An infamous evening at the MCG defined by the Terry Venables ‘Socceroos’ era

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It’s a succession of coaching roles and when written it almost feels like a mistake. From Barcelona, ​​Tottenham Hotspur and England… to the Socceroos. From La Liga and FA Cup titles, European Cup finals and European Championship semi-finals… to Oceania World Cup qualification. But that was the coaching journey attempted by Terry Venables, who died overnight aged 80, between 1984 and 1998.

Related: Terry Venables was a football romantic who felt every player was a star

It wasn’t the modern-day Socceroos he took over, either, not a side coming from behind in the round of 16 in their fifth straight appearance on football’s biggest stage. In 1996 the Australian men had only been to one World Cup in their history, which was more than 20 years before the arrival of Venables, and the Socceroos’ place in the global and domestic pecking order hovered between vague dismissal and complete obscurity.

“There are people in England who have been making fun of us as a sort of banana soccer republic,” Soccer Australia spokesman Steve Speziale said at the time.

But as Venables is honored around the world, it is inevitable that one fateful evening at the MCG, 26 years ago to the day this Wednesday, will be revisited in Australia as a defining moment of his tenure. Venables led the Socceroos for 23 games but such is the nature of trauma, he is often remembered for one.

On that fateful evening in 1997, he was in the dugout when the Socceroos took to the field in an all-or-nothing intercontinental replay with Iran. A week earlier the two sides played out a 1-1 final in front of more than 100,000 at the Azadi Stadium in the first leg in Tehran – 19-year-old Harry Kewell put Australia ahead before Khodad Azizi secured the prey would be shared.

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Australia just needed to get the job done in the return game and they would be going to their first World Cup since 1974. And things were going so well. Kewell scored in the 32nd minute to make it 1-0, and then Aurelio Vidmar made it two in the 48th. But then Peter Hore raced up the field and pulled the nets down, allowing Iran to regroup, and Karim Bagheri halved the deficit before Azizi tied things up.

At full-time, it was 3-3 on aggregate with Iran leading on away goals. Venables would not escape criticism after that game; his inability to close shop, the high line he insisted on, and the non-deployment of the likes of John Aloisi and Milan Ivanović.

But the game’s lasting legacy is mourning. I was at the stadium that night, too young to remember much of the game, except for the tears streaming down my face as I left the ground. Johnny Warren, the avatar of Australian football, wept openly on air. Venables would call it “one of the saddest sporting moments of my life”.

But while this game has, with good reason, cemented Venables’ place in Australian sporting folklore (a little talk of how Australia went to the 1997 Confederations Cup final a month later, an almost torturous glimpse of what could be achieved in France), looking back speaks to how his arrival in Australia was a model for the evolution of the game in the country.

In a way his initial appointment – ​​one said to have cost 10% of Soccer Australia’s budget – was a statement about where Australian football wanted to go, one that would be repeated seven years later when he turned to Guus Hiddink and finally saved the World Cup. quality.

For all the ridicule and disdain, from abroad and at home (Venables had to be sure to call it soccer so as not to interfere with the native codes that demanded football) a team that was building was here. Four years earlier he took Canada down in just one intercontinental game, only to fall at the last goal against Argentina and the genius of Diego Maradona.

Related: Terry Venables biography

Its ranks were filled with European performers such as Robbie Slater and Mark Bosnich, supplemented by a rising generation highlighted by Kewell and Mark Viduka who would go on to become golden. After six years of efficient but pragmatic football under Eddie Thomson, Venables’ aggressive styling, with its glitz, glamor and raffish charm, was needed, and players who were increasingly recognized as elite coach and man manager responded.

Just as Germany’s 2006 qualification under Hiddink completely changed the face of Australian football and helped establish the fledgling A-League, Australia’s near misses under Venables are one of the best sliding doors moments at Australian football – El Tel arriving within 15 minutes of bringing that golden generation seven years ahead of Australia to change.