Silver Socceroos return to scene of their greatest triumph

They are silver-haired, slightly stooped by age, a bit like Dad's Army. But in 1973, Rale Rasic's motley bunch of players walked tall as they became the first Socceroos team to qualify for the World Cup. And they did it in Hong Kong, at the old Government Stadium, defeating favourites South Korea 1-0 in a play-off in front of 28,000 fans.

Last week, almost 40 years to the day since that memorable win, the survivors of that team gathered in Hong Kong to celebrate and reminisce over that wonderful first step taken by Australian soccer. They recalled the moment when Jimmy Mackay - who died 15 years ago - "unleashed the thunderbolt from 25 metres that still resonates in Australian football today".

Yugoslav-born coach Rasic recollected the moment succinctly on Monday night.

"I had curly black hair in those days. But when Jimmy scored in the 70th minute, that black hair became white," Rasic told guests at the Wombat Hole, the watering hole at the Australian High Commission in Wan Chai where the squad was fêted during a week-long stay.

Hong Kong had just seen its first new township at Sha Tin rise to address the city's growing housing crisis when Rasic and his Socceroos touched down at Kai Tak airport. On that same flight from Seoul were the South Korean team who had been held to a 2-2 draw in the second leg just the day before.

"In those days, we didn't have the away-goals rule. If that was in place, we would have already booked a berth at the 1974 World Cup," Rasic recalled. "We booked into the Lee Gardens Hotel. At training the next day, all our 18 players turned up for training despite a strenuous match in Seoul and all the travel. But the Koreans had fewer players training as seven of them were getting massages. I knew immediately we had the upper hand for the Hong Kong match."