After the euphoria of qualifying against Uruguay and a brutal pre-tournament training camp, Australia’s moment of truth arrived on Monday 12 June 2006.
As they returned to Germany for their first World Cup game in 32 years, an air of uncertainty surrounded the Socceroos.
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The 1974 version had suffered losses to East Germany and West Germany before playing out a scoreless draw to Chile at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.
It was an impressive feat to qualify for what was then a 16-team tournament.
But this time around, expectations were certainly higher.
Australia’s starters were all playing top level club football in Europe.
They had a legendary manager in Guus Hiddink, who had first guided them through qualifying before overseeing a rigorous training camp to prepare for the demands of the tournament.
But despite all the reasons for optimism, the World Cup was a different beast.
In a series of articles looking back on the 2006 World Cup, foxsports.com.au spoke with some of those Australians who were there when the Socceroos ended the nation’s World Cup drought!
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‘NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN’
The opening game against Japan would be a nervy occasion.
“I remember the night before the game in Kaiserslautern talking with colleagues that we had no idea what was going to happen tomorrow,” Tom Smithies, who was The Daily Telegraph’s football editor at the time and travelled with the Socceroos throughout the 2006 campaign, recalled to foxsports.com.au.
“There was no sense of history or form there. Playing Japan so playing another Asian team, but at the point the rivalry that there is now between Australia and Japan didn’t really exist because Australia had only just moved into Asia.
“We knew Japan were a terrific team with some top-quality players, but on the day itself it was a baking hot day.
“Germany was consumed by a heatwave that year.
“We all looked at each other and said this could go in so many ways.”
With the mercury pushing 30 degrees, the conditions were vastly different to what the Socceroos had endured weeks earlier during their training camp in the Dutch city of Eindhoven.
But the gruelling sessions Hiddink put the players through in the weeks leading up the tournament ensured they were ready for their big moment.
“We knew our opponents, Japan. We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Harry Kewell told SBS.
“We knew the heat was going to play a major factor in it.
“But I think the adrenaline was getting everyone through it.”
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It is easy to understand why the players’ hearts would have been pumping when you picture the scenes as they made their way to the stadium in Kaiserslautern.
Most of the 46,000 strong crowd gathered in the streets before kick-off.
With goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer recalling that it felt like a struggle to get the team bus to the stadium.
“Absolutely,” Schwarzer told foxsports.com.au when asked if the players could feel the wave of excitement.
“Even on the ground, that first game in Kaiserslautern. It was like we were literally crawling up the hill because there were tens of thousands of supporters there – Australian supporters in massive amounts and Japanese.
“In those days we didn’t have the social media element to it, but you had the written media side of it. You saw stuff, saw headlines and pictures telling how crazy it was and how people were getting the team and were excited.
“Very, very different then to what it’s like now.”
Schwarzer would quickly turn into one of the main characters that day, but he would not be the star of the show.
It was a relatively calm opening to the match with Hiddink clearly urging his side to settle into the game and the tournament.
Vince Grella was “immense” in the middle of the park, according to Smithies.
But the plan to stay calm quickly had to change.
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FROM AGONY TO ECSTASY
The Australians were up in arms as Japan opened the scoring in the 26th minute.
Celtic midfielder and current Japanese assistant Shunsuke Nakamara put the ball in the back of the net after Schwarzer came off his line to catch a free kick and was impeded.
Egyptian referee Essam Abd El Fatah ignored the Australians protests, however, and allowed the goal to stand.
Hiddink’s men had their backs against the wall inside half an hour.
For most of the afternoon, it looked like the Socceroos’ first World Cup appearance of the modern era would be tarnished by an astonishing refereeing blunder.
But no one could have predicted what would happen next.
The surprise when the starting XIs were announced before kick-off was that Tim Cahill was on the bench.
Cahill had reportedly been under an injury cloud coming in, but he been on fire for Everton in the English Premier League in the two seasons prior.
The then midfielder, who would eventually lead the Socceroos’ line in future World Cups, had been crowned the Toffees’ best player.
He was even nominated for the Ballon d’Or later that year.
“I don’t think anyone in Australia expected me to play!” Cahill’s roommate that World Cup and fellow midfielder Luke Wilkshire told SBS’ History FC podcast in 2020.
Cahill was understandably highly emotional about being left on the sidelines.
“It was probably one of the most shattering moments… [being told] I wasn’t starting. I was in tears. It was only natural,” Cahill told commentator Simon Hill in a 2018 interview.
“It was the first time ever I’ve sat in the back of a team meeting, because I didn’t want to sit at the front or middle and let the boys see me crying.”
Then Socceroos assistant Graham Arnold recalled Cahill’s demotion to foxsports.com.au in an interview before the 2022 World Cup.
“The biggest thing for me was his reaction,” Arnold said.
“He went from pissed off to … ‘when I get on the pitch, I’m gonna show him, he’ll never f***ing do this again to me.”
Hiddink got on the front foot and ensured that the tough call would not become a problem that could de-rail the Socceroos’ campaign before it had even begun.
“The day before the Japan game, Cahill realised he was on the bench and apparently he was pretty upset,” Smithies recalled.
“So, Hiddink took him out on the pitch, and they did the crossbar challenge.
“Hiddink said whoever loses has to buy the other a bottle of red wine.
“To no one’s surprise, Hiddink lost. Hiddink gave Cahill a bottle of wine and Cahill was suddenly walking in the clouds again when two hours earlier, he’d been upset and pissed off.
