Frank Lowy by Jill Margo

Author:Jill Margo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-06-19T04:00:00+00:00

Those calling the game for television could barely contain themselves. “At long last! At long last!” they cried. The victory was as intoxicating as it was uniting. “You are, we are Australian,” they told their viewers. “This is a team from every community in Australia, and it’s our team.” It had failed to qualify for the past eight World Cups and now the voodoo was broken.

Everyone down under could hear the thunder. Lowy was shouting too as he made his way onto the field to share the euphoria. Steven and his kids went too and in the middle of the pitch, Steven bent down and took a small piece of turf as a memento. In the dressing room Frank took a call from an elated John Howard, who was overseas on prime ministerial business but had managed to watch the match on a small flickering screen. Waiting for Frank in the car park under the stadium, David and Steven were shaking their heads. “He’s not scared of risk. He’s not scared of risk,” they repeated. It was a slow crawl home through the traffic but Lowy didn’t care, he was flying.

The next day he tossed away the losing speech that had been prepared for the media and happily ad-libbed his way through a public rally in Sydney’s Domain, where thousands turned up in a spontaneous eruption of support. The country was with him, the press was rapturous and in a first for soccer, major metropolitan newspapers had celebratory wraparound covers enthusing about the game. Soccer fever had gripped the country, with millions infected. The sleeping giant of Australian sport had been roused.

Aloisi’s goal instantly became an iconic moment of sporting history. It would go on to feature in the top ten sporting moments in Australia which included Sir Donald Bradman’s 334 not out in 1930 at Headingley, Cathy Freeman’s victory in the 400 metre sprint at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the yacht Australia II winning the America’s Cup in 1983, and in 2011 Cadel Evans becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France.

Frank became a folk hero. When he went to the next local soccer game, crowds swarmed around his car chanting, “Frankie! Frankie! Frankie!” At one point they even took up the chant, “Frankie for prime minister”. That win had stripped him of anonymity and he could no longer slip into a suburban café unnoticed. Because of the nature of soccer, people felt relaxed about approaching him. If they saw him in traffic, they would tap on his window and wherever he was abroad, Australians would recognise him and come across to chat.

In the detailed analysis that followed the win it was said that Lowy’s idea of hiring a foreign coach had been one of the master strokes in getting Australia to Germany in 2006. On their way to Germany the Socceroos stopped in Holland for a friendly match against the national Dutch team organised by Hiddink. They stunned themselves and everyone else by winning.

For the World Cup Australia was drawn in a group with Brazil, Croatia and Japan.

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