1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF–OFC play-off)
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The 1994 FIFA World Cup CONCACAF–OFC qualification play-off was an association football match played over two-legs between
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and Canada. The first leg was played at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Canada, on 31 July 1993; the second leg was played on 15 August 1993 at
Sydney Football Stadium The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier rect ...
in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Both teams had played in their regional qualifiers to qualify for the play-off. The Canadians played in twelve matches in North American qualifying across two rounds. After finishing second in their second-round group to
El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
, they qualified to the final round where they finished second by three points to Mexico. Australia, played in six matches across two rounds in Oceania qualifying. After winning their group, they defeated New Zealand across two-legs to make it to the play-off. After Canada won the opening leg 2–1 at Edmonton, Australia took a 2–1 lead in the return leg at Sydney. With the resulting aggregate tie, the game headed into extra time which was scoreless. This meant that the match went to
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with Australia advancing through to meet South American Group 1 runner-up, Argentina which they would go on to lose 2–1 on aggregate in the play-off.


Background

Canada and Australia were two of the 147 teams that competed for the 22 spots that was in the
1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...
which was held in the United States. The national teams were separated into their regional confederations with spots being allocated for that confederation.


Canada

Canada began their 1994 qualification in the second round after receiving a bye in Round 1 and was put in Group B with Bermuda,
El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
and Jamaica. They opened their 1994 campaign with two draws away from home. In
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, Dale Mitchell scored the equalizer against Jamaica in the 85th minute after
Hector Wright Hector Wright (born 8 May 1969) is a Jamaican former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Wright played for Seba United in his native country, but his career was cut short by injuries. He also has an older brother, Ch ...
had scored a goal for Jamaica seven minutes earlier. The following week, Colin Miller scored the late equalizer in
San Salvador San Salvador (; ) is the capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its eponymous department. It is the country's political, cultural, educational and financial center. The Metropolitan Area of San Salvador, which comprises the capital i ...
to tie the match 1-all against El Salvador after conceding a goal in the 32nd minute from Jorge González. At their first home game in Toronto, Canada recorded their first win in their campaign with a 1–0 win over Jamaica off the back of a 53rd-minute goal from Mitchell which put Canada in first place in their group. A 3–2 loss at home to El Salvador, was followed by a hat-trick from
Alex Bunbury Alexander Bunbury (born 18 June 1967) is a Canadian former professional soccer player who played as a striker. He played mainly for Marítimo in Portugal during a 13-year professional career, and represented the Canadian national team during ...
in the first half, becoming the first Canadian to score one in a competitive international match.
Geoff Aunger Geoffrey "Geoff" Edward Ramer Aunger (born 4 February 1968 in Red Deer, Alberta) is a former Canadian soccer player. He played in various Canadian leagues and the lower tiers of the English leagues system before playing in the United States in ...
sealed the 4–2 result for Canada over Bermuda. The final match of the second round saw Canada earn a clean sheet with a nil all draw over Bermuda in
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...
. For Canada they finished in second place with seven points and advanced to the third round. In the third round, they were drawn to play El Salvador, Mexico and
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
with only the winner to qualify through to the World Cup. Their opening match in the third round against Honduras saw John Catliff open the scoring after Honduran goalkeeper
Belarmino Rivera Belarmino Rivera Jimminson (born 1956) is a retired Honduran football player. Club career ''Nino'' Rivera played for Olimpia, Sula, Platense, Victoria and Real Maya in the Honduran national league. He made his debut with Olimpia in 1975 an ...
brought down Paul Peschisolido. Rodolfo Richardson Smith scored the equaliser for Honduras from a penalty before Bunbury gave the Canadians the lead once again. A late converted penalty caused by a
Mark Watson Mark Andrew Watson (born 13 February 1980) is a British comedian and novelist. Early life Watson was born in Bristol to a Welsh mother and English father. He has younger twin sisters and a brother, Paul. He attended Bristol Grammar School, wh ...
handball saw the Canadian coach Bob Lenarduzzi confront the Jamaican referee after the match. The following match in Burnaby saw goals from Bunbury and Catliff give Canada a 2–0 win over El Salvador as they moved to the top of the group after two games. Their second match in Burnaby got off to a shaky start with Alex Pineda scoring the game's opening goal for Honduras against the run of play. Domenic Mobilio scored the equaliser in the 51st minute before a misplayed ball from Honduran goalkeeper Dangelo Bautista gave Canada the lead in the 61st minute. John Catliff secured the 3–1 victory for Canada over Honduras, who ended the match with nine players. Canada suffered their first loss of the final round with a trip to Mexico City ending in a 4–0 defeat to Mexico after Ramón Ramírez scoring two goals in the first half. In the second half, Luis Flores and Alberto García each scored a goal to secure the victory. The following match in San Salvador, Catliff opened the scoring in the 27th minute to give Canada the lead. El Salvador tied the game in the 58th minute when González controlled a loose ball and scored. Two minutes later, Mobilio scored the winner to set up a must–win match against Mexico. Playing at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, Alex Bunbury opened the scoring for the Canadians in the 17th minute off a John Catliff assist. A mix-up in the Canadian backline gave Mexico the equalizer in the 34th minute with
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lashing an unstoppable drive past Craig Forrest. Despite Canada's efforts to re-take the lead with an all-out offence in the second half, Mexico claimed the victory with six minutes left of the match with substitute
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slotting the ball into an open net. Canada ended in second place with seven points, three points behind Mexico who qualified through to the 1994 World Cup.


