The All Whites do or die gain next month versus Bahrain is eerily similar to the games the Aussies played against Iran to qualify for the 1998 World Cup.
According to Wikipedia:
The first leg of the play-off, on November 22, 1997, took place in Tehran, Iran, with the result a 1-1 draw. Attendance for this match was extremely high, as 128,000 fans packed Azadi Stadium, despite it only having a capacity for 100,000 fans at the time.
See what I mean! And the cheating Ockers had the advantage of an away goal.
Game two was at the MCC and 88,000 Ockers converged to celebrate yet another Aussie victory!
With Australia holding a 1-0 lead at half-time and scoring a second goal just after the break, it looked likely that they would progress to the World Cup. Serial pest Peter Hore cut up Iran’s goal net, causing a halt in play. This seemed to quell the Australians’ momentum, as when play resumed, an Iranian revival, led by Khodadad Azizi, saw Iran score two quick goals to make the score 2-2 on aggregate, with Iran progressing on away goals.
Despite being undefeated throughout their entire qualifying campaign, Australia had again failed to qualify for the World Cup finals. Along with host nation and eventual winner France (who as host nation did not need to qualify), Australia were the only other team to not lose a game in the entire campaign.
The match is considered by many Australians as one of the most tragic moments in their sporting history. The broadcast of the game on SBS featured closing comments from a clearly distraught Les Murray and Johnny Warren, with Warren openly weeping on air.
There’s another category for us … weeping Aussies!!! 
The Youtube clip is here:
Filed under: Soccer Tagged: | cheating aussies, weeping Aussies
