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But players' skill is a key factor as well. In 1974 the then Australian team were mostly amateurs or C-string players in the big clubs in Europe. Just like American soccer players in those times or even 1990 were.

This time, both Australia and the US have good soccer players. The difference is that Australia's First XI is probably a little stronger than the US First XI - Mark Viduka is individually perhaps a better player than Claudio Reyna, but the reserves for Australia are pretty shallow and the US's reserve team can easily trounce their Australian counterparts.

128 posted on 06/12/2006 4:19:36 AM PDT by NZerFromHK (Western MSMs are becoming Chinese media, nothing is true apart from the paper's name and date.)

"In 1974 the then Australian team were mostly amateurs or C-string players in the big clubs in Europe."

1974 they were.
So what happened in 1978, 82, 86, 90, 94, 98, 02 then?
Seems to me like a pretty long time between playing the World Cup to me.
A country that is any good at all at football simply doesn't go without playing World Cup soccer, for to the tune of over 30 years.