- Four years later, on a November night in Homebush, there was only joy as the Socceroos gained revenge on Uruguay with a penalty shoot-out victory to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1974. It was a night that would go down in Australian football history.
2005: This one's for you, Johnny
It's a lot more fun witnessing history than reliving it. Step by painful step, the past 31 years of unfulfilled expectation have defined football in this country. Last night at Homebush Bay, the decades of hurt were finally washed away — soothed by a Socceroos performance as good as it gets.
Australia are into the World Cup finals at long last, and 23 squad members and a coaching and support staff led by Dutch master Guus Hiddink and Graham Arnold are writ forever into folklore.
Landmark moment: The Socceroos defeat Uruguay to break their World Cup drought.
The Socceroos class of 2005 is going to Germany — and the class of 1974 can finally rest in peace.
There have been many seminal moments in Australian sport, but not many as profound as this.
This was an achievement that will not only change the lives of those who delivered it, but the sport itself.
Football in Australia has been played competitively since 1880, but so much of it has been in the shadows. Going to the World Cup, and going as an Asian team, is the past and the future rolled into one. It has taken 125 years, but football has finally stepped into the light.
Many of the players from the 1974 team — until last night the only Australian team to reach the World Cup finals — were also in the stands. The late, great Johnny Warren — who played in the 1965 and 1974 teams and cried on national television when we lost to Iran on the Socceroos' darkest night — wasn't there, of course. But we all cried for him.
Woven into the fabric of this victory were the cumulative defeats of two generations. Grief has been the constant theme.
Four years ago, Tony Vidmar had to be helped off the pitch in Montevideo as a torrent of tears rolled down his cheeks. Last night, the oldest player in the squad whooped with unbridled joy, savouring his decision to postpone his retirement.
In a multicultural nation in a fractured world, the Socceroos can bring together the sum of their parts: Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican. German, Lebanese, Polynesian, Croatian, Italian, Melanesian, Greek. It is a rich tapestry but last night they — and we — were one thing only. Australian.
