Australia national football team (The Socceroos)

Founded:	1961
Manager:
Address:	Football Federation Australia Limited Suite 701 level 7 26 College Street Locked Bag A4071 New South Wales 2000 1235 Australia
Website:	www.socceroos.com.au

The Australia National Football Team played its first match in 1922 at Dunedin against New Zealand and resulted in a 3-1 win for the hosts.

Australia failed to qualify for two World Cups in arrow, from their first entry in 1966 and it wasn?t until 1974 in West Germany that the Australians qualified for their first World Cup, however they lost two games and drew one and went out without scoring a goal after the group stages.

In 1980 Australia entered the OFC Nations? Cup for the first time and won, beating Tahiti in the final 4-2. The Aussies won the Oceanic continental tournament a further three times out of five. Due to this they competed in the 1997, where they came second, and 2001 Confederations? Cup competitions, in 2001 beating France and Brazil on their way to a third-place finish!

In 2001 Australia had beaten American Samoa by the record score of 31-0, with Archie Thompson scoring 13 goals. This lead to the Australians moving to the Asian Football Confederation due to the lack of competition. This move was finalised after the 2006 World Cup qualification, in which Australia had success, qualifying as an Oceanic team.

At the 2006 World Cup Australia beat Japan 3-1, coming from behind in the last 6 minutes, with Tim Cahill of Everton scoring their first World Cup goal, 32 years after their first game! Australia reached the last 16 after a draw with Croatia where a controversial dive by Fabio Grosso saw eventual champions Italy defeat the Socceroos 1-0 when Totti converted the penalty.

In 2010 Australia were eliminated at the group stage after a 4-0 loss to Germany decimated their goal difference. In 2014 they failed to pick up any points despite some impressive performances, especially against the Netherlands, where Tim Cahill scored one of the goals of the tournament.

Since moving to the AFC Australia have competed in the Asian Cup, winning for the first time in 2015, beating South Korea in the final after a Troisi goal in extra time. This success made Australia the first national team ever to win continental honours on two different continents.