2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL–OFC play-off)

The 2006 FIFA World Cup CONMEBOL–OFC qualification play-off was a two-legged home-and-away tie between the winners of the Oceania qualifying tournament, Australia, and the fifth-placed team from the South American qualifying tournament, Uruguay.

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
(CONMEBOL–OFC play-off)

Event	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
Uruguay Australia 1 1
(on aggregate; Australia won 4–2 on penalties)
First leg
Uruguay Australia 1 0
Date	12 November 2005
Venue	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo
Referee	Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark)
Attendance	55,000
Weather	Clear 22 °C (72 °F)[1]
Second leg
Australia Uruguay 1 0
Date	16 November 2005
Venue	Telstra Stadium, Sydney
Referee	Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain)
Attendance	82,698
Weather	Mostly cloudy 17 °C (63 °F)[2]

After winning the series, Australia qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany.^[3][4]

Background

John Aloisi taking the decisive penalty

The games were played on 12 and 16 November 2005 in Montevideo and Sydney respectively. With the home team winning 1–0 in both matches, the aggregate score 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 for the first time since the 1974 tournament.^[5][6]

It was the second consecutive FIFA World Cup where the two sides had played each other for a place in the tournament. On the first occasion in 2001, Uruguay 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.^[7]

Venues

Estadio Centenario (left) and Telstra Stadium, venues for the series

Background

Uruguay		Round	Australia
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Brazil 18 9 7 2 35 17 18 34  Argentina 18 10 4 4 29 17 12 34  Ecuador 18 8 4 6 23 19 4 28  Paraguay 18 8 4 6 23 23 0 28  Uruguay 18 6 7 5 23 28 −5 25		Final standings	Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Australia 5 4 1 0 21 3 18 13  Solomon Islands 5 3 1 1 9 6 3 10  New Zealand 5 3 0 2 17 5 12 9  Fiji 5 1 1 3 3 10 −7 4  Tahiti 5 1 1 3 2 24 −22 4  Vanuatu 5 1 0 4 5 9 −4 3
		Final round (OFC)	Opponent	Result
		1st leg	Solomon Islands (H)	7–0
		2nd leg	Solomon Islands (A)	2–1

Match details

First leg

Uruguay	1–0	Australia
D. Rodríguez 37'	Report

12 November 2005

18:00 UTC−2

First leg

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo

Attendance: 55,000

Referee: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark)

Uruguay

Australia

GK 1 Fabián Carini DF 6 Diego López DF 4 Paolo Montero (c) DF 3 Darío Rodríguez  90+1' MF 8 Carlos Diogo  64' MF 5 Pablo García MF 15 Diego Pérez MF 21 Diego Forlán  19' MF 9 Álvaro Recoba FW 17 Marcelo Zalayeta  64' FW 18 Richard Morales Substitutions: GK 12 Sebastián Viera DF 2 Guillermo Rodríguez  64' MF 7 Marcelo Sosa MF 20 Martín Parodi FW 10 Darío Silva  24'  19' FW 11 Mario Regueiro FW 13 Fabián Estoyanoff  64' Manager: Jorge Fossati

GK 1 Mark Schwarzer DF 5 Tony Vidmar DF 2 Lucas Neill DF 6 Tony Popovic MF 7 Brett Emerton MF 19 Jason Culina MF 3 Scott Chipperfield MF 13 Vince Grella  90+1' MF 10 Harry Kewell FW 14 Archie Thompson  52' FW 9 Mark Viduka (c)  80' Substitutions: GK 18 Željko Kalac DF 12 Ljubo Miličević MF 4 Tim Cahill MF 8 Josip Skoko MF 20 Luke Wilkshire MF 23 Mark Bresciano  52' FW 15 John Aloisi  80' Manager: Guus Hiddink

OFFICIALS Assistant referees: Bill Hansen (Denmark) Anders Norrestrand (Denmark) Fourth official: Nicolai Vollquartz (Denmark)

MATCH RULES 90 minutes 3 (of 7) substitutions permitted

---

Second leg

Australia	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Uruguay
Bresciano 35'	Report
Penalties
Kewell Neill Vidmar Viduka Aloisi	4–2	D. Rodríguez Varela Estoyanoff Zalayeta

16 November 2005

20:00 UTC+11

Second leg

Telstra Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 82,698

Referee: Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain)

