Exactly a year before John Aloisi sparked wild celebrations across Australia after his legendary 2005 penalty against Uruguay, the Caltex Socceroos concluded 2004 with a friendly against Norway in London.
With Australia due to face Norway this March as they prepare for the 2018 World Cup, we look back on the last time these two met 14 years ago.
Australia’s scorers
Tim Cahill 44’
Joe Skoko 58'
Norway’s scorers
Steffen Iverson 40’
Morten Gamst Pederson 72’
Venue and date
Fulham's home ground Craven Cottage
November 16, 2004
Crowd
7364
Game summary
With their seven previous games against Oceania opposition, the Socceroos were in the more familiar surroundings of London for this friendly to end the year.
A majority of the squad played their football with English clubs and with the Australians having played at QPR's home ground in March that year (defeating South Africa), they were confident of another positive result.
And all the big names were on show: England-based stars Schwarzer, Neill, Lazaridis, Emerton, Viduka and Kewell, while Italy-based Grella and Bresciano were also on the park for Frank Farina's Australians.
After Iverson tapped home Schwarzer’s parry to open the scoring for Norway, it was Bresciano who set up Cahill for the equaliser on the stroke of half-time.
A neat dink into the box was finished off by one of the rising stars of the Socceroos to make it 1-1 at the break.
Viduka was key to Australia's second goal as the Aussies worked their way through the Norwegian box, Viduka's trickery mesmerizing Norway with the ball falling to Skoko who lashed it home to give Aussies a deserved 2-1 lead.
The strong Aussie contingent of fans behind that goal celebrated, but the lead didn't last long.
Pederson’s equaliser after 72 minutes was a little fortunate as his left-footed cross deceived Schwarzer and sailed in at the far post to put Norway back on level terms.
An entertaining game ended 2-2 as Australia maintained their unbeaten record in London in 2004.
World Cup qualification in 2005 was to be Australia's next big challenge.