Despite the difficulty of their path, Australia is the fifth Asian nation to qualify for the upcoming winter World Cup. In order to qualify, they had to win two extra playoff matches, both of which were played in Qatar, after coming 3rd in their group just behind Japan and Saudi Arabia.

A week after beating the United Arab Emirates 2-1 on a late goal, they met Peru and narrowly won in a penalty shootout after the game ended scoreless.

Legend has it that opposing goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne threw his water bottle, which contained the instructions for Australia's penalty takers, into the crowd. Since qualifying for the event for the very first time in 2006, Australia has participated in five consecutive tournaments.