Socceroos flashback: 1988 v Argentina

When football fans in Australia talk about the great wins by the Socceroos, one match invariably comes to mind in almost all conversations. On July 14 1988, Australia defied all the odds to embarrass the reigning World Champions Argentina 4-1 at the newly opened Sydney Football Stadium.

When football fans in Australia talk about the great wins by the Socceroos, one match invariably comes to mind in almost all conversations. On July 14 1988, Australia defied all the odds to embarrass the reigning World Champions Argentina 4-1 at the newly opened Sydney Football Stadium.

The result ensured Australia went through to the final of the Bicentennial Gold Cup, a four-team tournament that also featured Brazil and Saudi Arabia. Australia would go onto to lose the final in controversial circumstances against Brazil 2-0.

The match though against Argentina will never be forgotten in the football annuals of Australian football, not just because of the amazing result, but for one special moment just before half time.

The match was delicately poised at 1-1, after Paul Wade had given Australia the lead after just four minutes, while Oscar Ruggeri had evened it up on the half hour.

Receiving a free kick some 30 metres out, captain Charlie Yankos stepped up and the rest is history. With the three-man wall set, Yankos, directly in front, decided he would blast a shot at goal. Hitting the ball with venom, the Argentinean at the end of the wall, decided to avoid the shot, thinking it would be safe for the goalkeeper. However to everyone-s astonishment, the ball swerved wickedly and goalkeeper Luis Islas, despite his best efforts, could only watch as the ball kept going away from him and thumped into the back of the net.

It was a special goal and importantly had given the Australian team a decided advantage heading into the second half.

“I remember, the first goal (by Wade) gave us a real buzz,” said Yankos, reliving the golden moment. “But they then put us under enormous pressure and they scored I think 30 minutes later.

“Just before half time we were awarded a free kick. I have been trying to hit the target in many, many games and most of the time the ball hits some spectator in the grandstand. On this particular occasion, I can remember everyone just saying, hit it, hit it, hit the target and I just went for it.

“I didn-t realize how it went in until I saw it on tape the next day and it was a big buzz.”

Yankos would go onto score a second goal from the penalty spot, after former Socceroos coach Frank Farina was brought down in the box and the amazing win was capped off by Vlado Bozinovski with ten minutes remaining with the fourth and final goal.

The result had stunned everyone, not least the Argentineans, who could not quite believe they lost to their lowly rivals.

“Before the tournament a lot of people didn-t believe in our ability at all,” recalls Yankos. “They all thought the Gold Cup tournament was going to be contested between Argentina and Brazil. At that point in time, we had to start believing in ourselves a little bit more.

“We played our first game against Brazil and although we lost 1-0 in Melbourne, we played exceptionally well and felt very comfortable. I think people after that thought these guys can go okay.

“The second game against Saudi Arabia, we beat them 3-0 and all of a sudden we thought we had a bit of a chance, but a lot of the media speculation and even our administrators believe we were going to get through and play in the final.

“I think we shocked a few people before the game, when we said we were going to get into the final. We believed in ourselves even though we knew it was going to be an extremely difficult task. So we went into the game with a degree of confidence but mindful that we were playing against Argentina and they were the world champions at the same time.

The emotion of the win spilled over into the dressing rooms and wild scenes followed with the Australia stunned by what they had achieved.

“It was elation. Again, we were the minnows, there were a lot of part-timers and there was a lot of expectation that Argentina were going to kill us. For us to go out there and be very, very competitive and come out with a result like that was something extremely special for every player.”

The effects of result of that result were enormous, for it gave the players a huge amount of confidence heading into the Olympics, where they caused yet another major boilover in beating Yugoslavia, but also saw the first real impact of Australian players heading overseas.

“I think a lot more focus and attention was placed on the Australian players (after that game),” Yankos adds. “I think at the time there might have been 3-4 players that were playing overseas and then all of a sudden, you had people, agents all over the place looking at Australian players.

“They knew an Australian player was robust, fit, a fairly aggressive type of player, but now they also had a fair degree of skill. There were certain markets looking at players and you started to see a lot more players go abroad, even before they had played in the national team.”

That win is the only victory tasted by Australia in another five meetings since, including the 1994 World Cup play-off, which Argentina won 2-1 on aggregate and saw Maradona come out of retirement to play.

The last meeting of the two countries came in 2005 at the Confederations Cup, which Argentina won 4-2.

The two teams clash on Tuesday night (September 11) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with good tickets still available. Tickets can be purchased from www.ticketmaster.com.au or any Ticketmaster outlet.