Australia B is a secondary
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
team occasionally as support for the
Australia national soccer team. The team has only ever played nine matches; winning one, drawing six, and losing two. It has been inactive since 1985.
Concept and history
The national B team was designed to give games to players who were being considered for call-up to the full national squad. Generally, the team played in friendly matches against other international B teams or club sides.
Australia B were one of several teams which entered a "World Series" held in Australia in 1984, which included
Rangers,
Juventus
Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...
,
Australia A,
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football.
Founde ...
and
Iraklis. They were coached in the tournament by
Eddie Thomson
In 1985, Australia B played two games against
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
in the leadup to the
1987 Ampol Cup between China and Australia. They were coached by
John Margaritis in both games.
In 2007, then-
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 ...
coach
Graham Arnold, himself a former B international, flagged the idea of reviving the national B team.
Statistics
Results and fixtures
1984
1985
Historical statistics
* Highest attendance: 18,300 vs.
Iraklis at Melbourne.
* Biggest victory: 2–0 vs. , 23 September 1985 at
Seiffert Oval,
Queanbeyan
Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the Queanbeyan-Pale ...
* Heaviest defeat: 2–4 vs.
Rangers, 7 June 1984 at Adamstown Oval,
Newcastle
Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
Player records
Most appearances
Goalscorers
Managers
*
Eddie Thomson 1984
*
John Margaritis 1985
References
{{National sports teams of Australia
B
Asian national B association football teams
Oceanian national B association football teams
1984 establishments in Australia