Australia national football team profile

Australia national football team represents Australia in international association football competitions.The team is controlled by Football Federation Australia (FFA), which is currently a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and also an invitee member of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) since 2006.Two FIFA World Cup tournaments, in 1974 and 2006. 14th is Australia's highest ever FIFA World Ranking since the rankings were introduced in 1992. Australia topped their group in the 2010 World Cup qualification and became one of the first nations to qualify for the finals tournament without losing a match and only conceding one goal.World Cup qualification in 2006 has seen Australian association football increase considerably in domestic popularity and in international competitiveness.The road to the 1974 World Cup began with a series of home and away matches against Iraq, New Zealand, and Indonesia. The Socceroos, having won this tournament, then played and won a two-legged fixture against one of the Socceroos' biggest rivals Iran, managing to hold on to a slim overall lead in front of 120,000 Iranian fans in the Azadi Stadium, Tehran, during the second leg. South Korea, having itself knocked out Israel at the equivalent stage, was then drawn as Australia's final hurdle. Over the course of another two-legged playoff the scores remained even, and so a deciding match was played in Hong Kong. Australia won this match, through a Jimmy Mackay goal, scored off a free kick.The Australian team was known for its near misses in its attempts to qualify for the World Cup. most notably 1998 against Iran and 2002 against Uruguay.
Also they have lost the play-offs of 1966 (North Korea), 1970 (Israel), 1986 (Scotland), 1994 (Argentina), 1998 (Iran) and 2002 (Uruguay).
The Australian national team first played at the World Cup finals in West Germany in 1974 after having missed out in play-offs in 1966 and 1970, losing to North Korea and Israel respectively It would prove to be their only appearance until 2006.
Provisional squad list:GK Adam FEDERICI,GK Brad JONES,GK Mark SCHWARZER,Michael BEAUCHAMP,Marco BRESCIANO,Tim CAHILL,Nick CARLE,David CARNEY,Scott CHIPPERFIELD,Jason CULINA,Brett EMERTON,Richard GARCIA,Vince GRELLA,James HOLLAND,Brett HOLMAN,Mile JEDINAK,Joshua KENNEDY,Harry KEWELL,Shane LOWRY,Scott McDONALD,Mark MILLIGAN,Craig MOORE,Lucas NEILL,Jade NORTH,Thomas OAR,Nikita RUKAVYTSYA,Carl VALERI,Dario VIDOSIC,Luke WILKSHIRE,Rhys WILLIAMS.

source by-wikipedia.org