Written by Jean-Michel Cazal, Thomas Esamie and Greg Stock. Thanks to Kevin Christopher (Studs Up editor) for the use of his personal material and John Punshon for the cross referencing of material. For more details see credits.
| Australias path to the 1990 World Cup finals was again through the Oceania group. Composed of old sparring partners Israel and New Zealand, the matches were to be conducted on a home and away basis with the winner advancing to the next stage. This match was a World Cup Qualifying match. | ||||
| Played : March 12 1989 | Venue : Sydney Football Stadium, Australia | |||
| Australia Jeff Olver, Wally Savor, Alan Davidson, Charlie Yankos (Andy Koczka 86'), Steve Calderan, Paul Wade, Warren Spink (Robbie Slater 63'), Mike Petersen, Graham Arnold, Oscar Crino, Scott Ollerenshaw Goals : Crino 16' Arnold 42' 56' Yankos 78'pk |
4 | - | 1 | New Zealand Clint Gosling, Ricky Herbert, Tommy Mason, Malcolm Dunford, Ceri Evans, Tony Levy, Chris Riley, David Witteveen (Roger Gray 80'), Danny Halligan (Nigel Debenham 41'), Darren McClellan, Noel Barkley Goal : Dunford 70' |
| Referee : Shizuo Takada (Japan) Attendance : 13,621 Coach : Frank Arok (Australia), John Adshead (New Zealand) | ||||
| The second qualifier was the away match with old rivals Israel. This was a World Cup Qualifying match. | ||||
| Played : March 19 1989 | Venue : National Stadium, Ramat Gan, Israel | |||
| Israel Boni Ginzburg, Avraham Cohen, Nir Alon, Yehuda Amar, David Pizanti (Eli Cohen 81), Efraim Davidi (Eli Drieks 78), Moshe Sinai, Nir Klinger, Eli Ohana, Shlomo Iluz, Roni Rosenthal Goal : Ohana 66pk |
1 | - | 1 | Australia Jeff Olver, Alan Davidson, Charlie Yankos, Steve Calderan, Wally Savor (sent off 86), Paul Wade, Oscar Crino, Mike Petersen, Graham Arnold, Eddie Krncevic, Frank Farina (Graham Jennings 85) Goal : Yankos 72 |
| Referee : Manfred Neumer (Germany) Attendance : 45,000 Coach : Frank Arok (Australia), Itzhak Shneor and Yaacov Grundman (Israel) | ||||
| With Australias draw in the away leg against Israel there was much hope going into this game against New Zealand that a win would be able to consolidate our position ahead of the final match against Israel at home. Instead this match proved to be the effective end of the 1989 campaign when New Zealand beat the Australian side. This was a World Cup Qualifying match. | ||||
| Played : April 2 1989 | Venue : Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand | |||
| New Zealand Clint Gosling, Ricky Herbert, Garry Lund, Malcolm Dunford (Tony Levy 79'), Tommy Mason, Noel Barkley (Danny Halligan 74'), Robert Ironside, Michael Ridenton, Billy Wright, Fred De Jong, Darren McClennan Goals : Dunford 19' Wright 80' |
2 | - | 0 | Australia Jeff Olver, Alan Davidson, Charlie Yankos, Steve Calderan (Andy Koczka 62'), Gary van Egmond, Paul Wade, Oscar Crino, Mike Petersen (Robbie Slater 71'), Warren Spink, Graham Arnold, Scott Ollerenshaw |
| Referee : Bin Singah (Singapore) Attendance : 3340 Coach : Frank Arok (Australia) | ||||
| Australia's final game of the tournament was also a disappointing result. Needing a win to have any hope they could only manage a draw and thus bow out of the 1990 world cup campaign. This was a World Cup Qualifying match. | ||||
| Played : April 16 1989 | Venue : Sydney Football Stadium, Australia | |||
| Australia Jeff Olver, Wally Savor, Alan Davidson, Charlie Yankos (c), Gary van Egmond, Paul Wade (Mike Petersen 46), Frank Farina, David Mitchell, Graham Arnold (Paul Trimboli 66), Oscar Crino, Eddie Krncevic Goal : Trimboli 88 |
1 | - | 1 | Israel Boni Ginzburg, Avraham Cohen, Yehuda Amar, Nir Klinger, Yaron Parselani, Nir Alon, Moshe Sinai, Efraim Davidi, Shalom Tivka (Eitan Aharoni 80), Eli Ohana, Roni Rosenthal Goal : Ohana 40 |
| Referee : Carlo Longhi (Italy) Attendance : 40,320 Coach : Frank Arok (Australia), Itzhak Shneor and Yaacov Grundman (Israel) | ||||