The 2006 FIFA World Cup CONMEBOL–OFC qualification play-off was a

two-legged In sports (especially association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum of ...

home-and-away tie between the winners of the Oceania qualifying tournament,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and the fifth-placed team from the South American qualifying tournament,

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

. After winning the series, Australia qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany.

Background

The games were played on 12 and 16 November 2005 in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

and

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

respectively. With the home team winning 1–0 in both matches, the

aggregate score There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

was tied 1–1, and, with no away goal advantage, the play-off was decided by a penalty shoot-out, which Australia won 4–2 in order to qualify for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

for the first time since the 1974 tournament. It was the second consecutive

where the two sides had played each other for a place in the tournament. On the first occasion in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

won 3–1 on aggregate. The draw for determining the order of the home and away legs was made at a FIFA congress on 10 September 2005.

Venues

Background

Match details

First leg

----

Second leg

Skirmishes

FIFA changed the referee of the second leg after Uruguay's coach

Jorge Fossati Jorge Daniel Fossati Lurachi (born 22 November 1952 in Montevideo) is a Uruguayan football (soccer), football manager and former player who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. He is the current manager of Peruvian club Cl ...

complain before the match. The original team were Belgians

Frank De Bleeckere Frank De Bleeckere (; born 1 July 1966) is a Belgian former football referee. He had been a referee since 1984, and an international (FIFA) official since 1998. De Bleeckere refereed in his first World Cup finals in Germany, and had to pass a l ...

, Mark Simons and Peter Hermans. Fossati said Belgium were neighbours of the Netherlands and Australia's coach

Guus Hiddink Guus Hiddink (; born 8 November 1946) is a Dutch former football manager and professional player. He enjoyed a long career playing as a midfielder in his native Netherlands. Retired as player in 1982, Hiddink went into management, leading both c ...

is from Netherlands. FIFA appointed a referee team from Spain to replace the Belgians afterwards. In the second leg, there was heavy booing by Australian fans during Uruguay's national anthem, in response to the dirty tricks, spitting and punches thrown at the Australian team on their previous playoff meeting.

Aftermath

For Uruguay it was the third FIFA World Cup out of four since

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

they failed to qualify.

lost his job and rehired

Óscar Tabárez Óscar Washington Tabárez Silva (; born 3 March 1947), known as ''El Maestro'' (The Teacher), is a Uruguayan former professional football manager and former player. After an unassuming career as a player and after working as a primary school ...

who managed the team before (1988–1990), and Uruguay entered the ''Proceso'' era, breaking many records and have qualified for every FIFA World Cup since 2010. Australia finally won a

play-off after losing to

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

(

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

(

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

(

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

) and the first playoff with

(

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

). Australia were drawn into

2006 FIFA World Cup Group F Play in Group F of the 2006 FIFA World Cup began on 12 June and completed on 22 June 2006. Brazil won the group and advanced to the round of 16, along with runners-up Australia. Croatia and Japan failed to advance. Australia's win against Japan wa ...

. In 2009,

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

ranked Australia's victory in 2005 as number one on their list of milestone sporting moments of the 2000s.

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

paper the ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...

'' named Australia's victory in 2005 as one of 100 great moments in Australian sports history. A documentary titled ''November 16'' was released in 2015 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the second leg. It featured interviews with

Álvaro Recoba Álvaro Alexánder Recoba Rivero (; born 17 March 1976; nickname "El Chino"

, Fabián Carini and members of the Australian squad.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2006 Fifa World Cup Qualification (Conmebol-Ofc Play-Off)

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

Play-off CONMEBOL-OFC FIFA World Cup qualification inter-confederation play-offs Australia men's national soccer team matches Uruguay national football team matches qual 2005 in Uruguayan football 3 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL–OFC play-off) International association football competitions hosted by Australia International association football competitions hosted by Uruguay November 2005 sports events in Australia November 2005 sports events in South America 2000s in Sydney 2000s in Montevideo Sports competitions in Sydney Football competitions in Montevideo