2006 Australia national soccer team season

November 2015 November 2015This page summarises the Australia national soccer team fixtures and results in 2006. Australia 2006 Guus Hiddink Graham Arnold _greenborder _greenborder FFDB00 FFDB00 FFDB00 225A11 FFDB00 _goldline 413C6F 413C6F 413C6F 413C6F 413C6F 2005 2007 Summary 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 Januaryhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/Football/Australia-invited-to-join-Asian-football-family/2005/03/23/1111525227613.html Australia get all clear to join Asian group 24 March 2005 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 half-time 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 Type GP W D L GF GAFriendly matches523074 World Cup411256 Asian Cup qualifiers430173 Total136431913 Match results Friendlies 25 May Friendly Australia 1–0 (Report) Greece Skoko 16 MCG Melbourne, Australia 95,103 Mike Riley (England) W 4 June Friendly Netherlands 1–1 (Report) Australia van Nistelrooy 9 54 Cahill De Kuip Rotterdam, Netherlands 49,000 Mike Dean (England) D 8 June Friendly Liechtenstein 1–3 (Report) Australia Neill 8 o.g. 20 Sterjovski 75 Kennedy 83 Aloisi Donaustadion Ulm, Germany 5,872 Wolfgang Stark (Germany) W 7 October Friendly Australia 1–1 (Report) Paraguay 1990 Popovic 88 90+2 o.g. Beauchamp Suncorp Stadium Brisbane, Australia 47,609 Joji Kashihara (Japan) D 14 November Friendly Australia 1–1 (Report) Ghana Aloisi 25 pen 75 Agogo Loftus Road London, England 14,379 Mark Clattenburg (England) D World Cup 2006 FIFA World Cup Group F 12 June 15:00 CEST Group Stage Australia 3–1 (Report) Japan Cahill 84 89 Aloisi 90+2 26 Nakamura Fritz Walter Stadion Kaiserslautern, Germany 46,000 Essam Abd El Fatah (Egypt) W 18 June 18:00 CEST Group Stage Brazil 2–0 (Report) Australia Adriano 49 Fred 90 Allianz Arena Munich, Germany 66,000 Markus Merk (Germany) L 22 June 21:00 CEST Group Stage Croatia 2–2 (Report) Australia Srna 2 N. Kovač 56 Šimić 2 32 85 Šimunić 61 2 90 90+3 (Note1) 38 pen. Moore 79 Kewell Emerton 2 81 87 Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion Stuttgart, Germany 52,000 Graham Poll (England) D 26 June 17:00 CEST Round of 16 Italy 1–0 (Report) Australia Totti 90+5 pen. Materazzi 0 50 Fritz Walter Stadion Kaiserslautern, Germany 46,000 Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain) L 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. Asian Cup qualifiers 22 February Group Stage Bahrain 1–3 [ (Report)] Australia Ali 35 54 Thompson 79 Skoko 88 pen. Elrich National Stadium Manama, Bahrain 2,500 Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh (Malaysia) W 16 August Group Stage Australia 2–0 [ (Report)] Kuwait Dodd 75 Petrovski 86 Sydney Football Stadium Sydney, Australia 32,622 Junjie Huang (China) W 6 September Group Stage Kuwait 2–0 [ (Report)] Australia Al Mutairi 55 Al-Mutwa 60 National Stadium Kuwait City, Kuwait 8,000 Toru Kamikawa (Japan) L 11 October Group Stage Australia 2–0 (Report) Bahrain Aloisi 17 Bresciano 23 Sydney Football Stadium Sydney, Australia 37,000 Fareed Ali Mohamed Al Marzouqi (United Arab Emirates) W Goal scorers 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 Category:2005–06 in Australian soccer Category:2006–07 in Australian soccer Category:2006 national football team results 2006 Category:Australia men's national soccer team results