When you think of Australian sports, soccer is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Perhaps you think of cricket, AFL or NFL. Yet, soccer (called “football” by sports purists) is actually the most popular and fastest-growing sport code in modern Australia, with over 1.9 million regular players across all levels. Now millions of Australians are watching eagerly to see how far our national men’s soccer team — the Socceroos — can make it in the World Cup.
The fame of the Socceroos is a fairly recent phenomenon. Prior to 2010, Australia had only qualified for two FIFA World Cups. Since then — thanks in large part to soccer legend Tim Cahill — we have qualified for another five World Cups! However, the farthest the Socceroos have made it in the FIFA world cup is “The Round of 16”, in both 2006 in Germany and 2022 in Qatar. This time, the Socceroos have come up with an upset win against Türkiye on the 14th June, giving them a solid position to progress to the group stage.
Did you know that the name “soccer” was first invented in England in the 19th century? University of Oxford students created it as a shortened version of “Association football”, adding the “-er” after “soc”. Americans quickly adopted this name to differentiate soccer from gridiron football, and soon soccer became the official name of the sport in the states. From my experience, soccer also is the more popular term in Australia — probably so we don’t get it confused with multiple rugby codes which are also called football!
What is your opinion — should it be called soccer or football? And does Australia have a fighting chance to come out as champions in the World Cup?
– The Editor
