“Sometime soon, your tears of joy will replace your tears of sadness today.”
Those were the words that former Argentina captain Diego Maradona spoke to Australian counterpart Paul Wade the day after their match on an Argentine television show in November 1993.
After a 1-1 draw in Sydney, Argentina prevailed 2-1 in the two-game World Cup qualifier in Buenos Aires thanks to an own goal from Alex Tobin. As Australia’s captain Wade recalled to the Sydney Morning Herald recently, after the defeat, assistant coach Raul Blanco and captain Wade were invited to appear on a local television show.
The Socceroos captain’s admission that he earned only $5000 per season surprised everyone in the studio, who were used to seeing their best football players live lavish lives. Which is when the call came from the greatest football player of the time—if not ever.
Wade stated in a recent interview that “Maradona was watching and he rang up the TV station.” As a result, “the floor manager is going nuts,” and “everyone is frazzled.”
After that, they put him on, and he said,Paul says, “Congratulations to you and your team on your performance; you pushed us so hard.”
He adds, “Your tears of sadness today will be tears of joy sometime soon.”
Wade thinks that 29 years later, it might finally be time for the words of La Albiceleste’s last World Cup-winning captain to come true. versus Argentinaduring the World Cup.
When the match was confirmed, he stated, “If Saudi Arabia can do it, so can we – they are wounded. “They are not the team that won the World Cup in 1986. They are pushable away from the ball. It truly is my belief.”
Australia qualified for the Round of 16 by finishing second in Group D after winning consecutive games for the first time at the World Cup finals. The Socceroos also scored for the first time in all three of their group stage games. Craig Goodwin latched onto a cross from the right to give the blues, the defending champions, their first goal in their opening 4-1 loss to France.
After allowing the four goals against Les Bleus, Australia’s defensive toughness was the key to its 1-0 victories over Tunisia and Denmark thanks to the opposition’s persistent pressure.
The Socceroos have been one of the tournament’s least offensive teams. Australia has had fewer shots on goal, fewer possessions of the ball, and a lower Expected Goals (xG) rate in all three of their group stage games. In point of fact, at this World Cup, Australia’s xG per 90 minutes of 0.58 is only better than that of Qatar (0.47) and Costa Rica (0.40). They have chosen the right times to advance, score the goal, and then relax and deal with the pressure that comes with it.
In each of the three games in the group stage, the Australian team’s Attack Momentum SofaScore bar graphs show how much pressure they put on their opponents and vice versa throughout the game.
In the past, Australia only needed to open their match history against their next opponent to get some ideas for the upcoming match. At the 1988 Bicentennial Gold Cup tournament in Sydney, the hosts defeated the then-world champions by a score of four goals to one in their first meeting.
Paul Wade would tell the Herald about the famous win, “Yes, they had some very high-profile players, but they had no Maradona on that trip.” Wow, what a night!Everything came together. “However, Argentina would win five of the subsequent six meetings (with one draw), including that devastating 1-0 defeat in the 1994 World Cup qualifier.
At the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2007, the most recent one was the most recent one. Australia saw Lionel Messi for the first time in a 1-0 defeat.