Australia

Uruguay

GK 1 Mark Schwarzer DF 2 Lucas Neill DF 6 Tony Popovic  27'  31' DF 5 Tony Vidmar  39' MF 23 Mark Bresciano  96' MF 4 Tim Cahill MF 3 Scott Chipperfield MF 19 Jason Culina  53' MF 7 Brett Emerton  110' MF 13 Vince Grella FW 9 Mark Viduka (c) Substitutions: GK 18 Željko Kalac DF 11 Stan Lazaridis DF 12 Ljubo Miličević MF 8 Josip Skoko  110' MF 10 Harry Kewell  86'  31' FW 14 Archie Thompson FW 15 John Aloisi  96' Manager: Guus Hiddink

GK 1 Fabián Carini DF 2 Diego Lugano DF 4 Paolo Montero (c)  81' DF 6 Guillermo Rodríguez DF 3 Darío Rodríguez  67' DF 11 Mario Regueiro  44'  97' MF 5 Pablo García  76' MF 7 Gustavo Varela MF 8 Carlos Diogo  45+1' MF 9 Álvaro Recoba  72' FW 18 Richard Morales  110' Substitutions: GK 12 Sebastián Viera DF 21 Alejandro Lago MF 14 Marcelo Sosa  81' MF 19 Gonzalo de los Santos FW 10 Darío Silva FW 13 Fabián Estoyanoff  97' FW 17 Marcelo Zalayeta  72' Manager: Jorge Fossati

OFFICIALS Assistant referees: Víctoriano Giráldez Carrasco (Spain) Pedro Medina Hernández (Spain) Fourth official: Julián Rodríguez Santiago (Spain)

MATCH RULES 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary Penalty shoot-out if scores still level: 3 (of 7) substitutions permitted

Skirmishes

FIFA changed the referee of the second leg after Uruguay's coach Jorge Fossati complain before the match. The original team were Belgians Frank De Bleeckere, Mark Simons and Peter Hermans. Fossati said Belgium were neighbours of the Netherlands and Australia's coach Guus Hiddink is from Netherlands. FIFA appointed a referee team from Spain to replace the Belgians afterwards.^[8][9]

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.^[10]

Aftermath

For Uruguay it was the third FIFA World Cup out of four since 1990 they failed to qualify. Jorge Fossati lost his job and rehired Óscar Tabárez 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 FIFA World Cup play-off after losing to Scotland (1986), Argentina (1994), Iran (1998) and the first playoff with Uruguay (2002). Australia were drawn into 2006 FIFA World Cup Group F.

In 2009, Australian Broadcasting Corporation ranked Australia's victory in 2005 as number one on their list of milestone sporting moments of the 2000s.^[11] Melbourne paper the Herald Sun named Australia's victory in 2005 as one of 100 great moments in Australian sports history.^[12]

A documentary titled November 16 was released in 2015 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the second leg. It featured interviews with Álvaro Recoba, Fabián Carini and members of the Australian squad.^[13]

References

External videos
Australia v Uruguay in FIFA World Cup 2006 Play-Off second leg on YouTube

1. "History for Carrasco Intl. Airport, Uruguay". wunderground.com. 12 November 2005. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
2. "History for Kingsford Smith Intl. Airport, Australia". wunderground.com. 16 November 2005. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
3. "Australia derribó a Uruguay y clasificó a la Copa del Mundo 2006". Al Aire Libre, 16 November 2005
4. "Uruguay se quedó sin Mundial". Infobae, 16 November 2005
5. "Flashback - Australia v Uruguay: 2005 FIFA World Cup Intercontinental Play-off". the-afc. Asian Football Confederation. 14 November 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
6. "History of the Australian Socceroos at the World Cup". Topend Sports. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
7. "Intercontinental play-off schedule confirmed". FIFA. 10 September 2005. Archived from the original on 22 January 2013.
8. "Uruguay coach lashes choice of refs". Reuters. 29 October 2005.
9. "Spanish refs to control second leg of Cup playoff: report". Australian Associated Press. 5 November 2005. Archived from the original on 11 February 2025.
10. "Socceroos reveal dirty tricks inspired win". ABC News. 18 November 2005.
11. "ABC Grandstand Sport - A decade in sport: 10 milestone moments". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
12. "100 'proud to be Aussie' sports moments". Herald Sun. 24 January 2015.
13. "Socceroos documentary reminds us of how far we've come but there's still a long way to go". 22 November 2015.