It’s time for Socceroos to be green and bold, says John Aloisi

John Aloisi helped break a 32-year drought with a decisive penalty that sent the nation to Germany 2006.

Now he thinks the new crop of Socceroos will experience the same sweet feeling.

“I believe we will qualify,” he said.

“There will be a lot of twists and turns during the games, but I believe we will qualify and the crowd will help a lot.

“It’s important that everyone gets behind Australia because everyone wants to cheer for Australia at a World Cup.”

Aloisi’s goal in the qualifying game against Uruguay in 2005 triggered euphoria around Australia, and Aloisi predicts similar scenes in Melbourne should the Socceroos beat Jordan at Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.

“The crowd will play a massive part, especially because the Melbourne public really get behind their team,” he said.

A 40,000 crowd is expected for the match, which the Socceroos must win to guarantee qualification to the World Cup in Brazil next year.

Australia plays Iraq a week later in Sydney and anything other than two wins will leave it dependent on other results in its qualifying group.

Aloisi warned that more established soccer nations had missed out in the past.

“It’s always important that we qualify for a World Cup because it’s such a big event and we want to be on the world stage,” he said.

“And for all the players it’s a dream of theirs to play at a World Cup and I’m sure they don’t want to let that slip.”

Aloisi said the players would experience “one of the best things that you can imagine” if they booked a ticket to Rio.

“If you qualify it’s an unbelievable feeling and I’m sure that even though we hadn’t qualified for 32 years when we did in 2005, it will be the same feeling for the players that qualify this time,” he said.