Grosso allowed the long ball to run past him before cutting inside Bresciano, who lost his balance to allow him to run unchecked into the box. That was the last in a run of painful near-misses, including when a Diego Maradona-led Argentina beat Slater and Arnold’s Australia 2-1 on aggregate in 1993. “It’s a slippery slope to a point now where we’re not producing or developing players. As such, fans held out hope of the former Liverpool winger playing until the very last moment, when he emerged from the tunnel on crutches and it became painfully clear he wouldn’t. Surely you’ve never stuck around long enough to relive Francesco Totti sucking his thumb. That’s not the only Socceroos game Slater refuses to re-watch. Two minutes later, Toni collected another long ball deep and forced Schwarzer into making a save with his legs at the near post. Cometh the last seconds of normal time, cometh an unlikely saviour. Fabio Grosso, Italy's left back, had taken the ball past Marco Bresciano and into the opposing penalty area when he found himself confronted by Lucas Neill, the rock of the three-man Australian rearguard. Germany play eight survivors from that night. Australian football was at a stage of revolution midway through the ‘00s, when the financially unviable National Soccer League was scrapped for the A-League, run by the rebranded Football Federation Australia. Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >. That Socceroos team from 2006 - now dubbed the ‘Golden Generation’ - were ultimately sent crashing out of the tournament in the Round of 16 thanks to a 95th-minute penalty scored by Italian forward Francesco Totti (a moment we can all remember for the wrong reasons — that Fabio Grosso ‘dive’ still fresh in the memory). Nonetheless, a nation’s success is, rightly or wrongly, judged on its performance at the World Cup where Australia has been poor. Yes. Germany Vs. Italy, 2006 World Cup: The Match That Sparked A Baby Boom. “And I don’t think any of the Australian fans will forget that either.”. The shadow of North Korea and the greatest humiliation in the history of Italian football had loomed over Lippi's team after the expulsion of Marco Materazzi in the 50th minute. Because they thought the A-League had come in and thought Aussies don’t know anything, ‘We need to get foreigners in here to help us’. Australia appeared to have all its ducks in a row with mere seconds left before extra time. What about the penalty? “I was warming up at the back there, ready to rock and roll,” says Thompson, who was the A-League’s star striker and was fresh having not played all tournament. “But if you’re not in a position to score a goal as a striker and you feel contact … you’ve still got to have a bit of mongrel about you and I would have done the same thing: Felt a touch, gone down and leave it to the referee to make that decision.”. Instead, he watched the match on television — and has never seen it again. I was close with all the boys with Mark Bresciano and Vince Grella and I was really happy. This was a battle between the sleek thoroughbreds of Serie A, whose changing tastes in hairstyles have been making headlines in the Italian papers this week, and the mongrels of Hiddink's squad, who ply their trade in a variety of leagues, some quite modest. Preview and stats followed by live commentary, video highlights and match report. With his chances of scoring close to zero, Grosso capitalised on Neill’s false move by cutting inside, creating contact with the back of the defender, and falling over. But this was Australia’s first World Cup appearance since 1974, when it failed to score a single goal and secured just one point from the group stages. “You don’t go down. Speaking on the Fox Football Podcast with Adam Peacock, Lazaridis talked about how he was barely given a look in during the 2006 World Cup, how Hiddink “let the team down against Italy”’ and his annoyance with being called ‘The Greek’ by his Dutch counterpart. The game was far from a classic, but it was one in which Australia was comfortably holding its own in by halftime, when the score was 0-0. Had the match gone into extra time, a repeat of the embarrassment at Ayresome Park 40 years ago might well have been on the cards. “None,” adds Archie Thompson, who was warming up on the sidelines the moment Grosso hit the turf and Italy won 1-0. Australia finally put the 32-year qualifying curse to bed for the 2006 World Cup, when it once again found itself as David in a battle against Goliath. A NOTE ABOUT RELEVANT ADVERTISING: We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites. “When I watched the game back, I looked at it and went, ‘Well we didn’t really have a crack at them’.”. Have you re-watched that — or the moment a sniper takes out the Italian left-back who can only yelp as his limp body flops over the prone Neill? Ten minutes later, responding to Materazzi's straight red card, Lippi withdrew Toni and sent on a replacement central defender, Andrea Barzagli. The public understood Kewell was in doubt for the match but was largely kept in the dark about his injury. This is also known as Online Behavioural Advertising. For large stretches of the game, and not just after Materazzi's straight red card for a bad foul on Bresciano, the mongrels had the better of it. After exactly 14 years, how many times have you dared relive any of that heartache? “But look, you’re talking about a world superpower, it’s easy to say in hindsight and when you’re not involved in an official capacity watching that game.”. That was despite Australia’s golden generations being born out of the ways of the old. There was, of course, cautious optimism that Australia could flip the tournament on its head by dumping out an Italian side boasting Alessandro Del Piero, Andrea Pirlo and Fabio Cannavaro. There seemed no intent to foul or even to make an illegal obstruction, but as Grosso went down, Senor Medina went for his whistle. Chipperfield had another shot on a tight angle easily saved in 59th minute, while Cahill went close with a header from a corner soon after. “And we find ourselves where we are today.”. Tue 27 Jun 2006 01.23 BST In its gut-wrenching finality it was the equivalent of the now-discarded golden goal. All rights reserved. Mon 26 Jun 2006 20.23 EDT. “It was hurtful and that, but as I said, were the rules really that way (in 2006)? “That group was there in 2001 when we lost to Uruguay, and if you go back to ‘97, my team against Iran was a s**t-hot team with (Ned) Zelic and (Paul) Okon, Viduka and Kewell. He adds: “The big mistake — and I said it as soon as it happened at the time, I can remember it like it was yesterday — Lucas went down. Neill and his fellow defenders, Craig Moore and Scott Chipperfield, were expected to deal with the threat of Luca Toni and Alberto Gilardino, and they had their hands full throughout the first half, when both men failed to take a string chances that any self-respecting Italian cannoniere might be expected to tuck away. “We brought in another foreign coach, we put in foreign technical directors, we changed the f**king way the game was played in this country, they brought in small-sided games, they told us the Aussie winning mentality wasn’t f**king worth anything and look where we are today. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. A NOTE ABOUT RELEVANT ADVERTISING: We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites. Arnold is the man tasked with taking Australia to another World Cup in Qatar 2022, where he’s confident the Socceroos can ruffle world football’s feathers again, just like in 2006. As such, belief within Hiddink’s squad remained high, remembers Arnold. Facing the dogged challenge of an Australia team well prepared by Guus Hiddink, they had missed a hatful of chances in the first half and had gradually lost their zest and inventiveness. “Mentally those boys — and I know for a fact — they felt like they belonged at the top,” Arnold says. Australia had already exceeded expectations at the tournament. “You know, 10 men (Italian defender Marco Materazzi being sent off in the 50th minute) and not making any changes. But Lazaridis believes things could have been different if his manager had been more proactive with making changes to a walking wounded team. International Match match Australia vs Italy (24 Jun 2017). 1933 BST: Okay, enough of the history, what about the form? “If we’re going back and asking whether I was personal, I was always about Australia — that was first and foremost. “Watching it, once Italy got the red card I thought it would have been the ideal time to throw Josh on and really go for it. Meanwhile, the Socceroos’ plans were thrown further into chaos after a surprise diagnosis of gout left golden boy Harry Kewell on crutches for the Italy game. He recalled a pre-tournament fitness camp in which his manager “tried to break him”.

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