“And we all saw what happened when he came off the bench.
“Hiddink’s man management was absolutely superb.”
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Cahill appeared like a man possessed when he replaced Mark Bresciano shortly before the hour mark.
Still, it would take a little more than half an hour until he could make his mark with a moment of history.
With time desperately running out, Australia’s attacks had been fruitless, but they were pressing.
A thunderous free kick from John Aloisi was well saved and cleared by the Japanese defence.
That resulted in Lucas Neill taking a long throw and chaos ensued in the box.
Josh Kennedy flicked on a header before Japanese goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi could lay a glove on the ball after charging off his line.
The ball first spilt to Harry Kewell, but his swinging left boot was blocked.
The desperation of the Japanese defence only succeeded in putting the ball on a platter for Cahill, who caressed it into the back of the net.
Australia had an 84th minute equaliser.
The Socceroos finally had scored a World Cup goal.
Of course, the scenes were euphoric.
Cahill charged to the corner flag, delivered his iconic boxing celebration, kissed the badge on his shirt and was swarmed by his teammates.
There was an overwhelming sense of relief as boxing Kangaroos bounced and flags waved excitedly among a sea of Australian gold in the stands.
On the sidelines, Hiddink gave a little fist pump, but he certainly did not get carried away.
His players were immediately reminded that the job was not done.
“Having Guus Hiddink as the coach, so experienced, he was a calming influence,” back-up goalkeeper Ante Covic told foxsports.com.au.
“He made things simple for us. There was a process. He understood the opposition were coming and there were no real changes other than what he sees in game and how we can exploit it.”
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‘NEVER HAD ANYTHING LIKE IT’
Cahill easily could have turned the villain immediately after as his tackle in the Japanese box might have resulted in a penalty on another day.
There was no denying that it was his day, however.
Five minutes after his equaliser, Cahill put Australia in front with a wonderful right footed strike that swung into the inside of the left post and ricocheted into the net.
It sparked even wilder scenes on the pitch and in the stands.
Somehow the chaos continued as Aloisi went from playing the role of provider to goalscorer.
In a stoppage time counter-attack, the hero of the Uruguay shootout made an excellent run past a defender into the box and launched a left-footed strike into the bottom right corner.
“I’m used to rewriting stories in football matches, but I’ve never had anything like four rewrites in five minutes,” Smithies recalled.
“My initial intro on my back page story was ‘Australia’s World Cup dreams were dashed by a controversial Japan goal’.
“I immediately changed that to ‘Australia’s World Cup hopes are hanging in the balance after a late draw’.
“Two minutes later Cahill gets the ball, shoots from the edge of the box and scores again.
“I rewrote again: ‘Australia was in World Cup dream land after Tim Cahill’s two goals…’
“Oh my god, now John Aloisi’s scored too, and I had to write it again.”
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It was not only in the press box where people were struggling to keep up in a wild final ten minutes.
It was tough work for those on the bench too.
“I wish that I could have gone onto the pitch and actually got some minutes there,” Archie Thompson told foxsports.com.au.
“But I think watching your teammates, your brothers, do the job on the pitch and running down the sidelines, all of us jumping off the bench, running down the sidelines and jumping on each other was just unbelievable.
“Suddenly when the second one goes in, we’re doing the same and then the third one I’m like ‘bloody hell, I’m doing donkeys here’.
“It was just amazing and the buzz after the game was like ‘wow, man, look what we’re doing, it’s incredible’.”
Cahill later wrote on his social media channels that the win “changed everything — not just for me, but for Australian football”.
“Scoring Australia’s first-ever World Cup goal, and then the second just minutes later… it still gives me chills,” he continued.
“That moment wasn’t just about the goals — it was about belief. About showing the world what the Socceroos were capable of. About standing shoulder to shoulder with teammates who gave everything, and about hearing the roar of our fans echo across Kaiserslautern.”
The Australian public certainly stood up and took notice after the nation’s first World Cup win.
So too, did the rest of the world.
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‘WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?’
Three goals in eight minutes by Australia’s super subs Cahill and Aloisi almost instantly made the Socceroos’ everyone’s second team for the tournament.
With all 14 Australians who graced the pitch in Kaiserslautern that day playing club football in Europe at the time, the football world knew the players.
But they did not know they were capable of such a stunning display.
“We went into the mixed zone after the game and I remember some English journalists coming up to me and saying, ‘where did that team come from?’,” Smithies recalled.
“How has Hiddink turned Lucas Neill – who had a really bad reputation in England as a real hatchet man defender because of a dreadful tackle he’d done on Jamie Carragher of Liverpool – into an Italian sweeper?”
Suddenly, the world was at Australia’s feet.
With three points in the bank and new-found belief ahead of clashes with Brazil and Croatia, there was a belief that Hiddink could recreate his heroics of four years earlier.
The Dutchman took South Korea to the semi-finals of their home World Cup in 2002 – stunning Italy and Spain in the knockouts before falling to Germany.
It was no secret that Football Federation Australia had targeted the former Netherlands and Real Madrid boss to achieve the same result with the Socceroos.
Now, the rest of the world had cottoned on to the momentum that had been built down under.
“People were talking about Australia at that World Cup after they beat Japan,” he recalled.
“The way they played and obviously people in Europe knew a lot of the players – they became really excited about the Australians.”