2006 Australia national soccer team season

This page summarises the Australia national soccer team fixtures and results in 2006.

Australia
2006 season
ManagerGuus Hiddink
Graham Arnold
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Summary

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2006 was a historic year for the Men's National Team for a number of reasons. Football Federation Australia had been accepted into the Asian Football Confederation effective from 1 January[1] and played their first fixture as an Asian member on 22 February when they travelled to Manama and defeated Bahrain 3-1 in a 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification match.

However the major event of the year was the 2006 FIFA World Cup and Australia had qualified for the first time since 1974. Prior to the tournament Australia defeated Greece in a 'farewell' game in front of 95,000 spectators in Melbourne. This was followed by two warm-up games drawing 1-1 with Netherlands and defeating Liechtenstein 3-1.

On 12 June, Australia defeated Japan 3–1 in their opening game in Kaiserslautern, with Tim Cahill scoring two goals and John Aloisi scoring one in the last eight minutes to claim their first World Cup finals victory. Their goals were the first ever scored by Australia in the World Cup Finals.

Australia met Brazil in their second Group F game in Munich on 18 June. The Australians held Brazil to a 0–0 half time scoreline before Adriano put Brazil in front and substitute Fred scored to give Brazil a 2–0 win.

On 22 June, Australia faced Croatia in Stuttgart. The final score was 2–2. A goal from Darijo Srna in the second minute put Australia on the back foot. Australia equalised with a penalty goal from Craig Moore in the 38th minute after Croatian defender Stjepan Tomas handballed near the Croatian goal. Niko Kovac gave Croatia a 2–1 lead after halftime before Australia equalised again through Harry Kewell in the 79th minute. Towards the end of the match, referee Graham Poll blew the final whistle at the moment that John Aloisi scored what would have been a winning goal. As Brazil beat Japan 4–1, Australia proceeded to the next round to face Italy.

On 26 June, Australia met Italy in Kaiserslautern. Italy went down to 10 men due to the red card (51') given to Marco Materazzi for a two-footed tackle on Mark Bresciano. Almost three minutes into stoppage time, with the score still at 0–0 a penalty was awarded to Italy when Fabio Grosso fell under a Lucas Neill challenge in the final seconds of the match. Francesco Totti scored from the spot and the game ended immediately with Australia eliminated. The success achieved at the 2006 World Cup later saw the team named AFC National Team of the Year.

Australia ended the year with their remaining Asian Cup qualifications matches against Bahrain and Kuwait and qualified for the tournament by topping the group.

Record

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Type GP W D L GF GA
Friendly matches 5 2 3 0 7 4
World Cup 4 1 1 2 5 6
Asian Cup qualifiers 4 3 0 1 7 3
Total 13 6 4 3 19 13


Match results

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Friendlies

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25 May Friendly Australia   1–0   Greece Melbourne, Australia
Skoko   16' (Report) Stadium: MCG
Attendance: 95,103
Referee: Mike Riley (England)
4 June Friendly Netherlands   1–1   Australia Rotterdam, Netherlands
van Nistelrooy   9' (Report)   54' Cahill Stadium: De Kuip
Attendance: 49,000
Referee: Mike Dean (England)
8 June Friendly Liechtenstein   1–3   Australia Ulm, Germany
Neill   8' (o.g.) (Report)   20' Sterjovski
  75' Kennedy
  83' Aloisi
Stadium: Donaustadion
Attendance: 5,872
Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)
7 October Friendly Australia   1–1   Paraguay Brisbane, Australia
Popovic   88' (Report)   90+2' (o.g.) Beauchamp Stadium: Suncorp Stadium
Attendance: 47,609
Referee: Joji Kashihara (Japan)
14 November Friendly Australia   1–1   Ghana London, England
Aloisi   25' (pen) (Report)   75' Agogo Stadium: Loftus Road
Attendance: 14,379
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (England)
12 June Group Stage Australia   3–1   Japan Kaiserslautern, Germany
15:00 CEST Cahill   84', 89'
Aloisi   90+2'
(Report)   26' Nakamura Stadium: Fritz Walter Stadion
Attendance: 46,000
Referee: Essam Abd El Fatah (Egypt)
18 June Group Stage Brazil   2–0   Australia Munich, Germany
18:00 CEST Adriano   49'
Fred   90'
(Report) Stadium: Allianz Arena
Attendance: 66,000
Referee: Markus Merk (Germany)
22 June Group Stage Croatia   2–2   Australia Stuttgart, Germany
21:00 CEST Srna   2'
N. Kovač   56'
Šimić   32'   85'
Šimunić   61'   90'   90+3' (Note1)
(Report)   38' (pen.) Moore
  79' Kewell
Emerton   81'   87'
Stadium: Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion
Attendance: 52,000
Referee: Graham Poll (England)
26 June Round of 16 Italy   1–0   Australia Kaiserslautern, Germany
17:00 CEST Totti   90+5' (pen.)
Materazzi   50'
(Report) Stadium: Fritz Walter Stadion
Attendance: 46,000
Referee: Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain)

Note 1: Šimunić was given three yellow cards in the match: the referee (Graham Poll) failed to send him off the pitch after the second yellow, and was only red carded after the third yellow.

22 February Group Stage Bahrain   1–3   Australia Manama, Bahrain
Ali   35' [ (Report)]   54' Thompson
  79' Skoko
  88' (pen.) Elrich
Stadium: National Stadium
Attendance: 2,500
Referee: Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh (Malaysia)
16 August Group Stage Australia   2–0   Kuwait Sydney, Australia
Dodd   75'
Petrovski   86'
[ (Report)] Stadium: Sydney Football Stadium
Attendance: 32,622
Referee: Junjie Huang (China)
6 September Group Stage Kuwait   2–0   Australia Kuwait City, Kuwait
Al Mutairi   55'
Al-Mutwa   60'
[ (Report)] Stadium: National Stadium
Attendance: 8,000
Referee: Toru Kamikawa (Japan)

Goal scorers

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Player Friendlies FIFA World Cup AFC Asian Cup qual. Total goals
Aloisi 2 1 1 4
Cahill 1 2 - 3
Skoko 1 - 1 2
Bresciano - - 1 1
Dodd - - 1 1
Elrich - - 1 1
Kennedy 1 - - 1
Kewell - 1 - 1
Moore - 1 - 1
Popovic 1 - - 1
Petrovski - - 1 1
Sterjovski 1 - - 1
Thompson - - 1 1

References

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  1. ^ "Australia get all clear to join Asian group". 24 March 2005.