Soccer: Stage set for bitter rematch between Australia and Uruguay

Australia coach Guus Hiddink (left) monitors the progress of Harry Kewell during training in Buenos Aires. Picture / Reuters

Former Liverpool boss Bill Shankly famously expressed the British obsession with football when he said: "Some people think football is a matter of life and death... I can assure them it is much more serious than that."

For those who think that's a bit melodramatic, the phoney war of 2001 has developed into a full-blown Cold War between Uruguay and Australia in recent weeks.

In a repeat of 2001, Uruguay faces Australia in a last-ditch playoff to determine which team will appear at next year's World Cup finals in Germany. The South Americans prevailed four years ago, overcoming a 1-0 deficit from the first leg in Melbourne to comfortably take out the return fixture in Montevideo 3-0.

Behind the scoreline, however, was a long tale of intimidation, malicious crowds rented by a wealthy businessman and a white-hot atmosphere at the Centenario Stadium.

When the Socceroos arrived at Montevideo Airport five days before the crucial second leg, they were jostled, spat at and abused by, as it turned out, a lynch mob hired by a wealthy football 'fan' to unsettle the Australians.

It worked. "They told us not to go out because we could expect more trouble," defender Tony Vidmar recalled to the Sunday Mail. "We were holed up for four or five days like prisoners."

In front of 70,000 rabid Uruguayan fans, the Socceroos looked like players with things other than football on their minds and, afterwards, as the Uruguayans celebrated winning a passage through to the 2002 finals, striker Dario Silva paid tribute to the "barbarians" who spat at and threatened the Socceroos at the airport.

Those events have cast a shadow over their rematch but in that time Australia has learned to stand up to Uruguay's bully-boy tactics. It started when Football Federation of Australia [FFA] chief executive John O'Neill threatened his side would walk off the pitch if they were subjected to any rough treatment in Montevideo this time around.

Uruguay responded by requesting the first leg be brought forward by a day to allow the players an extra day to recover ahead of the second match only four days later. Australia said no.

Instead Uruguay changed the scheduled kickoff from 4.20 to 9pm to ensure Australia would miss their commercial flight home and arrive a day after the Uruguayans, who arranged a charter to whisk them away just hours after the final whistle.

As it transpired, it backfired on the Uruguayans after they couldn't raise the AU$650,000 needed to charter a flight and in the meantime the FFA dipped their hands in their pockets to arrange their own charter flight to take the players back to Australia three hours after the conclusion of the game.

This week Uruguay attempted to reschedule kick-off time again to allow them to catch a commercial flight to Sydney, ironically citing Fifa's doctrine of fair play as a reason why the game should be brought forward. Again, Australia said no but Fifa intervened and a compromise time of 6pm was reached.

There are a number of familiar names in the Socceroos squad - Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill, Mark Schwarzer, Lucas Neill and Stan Lazaridis - but perhaps their trump card is the new coach, Dutchman Guus Huddink.

He has a knack of achieving success after he took the Netherlands to the semifinals of the 1998 World Cup and, incredibly, guided minnows South Korea to the final four of the 2002 tournament.

The former Real Madrid and PSV Eindhoven boss has injected new confidence back into the Socceroos after they bumbled their way through this year's Confederations Cup, which ultimately led to the sacking of Frank Farina.

If rankings are anything to go by - Australia are 54th and Uruguay 17th - the South Americans will claim one of the last of the 32 places for next year's World Cup finals. They have a powerful front line with the likes of Marcelo Zalkayeta, Richard Morales and Alvaro Recoba.

In Australia's favour, however, is the advantage of playing at home for the second leg, when they will know exactly what they will need to do to qualify for Germany.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY