I was just checking our record in World Cup Qualifiers after my post in the Australia vs UAE thread regarding our home record when I figured I'd go a little further back.

Turns out, since our first ever official WCQ in November 1965 against North Korea, the Socceroos have only ever lost three home World Cup Qualifiers in our history.

Our most recent home defeat was almost a decade ago against China in June 2008 under Pim, then you have to go all the way back to May 1981 when New Zealand got us 0-2 in Sydney in the then weirdly organised joint OFC and AFC 1982 World Cup qualifiers, and once more in the campaign before that for the 1978 World Cup when Iran got an unanswered away goal in Melbourne in August 1977.

That's it; only three home losses in 52 years of high stakes qualifiers, even when they've sent Maradona, Recoba, and whoever else against us.

Does anyone in world football have a record anything like this?

And that loss to China was a dead rubber game when we had already qualified for the next round. They used the match as a warm up for the Olyroos before the Beijing Olympics. This is the squad we used on that day:
Michael Petkovic, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Matthew Spiranovic, Jade North, Ruben Zadkovich, Carl Valeri, Mile Jedinak (Neil Kilkenny 79), James Holland (David Williams 63), James Troisi (Kristian Sarkies 83), Bruce Djite, Harry Kewell

We'll probably lose tomorrow such is the rubbish our players are serving up at the moment.

I'm pretty sure it is the best or second best record in football over that period. An overseas publication did a story on it using the 'you'll never guess which country has this home record in home qualifiers' angle but I can't remember who it was. I'm pretty sure it was posted here at some point though.

Yeah but they also had the advantage of playing powerhouses such as American Samoa for a good chunk of those years

Losing isn't the problem, drawing games is.

-PB

Wow that is insane, good work pala!

Technically the Iran game wasn't a loss.

So maybe it's just twice.

The '98 qualifier you may be thinking of was lost on away goals, with no actual loss in a 90 minute game and so doesn't count, but Iran did beat us in a joint AFC-OFC group home match in August 1977 for the 1978 World Cup.

Still had playoffs against the likes of Argentina, Uruguay and Scotland throughout that time, and yet we've kept the record intact.

In fact, we only had purely OFC qualifiers (all followed by super hard playoffs) for a relatively short period of our history: just four campaigns from the 1994 through to 2006 World Cups. Before that we were lumped into joint AFC-OFC qualifiers, or even "rest of the world" groups including absurd arrangements with Israel or African countries in a time when World Cup qualification was horribly Euro/South American-centric.

Get yourself a copy of Shielas, Wogs and Poofters for the best firsthand account of that time, or click through the very well kept records on wiki. :)

A pleasure, thanks! :)

Well I've just jinxed us, haven't I?

5-0 loss at home to UAE coming up.

-PB

I think I  saw recently that Italy have never lost a home world cup qualification match. 

I was there that night. Painful game to watch. Spiranovic had just come off a season at Nürnberg. Valeri, Jedinak and Troisi made the grade.

Looking quickly on Soccerway which goes back to a 4-0 win over Greece in 1934 it seems you're right!

Then again, they have Liechtenstein next up at home, so maybe you just jinxed them as well.

I think Sport Bible Facebook posted it over the weekend. I could barely believe it. Our record isn't too shabby.

Ah cool! You're a genius. You should send this topic in to Guardian Knowledge :) 

If there's ever going to be a time we'll lose at home, it's tonight.

Point is, we need to win.

Not just NOT lose.

I draw is as good as a loss now.

Brazil has never lost a Qualification match at home either I think, but have obviously lost World Cup finals matches at home.

I was at the 77/78 loss to Iran. It was a shambles. We were lucky to not lose by more. I can remember Peter Wilson looking at the stands toward the end of the game as bucket loads of people were walking out of the stadium. He appeared very stunned and lost. It was a rather sad moment , and truly reflective of how the team was playing.

Interesting.

Agree we definitely need all 9 points available at home.

Fortunately, we've only drawn three home qualifiers since joining too, two of them against Japan, one against Oman.

Haha, that would be a great story

That bloody Oman game. I can't remember being more annoyed inside a football ground as what I was during that game.

The whole Fortress Australia (or really, any country's ability to win home) is something that has interested me for years. Even countries that struggle to make the World Cup, eg Bolivia, can still create a Fortress like impression for visiting teams.

Nah the national team is shit brah. 3rd biggest code in a country of ~20 million that was recently crowned the best in the most populous and fastest growing region of the planet, football is dying in this country, we've got no good players, etc 

Egg on face dodged!

still have the saudi game.

Phew!