Australia

Australia began their qualifying campaign on 4 September 1992 with an away trip to
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, to play the Solomon Islands. In the tropical heat, Australia's Carl Veart scored the opening goal in the eighth minute of the game before the team struggled to keep possession of the ball. Solomon Islands' persistence tied the game with
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heading a goal. Australia replied three minutes later with a
Tom McCulloch Tom McCulloch (born 10 February 1964) is an Australian former soccer player and coach. McCulloch played at both professional and international levels as a defender. Career Playing career McCulloch played club football for Marconi Stallions, ...
goal that sealed the 2–1 victory. One week later, the team travelled to
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to take on Tahiti in what was their second game in a World Cup qualifier. After Alistair Edwards returned to the Australian team from Malaysia, he contributed two goals with Damian Mori and Carl Veart also scoring.
Paul Wade Paul Wade (born 20 March 1962) is an Australian retired soccer player, who is best known for his long-term role as captain of the Socceroos, Australia's national soccer team. Club career Born in Cheshire, England, Wade moved to Australia w ...
sealed the victory for Australia with a goal in the 57th minute to win the match 3–0. The final two games of the first round were played in Australia with the first match taking place on 20 September 1992 in Brisbane against Tahiti. Carl Veart scored his third goal of the qualifying campaign in the 11th minute after Ricky Fassian could not hold the ball.
Mehmet Durakovic Mehmed (modern Turkish: Mehmet) is the most common Bosnian and Turkish form of the Arabic name Muhammad ( ar, محمد) (''Muhammed'' and ''Muhammet'' are also used, though considerably less) and gains its significance from being the name of Muh ...
scored the winner in the 62nd minute from a 40-metre shot which was deflected off Layton and looped over Fassian's head to seal the 2–0 victory despite being a man down earlier in the game due to a
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to
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. The final match of the first round saw six different Australia goalscorers in a 6–1 rout over the Solomon Islands at Newcastle. After
Aytec Genc Aytek Genc ( tr, Aytek Genç; born 3 February 1966) is a former Australian soccer player and was the coach of the Sydney Olympic FC in the NSW Premier League. Considered one of the most technically gifted players in the Australian National Socce ...
scored the opener in the fifth minute of play, the Solomon Islands hit straight back with
Tony Franken Anthony (Tony) Franken (born 11 January 1965) is a former Australian goalkeeper. Biography He represented Australia on 14 occasions between 1984–1992 and represented his country at Under-20 level at the 1983 World Youth Cup Finals in Mexic ...
being stranded as Charles Ashley shot past him. Initially unable to take back the lead after the first half, Australia scored five goals in the space of 28 minutes. Ian Gray, Wade, Veart, Greg Brown and Durakovic scored to give Australia eight points from eight. This meant Australia had qualified to take on New Zealand for a spot in the play-offs. In the first leg at Auckland, the Australians secured a 1–0 victory with the goal coming in the 55th minute from
Graham Arnold Graham James Arnold (born 3 August 1963) is an Australian soccer manager and former player. Arnold was appointed to work as an assistant coach of the Australian national soccer team in 2000. After head coach Frank Farina was sacked in 2005, Ar ...
. The second leg in Melbourne saw Australia score two goals in the first three minutes of the game, with Veart and Robbie Slater giving Australia a three goal lead in the tie. A Ned Zelic goal in the second half sealed the match 3–0 and the tie 4–0 to qualify through to the play-off.


