Whoever comes out on top in the World Cup final between France and Argentina on Monday morning (AEDT), the Socceroos have already won. Sort of.
Players are still basking in the afterglow of Australia’s best campaign in Qatar, where they reached the round of 16 for just the second time and collected more wins and points than any Socceroos team before them, including the so-called “Golden Generation” of 2006.
But now that the finalists have been decided, it puts the achievements of Graham Arnold’s men in an even better light. France and Argentina, after all, were the only teams who were able to beat the Socceroos.
“Think we can hold our heads up even higher,” wrote striker Mitchell Duke on Instagram after the defending champions beat Morocco 2-0 to join Argentina in the World Cup decider at the Lusail Iconic Stadium in Doha.
Les Bleus dispatched Australia 4-1 in their opening Group D clash, which Arnold later described as “the best friendly we could ever have”. It sounded absurd at the time, but he was right: the Socceroos went on to beat Tunisia and Denmark to finish second in the group, then pushed Argentina all the way, narrowly losing 2-1 as a desperate save from Emi Martinez kept out what would have been a last-gasp equaliser from Garang Kuol.
FIFA’s official final tournament standings will give the Socceroos an 11th place finish, with their goal difference and overall record putting them behind only Japan and Senegal as the third best team to be knocked out in the round of 16. Based on their results, the Socceroos’ world ranking is projected to improve 11 places to No.28 when FIFA’s list is updated.
France and Argentina – the only two teams to have beaten the Socceroos in Qatar – will contest the World Cup final.Credit:Getty
With Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi to meet in the final, it continues a little quirk of history that has followed the Socceroos through each of their six campaigns: in four of them, they have been beaten by the eventual winner, and in the other two, they were toppled by the team that won the third place play-off.
It goes way back to 1974, Australia’s first World Cup, where they drew host nation West Germany in their group. Rale Rasic’s team of part-timers did well just to be there, and put up a brave fight before losing 3-0, but the Germans went on to sweep Poland, Sweden and Yugoslavia in the next stage, then beat the Netherlands 2-1 in the final.
Socceroos fans will need little reminder of what happened in 2006: Fabio Grosso’s dive over Lucas Neill’s lunging tackle yielded Francesco Totti’s injury-time penalty, which put Italy through to the quarter-finals at Australia’s expense and on course to their fourth crown. They beat France on penalties in a final best remembered for Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi, although if it helps soothe the pain of the memory, it’s worth remembering the Azzurri haven’t won a knockout match at the World Cup since.
In 2010, Pim Verbeek’s side lost 4-0 to Germany, who lost to Spain in the semi-finals but beat Uruguay to claim third place. In 2014, Ange Postecoglou’s team fell 3-2 to the Netherlands, who were beaten on penalties by Argentina in the semis and then smacked Brazil 3-0 in the play-off for third.
Four years ago in Russia, of course, it was France who lifted the trophy, but only after squeaking past the Socceroos 2-1 in the group stage through a late own goal from Aziz Behich.
And now in Qatar, regardless of the result in the final, Australia will be able to look back and say they were only defeated by the two best teams in the world.
The moral of the story? If you want to win the World Cup, you’re probably going to have to get past the Socceroos first.
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