Heading into the final group game in Qatar, Australia has destiny in its own hands, much like they did 16 years ago.
In 2022, Denmark stand in the way of the nation, and Graham Arnold’s side are faced with an eerily similar task as Guus Hiddink’s men were in 2006, as a draw will be enough, provided Tunisia do not stun the world and beat France. In Stuttgart though, the green and gold needed to rely on no one else, a point against Croatia would be enough to progress.
Having started the first two group games, it seemed a foregone conclusion Mark Schwarzer would be given the gloves again; Hiddink had other plans and tossed the gloves to Zeljko Kalac, a man of Croatian heritage.
“I knew the night before,” Kalac said.
“I was prepared to play the first game, I was prepared to play the second game, so it was just ‘be ready’.
“I think that was the beauty of that team, it wasn’t about any individuals, it wasn’t about Harry Kewell, it wasn’t about Mark Viduka, it wasn’t about Zeljko Kalac, it wasn’t about Craig [Moore], it was about the team.
“That was the decision, we know as players when a coach makes a decision, as a player all you can do is be ready and try and perform at your best and that’s it.”
The Croatian influence within Australia’s 2006 squad was more than noticeable, with Ante Covic, Tony Popovic and Josip Skoko alongside Kalac all possessing links to the country.
Zlatko Kranjcar’s squad that day had Australian flair intertwined within their ranks, with defender Josip Simunic, who was famously booked three times in the game by referee Graham Poll, and second-choice goalkeeper Joey Didulica both born in Australia.
With so much on the line for both nations as they attempted to move onto the Round of 16 at the expense of the other, any talk of split loyalties was quickly rubbished.
“It was a strange game for me and a lot of the other boys who had Croatian heritage, but our primary job was to knock out Croatia.
“When you step over that white line, it was all about the Socceroos and about us qualifying which we did, which was another amazing achievement by that squad and that group of players.
“Obviously me making that mistake for the goal, that is why I had my teammates there to help me and get the result that we needed.”
Given the 2-2 draw in Stuttgart was enough to help Australia through, the history books look back more fondly on the man known as ‘Spider’ than they otherwise might have done.
Kewell’s equaliser sent the whole country into a state of pandemonium, as their national football team were on the cusp of achieving what no side under the Australian flag had, moving onto the next stage of a football World Cup.
While there was still work to do to see the game out, elation was substituted for relief in the mind of the man wearing the number 18, whose mistake had helped put Croatia back in front.
From the best part of 20 yards, captain Nico Kovac had unleashed a tame strike Kalac should have swallowed up, but the ball inexplicably squirmed through his defences to temporarily have Australia outside of the top two.
“That’s football, mate.
“We all make mistakes, and you just brush it off, you don’t play at the level us boys played at if we worry about a mistake we’ve made.
“Look it probably would have been different if we hadn’t qualified, but we did qualify, so you just brush it off and move on and that is what you do.
“That’s football, that’s what all the big players do in the world, I wasn’t the first goalkeeper to make a mistake, I definitely [wasn’t] the last!
“Everything about the game was wrong except for the result, and you know what? We deserved to get through to be fair, we were better than them, and sometimes in football, it doesn’t go that way.
“Sometimes you can be the better side and not get through but we actually deserved to come second in the group and to go through because we were actually better on the night.”
A year on from being a part of the biggest event in international football, Kalac found himself in Athens for arguably the biggest event in club football; the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final, while on the books of AC Milan.
Following an injury to Rossoneri number one Dida coincidentally in Athens in a group stage match against AEK, Kalac deputised in between the posts, playing a hand in two more Champions League outings as the Brazilian recovered from a knee injury.
Returning continentally for the Round of 16 second-leg tie against Celtic, Dida never relinquished the gloves, as he started both legs against Bayern Munich and Manchester United as the Italian juggernauts progressed to the showpiece event against Liverpool, who had vanquished them two years earlier at the same stage in Istanbul.
An unused substitute on the night, Kalac would taste the ultimate club glory, as a double from Filippo Inzaghi exacted revenge on the Reds.
“People ask me what was the highlight of my career and maybe it’s on par, it really is on par, winning the Champions League with Milan and that night we qualified for the World Cup I’ll never forget.
“The night we won the Champions League, me and Harry [Kewell] and Craig Johnston, we could probably sit down and talk about it and what it means.
“We know how hard it is and we know what it means to play at a team of those calibres like Liverpool and Milan, we are here in Australia.
“People talk about it like they have been there but they actually haven’t got a clue what it takes to actually go and be a part of not just winning but to actually be a part of a team that goes that far.
“I don’t think people here in Australia have any clue what it takes.”
While Kalac did not grace the pitch with his presence, it was still seen as a major accomplishment in his career, allowing him to fully draw a line under the Croatia mistake a year prior.
“Would you say I got over the mistake that I made at the World Cup?”
“I reckon so, with flying colours,” was my response.
We shared a laugh, both aware the mistake in Stuttgart that could have broken Zeljko Kalac instead made him.
Over a decade and a half later, the Socceroos legend is at peace.
The Spider had bitten back.
AFP via Getty Images
