Australia: Unity trumps "soccer"

Four years ago, the Australians played their first match against the French at the World Cup in Russia (they narrowly lost 2:1 to the future world champions), and a duel with the same superpower awaits them at the start of the World Cup in Qatar.

And not only that - in their sixth appearance at the world's biggest football show, the Socceroos were again drawn into group D, where, apart from the French, they are again in the company of Denmark. The difference compared to the last World Cup is only in the name of the last rival - instead of Peru, now it is Tunisia.

Peru didn't even make it to Qatar - it was eliminated by the Australians, in the penalty drama of the intercontinental playoff.

As usual, the "kangaroos" at the world championships matched even the strongest, but only once in five attempts did they manage to reach the knockout stage. Admittedly, they had class on the selector's bench at the time - led by the Dutchman Guus Hiddink, they almost reached the quarter-finals in 2006 over the future world champions, the Italians. They played a good part of the match with one more player, and Franćesko Toti decided for them at the end of the second overtime with a goal from the penalty spot, which was forced by Fabio Grosso.

At that world championship in the group they left behind Croatia, four years later in South Africa they were also fatal for Serbia, even though they did not go further...

Australia is now far from the level of 2010, and especially 2006, but then the yellow jersey was worn by all the icons of local football - Mark Viduka, Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell, Mark Schwarzer, Luke Wilshere...

"Sokerus" is now led by Hiddink's assistant from the year of greatest success, Graeme Arnold. He is on the bench of the national selection for the second time, after the first unsuccessful term in 2007. In the meantime, he achieved numerous successes with Australian clubs, the Australian Olympic team... There are no big stars in his team, and according to Transfermarkt, the most expensive goalkeeper is Matthew Ryan. He moved from Club Brugge to Valencia for seven million, then he defended brilliantly in Brighton, and now in Real Sociedad.

In the field, the game of the "soccer" mostly depends on the midfielder of Celtic, Aron Mujo. He is not only in charge of all interruptions, but also "destroys" the game of the opposing team. Alongside him on the right flank is the fast and technically brilliant Martin Boyle, while the defense is held by the 23-year-old Stoke defender Harry Sutar.

This generation is not given too many chances to be able to reach the result of its famous predecessors, and the bookmakers offer a five-fold increased bet for passing from the group. The greatest quality of Australians is traditional togetherness, but also self-confidence. They will not surrender without a fight, although they lack the experience of playing with top teams, as well as diversity in attack.

Australia is the penultimate team to qualify for the first winter Muindiajl. In the playoffs against Peru, the hero was goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne, who stood between the posts in the 120th minute instead of Ryan. Australia qualified for the playoffs as the third ranked team in the Asian qualifiers - in group B, they were third with 15 points, behind Saudi Arabia (23) and Japan with 22 points.

In addition to the previous World Cup in Russia, the Socceroos also lost their last friendly match against France by as much as 6:0, once they drew (1:1), and in the first meeting in 2001, they won the "tricolors" in the Confederations Cup (1:0 ).

Australia lost their only match at the 2005 Confederations Cup to Tunisia (2:0), and the only official match with Denmark ended in a draw in Russia (1:1). In the three previous friendly matches, the Danes celebrated twice, and the "kangaroos" once.