First leg


Summary

The first leg of the play-off was played at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on 31 July 1993 before a crowd of 27,775. Canada had the first shot of the game in the 5th minute with Bunbry volley hitting the crossbar. Ten minutes later, the Australians loss goalkeeper
Robert Zabica Robert Zabica (born 9 April 1964 in Spearwood, Western Australia) is an Australian former goalkeeper. Zabica represented the Australian national team 28 times in 'A' international matches and also represented Western Australia. Playing career ...
's to a red card after colliding into Canadian midfielder Dale Mitchell. Mark Schwarzer, who was called up after first choice goalkeeper Mark Bosnich declined to leave
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, debuted for Australia as a substitute for Milan Blagojevic.
Eddie Thomson Eddie Thomson (25 February 1947 – 21 February 2003) was a Scottish association football player and coach, who played as a defender. He played for Heart of Midlothian and Aberdeen in Scotland, San Antonio Thunder in the United States and ...
later quoting after the press-conference stating, "I would like to study the video before making my mind up on the foul, but what I am positive about is that it doesn't take two minutes to send off a goalkeeper off in a situation like that." This red card also forced Robbie Slater to play right full-back. With a minute left in the first half, the Australians opened the scoring with an own goal from Canadian defender Nick Dasovic. A cross from
Frank Yallop Frank Walter Yallop (born 4 April 1964) is a British-Canadian professional soccer coach. Yallop is currently the head coach and sporting director of USL Championship side Monterey Bay FC. He played 13 years in England for Ipswich, including the ...
glanced off Dasovic's head into the net with barely any Australians around. The second half saw the Canada levelling the game in the 51st minute with
Mark Watson Mark Andrew Watson (born 13 February 1980) is a British comedian and novelist. Early life Watson was born in Bristol to a Welsh mother and English father. He has younger twin sisters and a brother, Paul. He attended Bristol Grammar School, wh ...
scoring a goal as he took advantage of the one man advantage. Seven minutes later, Canada took the lead after Domenic Mobilio scored a goal in what he later described as "a huge scramble. We had three or four shots in a row." The Socceroos dug in to not concede a third goal as they battled in the last 30 minutes to only keep the difference to one goal.


Details


Second leg


Summary

The second leg of the play-off was played at the
Sydney Football Stadium The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier rect ...
on 15 August 1993 before a crowd of 25,982. Defender Randy Samuel was brought back into the Canadian squad from a one game suspension which ruled him out of the first leg in Edmonton. Tony Vidmar and Milan Blagojevic were added to the starting lineup for Australia. The first half of the match was dominated by Australia with them outshooting Canada 10–1. Australia was later rewarded at the brink of half-time with Frank Farina scoring the opening goal from an overhead kick. Quoted after the match, Farina said, "The first half was the best I've ever seen from an Australian team, and only superb play from Forrest kept us out." A half-time substitution from Canada brought in Carl Valentine for Mobilio and the tactical change worked with
Lyndon Hooper Lyndon Hooper (born May 30, 1966) is a Canadian former professional soccer player and former assistant coach of the Toronto Lynx soccer team of the United Soccer Leagues First Division. He was a prominent Canadian international. Club career G ...
scoring the goal in the 54th minute while on the run as the ball was deflected off Schwarzer's gloves and inside the far net to give Canada the lead on aggregate. In the 76th minute, Dave Mitchell was brought on to replace Robbie Slater and it only took a minute before winning an aerial play against Samuel with Slater passing the ball to
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the ball and Australia the lead as he scored into an unguarded forest after the ball went over Forrest's head. Thirty minutes of extra time failed to break the 3–3 aggregate deadlock which saw
Grant Needham Grant Needham (born 14 July 1970) is a Canadian former international soccer player who played as a striker. Early and personal life Needham was born in Liverpool, England, and raised in Montreal, where he started playing soccer at the age of 10 ...
stretchered off after colliding with Duraković, the match went into penalties. From there, Schwarzer saved two critical shots from Bunbury and Mike Sweeney as he aided in the Australian victory with Farina sealing it with his shot.


Details


Aftermath

After the second leg, manager Bob Lenarduzzi was quoted saying, "Although we are disappointed, I don't think we let anybody down." He later added, "we're all pulling for them because the farther they go, the better it makes us look." The Australian coach,
Eddie Thomson Eddie Thomson (25 February 1947 – 21 February 2003) was a Scottish association football player and coach, who played as a defender. He played for Heart of Midlothian and Aberdeen in Scotland, San Antonio Thunder in the United States and ...
responded in his interview, "this was a win full of character; the whole team played really well." Australia went on to meet Argentina in the deciding play-off for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. After the first match ended in a 1–1 draw at Sydney, they would concede an own goal in the second leg with a deflection off Alex Tobin going over Robert Zabica's head and into the far side of the net to lose the tie 2–1 and have Australia eliminated from qualifying. It was not until
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that they won a World Cup play-off to qualify through to the
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, defeating Uruguay on penalties. After subsequent failed attempts to qualify for the FIFA World Cup through CONCACAF, Canada finally qualified for the
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on 27 March 2022 after having beaten Jamaica 4–0 in Toronto, ending a 36-year drought since its first qualification in
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.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF-OFC play-off) 1993 in Australian soccer Play P1
World Cup 1994 The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...
World Cup 1994 The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...
World Soccer in Edmonton Soccer in Sydney FIFA World Cup qualification inter-confederation play-offs play-off July 1993 sports events in Canada August 1993 sports events in Australia International association football competitions hosted by Australia International association football competitions hosted by Canada 1993 in Alberta 1990s in Sydney Sports competitions in Sydney Sports competitions in Edmonton 1990s in Edmonton FIFA World Cup qualification 1994