-wm-total.de. FOOTBALL World Cup total, October 12, 2013, accessed on December 8, 2013 . 
2. ↑ footballaustralia.com: "Socceroos call Vitoria home for 2014 FIFA World Cup" ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ footballaustralia.com: "Socceroos to face South Africa in World Cup farewell match"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Regulations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup ™, para. 29 List of players, rest time, preparatory phase
5. ↑ Release List of Players ( English , PDF) FIFA. May 16, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
6. ↑ Australia - South Africa 1: 1 . weltfussball.de. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
7. ↑ Croatia - Australia 1-0 . weltfussball.de. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
8. ↑ fifa.com: team quarters
9. ↑ fifa.com: "World Champion Germany takes over the top position"