Australia

Home 2006-08; Nike

The Shirt: This is the Australia home shirt from 2006 until 2008.  This means it was the shirt proudly worn when they reached the 2006 World Cup, which was their first appearance on the world stage in 32 years. Looking back, this might have been the first international shirt I bought apart form Irish ones. The crest wasn't embroidered, and sadly this means that the formally brown 'roo has lost some of its sparkle, but it had a good 6 years.  It is a very plain shirt, which Nike were big into at the time.

The Nation:  Australia is often branded as lacking culture, generally the train of thought is that with white settlers not arriving until the 18th century, there is very little history.  But thankfully for those who scratch a little deeper there is a massive amount of aboriginal history to study.  These days, Australia is a strong economic country with exportation of natural resources driving them forward.

The Team: The Socceroos as they are branded (Aussies tend to have these names on their sports teams) have enjoyed greater success of late than the traditionally could expect.  Their appearance at the aforementioned World Cup was the catalyst for another appearance in the next two editions. There was also a somewhat controversial move to play in the Asian federation in 2006.  They still hold the world record for the biggest international win, a 31-0 result against poor American Samoa.