The Australia– Japan football rivalry is a

sports rivalry A sports rivalry is intense competition between athletic teams or athletes, affecting participants, management, and supporters all to varying degrees. The intensity of the rivalry can range anywhere from a light hearted banter to serious violen ...

that exists between the national

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

teams of each country, regarded as one of Asia's biggest football rivalries. The rivalry is a relatively recent one, born from a number of highly competitive matches between the two teams since Australia joined the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly i ...

in 2006. The two teams have played each other in several significant matches, including a World Cup group stage match, the 2011 Asian Cup Final and have been drawn in the same group in four consecutive World Cup qualification campaigns.

Origins

The first match between the two teams was played at the

1956 Olympics 1956 Olympics refers to both: *The 1956 Winter Olympics, which were held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy *The 1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport eve ...

, ending in a 2–0 win for the Australians. Another dozen matches were played between Australia and Japan until a semi-final match at the 2001 Confederations Cup which ended in a 1–0 for Japan, but the match-up really only emerged as a rivalry after 2006, when Australia joined the AFC, especially the FIFA World Cup qualification games. The first match between the two sides after this was during the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

, a group stage game where Australia were still technically competing as

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

representatives. With just six minutes left, Japan led by a single goal, only for Australia to score thrice in succession to secure their first ever win in a World Cup Finals match in what is regarded as one of the greatest moments in Australian sporting history. A number of fierce qualifying matches over the next few years enhanced the rivalry, and Japan got revenge for their World Cup defeat by knocking the Socceroos out of the

2007 Asian Cup The 2007 AFC Asian Cup was the 14th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held from 7 to 29 July 2007. For the first time in its hi ...

at the quarter-final stage via penalty shootout. In 2011, Japan again beat the Socceroos in an Asian Cup, this time in the 2011 final with a solitary goal in extra time sealing the championship.

Men's matches

Women's matches

Like their men's counterparts, the two nations also have a strong rivalry in the women's counterparts, with both Australia and Japan among Asia's strongest and some of the world's finest; and like the men's, Japan also dominates Australia when it comes to women's. However, unlike the men's team of Australia, the women's team of Australia is, by far, the first and only football team from the country to have won against Japan in Japanese soil, when they did so in 29 February 2016 as part of the qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Overall

Top scorers

''Players in bold are still available for selection.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Australia-Japan football rivalry International association football rivalries Australia national soccer team rivalries Japan national football team rivalries Australia–Japan sports relations