On November 21st, soccer fans will be glued to their TVs to witness the start of The 2022 FIFA World Cup. Till that date, globitopia is going to cover all teams in the big tournament. Let’s take a look at Australia in world cup.
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Pin on the Map
Australia is one of the seven continents of the world. It’s also an island, (although some experts believe that a continent can’t be an island at the same time, Sorry Aussies). The big country lies south of the equator. That’s why it’s called “The land down under.”
Australia covers 7.692 million km² making it the sixth-largest country in the world. It lies on the Pacific and Indian oceans. The nation doesn’t share land borders with any other country. However, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand are Australia’s closest neighbors.
Sing along
Australians are known to be happy. It’s even written in the first line of their national anthem, “Australians all let us rejoice…..”.
The Australian’s national tune is called “Advance Australia Fair.” Peter Dodds McCormick wrote and composed the anthem in 1878. Since that time, the song was modified many times. The last change happened in 2021 when the beginning changed from “Australians all let us rejoice/For we are young and free,” to “For we are one and free”. This adjustment was made to recognize the history of the native groups.
Listen to the anthem
Wave The Flag
Britain affected Australia over the years. The British impact can be seen even on the Australian flag. On the left of the flag, you can see the British union flag. There is also a constellation called the Southern Cross. The constellation is a group of stars that form a picture in the sky. The Southern Cross can only be seen from the bottom half of the world! Under the British flag, there is a big star with seven points. These points represent the current six states of Australia and the seventh point is a symbol of future states of the country.
Fandom
Football isn’t the most popular sport in Australia as there are other sports that dominate big regions in the Continent Such as Aussie Rules, Tennis, and Basketball.
But there is no doubt that Football gets a lot of attention from one of the most respectful fans in the world.
World Cup history
In 2006, Australia had enough with playing playoffs at The OFC (the Oceania Football Confederation) as it couldn’t reach the World cup except once in 1974 when It managed to beat South Korea and appear in the international cup in West Germany.
Ironically, Australia had to wait 32 years for the cup to return to Germany again, this time unified, to reach the finals. Australia proved that it was capable of booking a ticket from the playoffs before leaving the whole continent when it defeated Uruguay. Ever since joining the AFC (The Asian Football Confederation), Australia has managed to reach every world Cup.
Australia’s greatest achievement was in 2006 when it managed to go through the group stage and meet, who was going to become the winner, Italy. Socceroos played a heroic match and was only eliminated by a penalty kick in the 95th minute by Totti. Ever since that match, Australia couldn’t pass the Group stage.
Australian Stars
The Australian team doesn’t have a lot of stars. Some recognizable names are the goalkeeper Mathew Ryan who currently plays for F.C. Copenhagen in Denmark and the midfielder Aaron Mooy who plays for the Scottish side, Celtic.
Fun fact
Home of Koalas … camels
Australia is famous for its cute Koalas. However, the number of these lovely creatures is declining. In fact, the country has 10 times more camels than koalas!
