'World Cup Fans' is a special SBS News series running in the lead up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. It looks at the 32 qualifying countries through the eyes of their fans in Australia.
In June, Australia will make its fifth appearance at a FIFA World Cup and our nation's best will be counting on the passionate support of thousands of Socceroos fans travelling to Russia.
The 1974 Socceroos side that stepped onto the world stage for the first time didn't have the organised support the current national side has, but it still made a splash in West Germany.
The team, captained by Peter Wilson and coached by Rale Rasic, was untested but not overawed.
"The strength of Socceroos is a power. It's an incredible unknown element of inner feeling of the people, in terms of their power," Rasic recounts from his home in Western Sydney.
Australia was grouped with eventual champions West Germany, East Germany and Chile. Seeing the Socceroos face the world's best changed the way Australians back thought of the world game and their place in it.
"The spirit of the nation was with us and other sports, strangely enough were so distant became so close," says Rasic.
Rale Rasic speaks at a 2015 Asian Cup event Source: Getty Images AsiaPac
Attila Abonyi, Manfred Schaefer, Branko Buljevic, Johnny Warren - the '74 team was a reflection of multicultural Australia.
And it helped a young Maltese migrant named Jim Zammit feel a bit more Aussie.
"It was very significant for a young new Australian as we were called in those days to see their football team there," says Jim, who now runs a Sydney bookstore with his wife Sylvia. "And for once it took the headlines away from rugby league and AFL."
Jim and Syvlia Zammit at their Sydney bookstore, Source: SBS News
"Jim made me fall in love with the game," Sylvia says. "Many years later when our twins were born in 1982 there was this thing on TV that Jim kept running home for and getting up in the middle of the night to help me feed these children. That was the first sort of idea I ever had that Jim was a really big fan."
Now, so many years later, Jim and Sylvia are preparing for the trip of a lifetime. They'll step away from their small business to watch the Socceroos play at the World Cup in Russia, where they'll tour with Australia's active supporter group, the .
The GGA is now in its 17th year and brings together thousands of Socceroos fans like the Zammits based in over 60 countries.
"When we march into the stadium with a whole lot of like minded people, it's like the proudest moment of your life," Jim says.
Anyone who's worn the hallowed green and gold knows how important the 12th man can be. was a star of the now-defunct NSL with several of the country's former powerhouse clubs, namely Sydney Olympic, APIA and Marconi Stallions.
He also turned out 22 times for Australia, most notably in the three match series against England in 1983.
"Away from home when there's no one there you need as much support as possible when you're playing," Katholos, who was nicknamed the Cat in playing days, says. "We didn't have as much as what they've got now."
The Socceroos will play Colombia in London Source: Getty Images
Fast forward 44 years and Australia finds itself grouped with France, Denmark and Peru at the World Cup in June.
Under new coach Bert van Marwijk, the Socceroos have their work cut out for them.
"Give credit to van Marwijk. He is very experienced, he has a lot of courage he has seven, eight men working with him," Rale Rasic says of the Dutchman.
Jim Zammit is equally optimistic: "If we can catch France out early and they're notoriously slow starters, if we can get a draw out of that one all we need is a win and that four points can get us through."
True belief this squad can tap into the pride that makes the Socceroos perhaps Australia's most unique national team.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup begins 15 June. SBS will broadcast the biggest games, including the opening match, semi-finals and final, live, free and in HD.
