In the final days leading up to the 2022 World Cup, foxsports.com.au takes a look at some of the biggest moments in Socceroos history to take place at football’s biggest show.
Next up: The chaos that was the Socceroos vs Croatia in 2006 …
The scenario going into the Socceroos’ final group game at the 2006 World Cup was simple: just don’t lose to Croatia and passage would be secured into the Round of 16.
A thrilling come-from-behind victory over Japan in the first group game thanks to a stunning three-goal blitz in the final six minutes got Australia off to the perfect start.
But the momentum came to a grinding halt when the Socceroos went down 2-0 to the defending champs at the time, Brazil.
It meant that everything was riding on the third and final group game against Croatia, the world No. 23 going into the World Cup.
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SOCCEROOS WORLD CUP MOMENTS
‘Head on the chopping block’: Moment maligned Socceroo turned from scapegoat to saviour
Hiddink opted for a major change in his starting line-up for the crucial clash, opting to start Zeljko Kalac between the sticks as Mark Schwarzer dropped to the bench.
Remarkably, Kalac should not have even played so much as a second against Croatia due to a serious injury he was carrying.
“I should never have played against Croatia anyway as I was carrying a back injury,” Kalac told FourFourTwo in 2010.
“I’ve never come out and said this before, but I had an injury and I could hardly bend over.
“It was the World Cup so I took a load of injections to play, but I should never have played.”
Kalac and co. couldn’t have got off to a worse start.
The game was just two minutes old when defender Darijo Srna unleashed a vicious free-kick from 25 yards out that went up over the Socceroos wall and flew past all of a diving Kalac’s 2.02 metre frame.
Yet Harry Kewell felt conceding so early might have been the ideal outcome, albeit with the benefit of hindsight.
“It was the best time to go down because we had 88 minutes to correct it,” Kewell told MyFootball in 2020.
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“It boosted our start and we felt confident. We just went from strength to strength.”
And go from strength to strength they did, as defender Craig Moore bagged the equaliser in the 38th minute when he blasted home a penalty that had Croatian gloveman Stipe Pletikosa diving the wrong way.
With a draw on the cards, all Hiddink’s troops had to do was keep the scoreline the same for the next 50 minutes.
But barely 10 minutes after half-time, the cogs in the Dutchman’s brains went into overdrive as the Socceroos were in familiar territory.
30 yards from goal, Croatian skipper Niko Kovac shifted the ball from his right foot to his left, then back to his right again, before edging past Tim Cahill and rifling a shot at Kalac.
It seemed a routine save for the tallest man on the park who got down to the ground in rapid speed.
Yet ‘Spider’ would happily have crawled back up the water spout as the ball took a cruel bounce in front of him, nipped the top of his hands and harmlessly bounced into the back of the net.
It was a moment that left him “filthy with the world” and gave the Socceroos just 30 minutes to resurrect their World Cup knockout dreams.
“I saw the shot but it bounced in a naughty position just in front of me,” Kalac said.
“It was a case of thinking if I should go down sideways or step across. I tried to go down sideways and it bounced up higher than expected.
“After it went in, you’re filthy with the world, but it didn’t cost us anything. It was one of those things, these mistakes happen.
“Being against Croatia wasn’t ideal, but I’ve made worse mistakes.”
Worse mistakes were to come, but thankfully for Australia and Kalac, they were not from him.
Just five minutes after Kovac’s goal, Croatian defender Josip Simunic was booked by English referee Graham Poll.
Simunic, who was born and raised in Canberra, opted to play for Croatia instead of Australia in 2001 when he obtained dual citizenship.
But there was no love for his country of birth in this fixture as he looked to repel the Socceroos’ constant waves of attack that were occurring frequently after Hiddink subbed John Aloisi on to join Mark Viduka up front.
Finally, in the 79th minute, the persistence paid off.
Midfielder Marco Bresciano swung the ball in with a left-footed cross on the right flank and Aloisi flicked a header right into the path of Kewell, who had ghosted in at the back post.
The Liverpool winger popped the ball up with his left foot, waited for it to drop at waist height, then thumped a right-footed strike past Pletikosa to level the scores at 2-2.
Cue delirium for everyone decked out in greed and gold inside the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion in Stuttgart both in the stands and on the field as the “relief” was clear to see on Kewell’s face.
“The ball came across so I took it with my left and hit it with my right,” Kewell said.
“Seeing that ball go into the back of the net, you can see the relief on my face because I had just scored on the biggest stage of football.
“That’s exciting, not many people get the opportunity to score and as it turned out, the goal was the one that sent us through to the last 16, which we were never expected to make.”
If Kewell cut a relieved figure, that’s only because the camera never panned straight to Kalac.
“Harry’s goal was a saviour and you’re relieved that your mate has got yourself out of a bit of strife,” Kalac said.
Yet there was still further twists to this fixture and perhaps one of the most infamous moments in World Cup history.
Croatian defender Dario Simic was given his second yellow card of the game in the 85th minute and sent for an early shower by Poll, as too was Socceroos midfielder Brett Emerton who picked up two yellows in the space of six minutes.
Then came the real drama. In the 90th minute, Simunic was shown his second yellow card of the game by Poll for a poor tackle.
But there was no red card to follow.
“Although I have replayed the incident a thousand times in my head, I don’t really know why I did what I did,” Poll wrote in his 2007 autobiography Seeing Red.
“I cannot fully understand why I got it wrong and why I failed to send off Simunic.
“Aussie Joe certainly speaks with a broad Australian accent. Maybe, just maybe, that is where the confusion set in.
“Simunic began having a go at me. ‘You’re unbelievable,’ he said. I told him, ‘Any more of that and you’ll be off.’ As he ran away he said, ‘That is unbelievable.’ We all know now what he meant.”
The was further embarrassment for Polly when he showed Simunic a THIRD yellow card after full time for dissent before finally giving him his marching orders.
Simunic later shed light on the incident.
“My Australian accent helped me with Graham Poll,” Simunic told The Roar.
“I wanted to shake his hand after the game and he didn’t give me his hand, it wasn’t very nice. I had a go at him and that’s why he gave me the third yellow.”
Incredibly that wasn’t the only drama of the final chaotic stages of the clash.
With the scores locked at 2-2, Australia appeared to have scored the winner when substitute John Aloisi’s strike crossed the line.
The problem was Poll had blown full time a split second before.
“I went straight up to Graham Poll as soon as he blew the whistle thinking that he’d whistled for a free kick, then I realised it was full time,” Aloisi told Wide World of Sports/
“I asked him ‘why did you blow the whistle? The ball was in the back of the net virtually,’ and he said ‘don’t worry you’re through, you should celebrate’ and I said ‘yeah but we could have won the game, I could have had another goal at a World Cup.
“I was gutted for about 20 seconds and then after that I just started celebrating because we were through – but it’s one of those things that lives with me because I could have had another goal at a World Cup, how good would that have been?”
As for Poll, he was removed from the referee pool for the knockout stage and he retired from refereeing international football not long after the dust had settled on the 2006 World Cup solely because of his decision to brandish three yellow cards.
Let’s just hope every referee officiating the Socceroos in Qatar doesn’t make such an egregious error again.
