Vital statistics
Born: 12 December, 1975, Sydney, Australia
Height: 186 cms
Weight: 76 kgs
Debut: v Ghana (W1-0),
Adelaide, June 1995
Last Match: v Italy (L1-0),
Kaiserslautern (GER), June 2006

CRAIG MOORE has experienced his fair share of highs and lows in the game over the last two years. Leaving Scottish Premier League side Rangers after more than a decade of success in January 2005, the 31 year-old defender endured an lukewarm spell at German side Borussia Moenchengladbach, before being struck down by injury after signing a deal with Premier League side Newcastle United in July 2005.

Where lesser men may have given up, Moore pushed even harder to regain his form and fitness, the lure of a place in the Australian World Cup squad proving an adequate incentive.

With less than three months before Australia’s first game against Japan, Craig made his debut for Newcastle – becoming the first Aussie to don the black and white stripes – and subsequently won his place in Guus’s final 23.

In Germany, Moore was ever-present in a defence that grew stronger as the tournament progressed. Personally, Craig’s high point came when he scored the Socceroos first goal from the spot on that amazing night against Croatia on June 22.

Now one of the team’s elder statesmen, Moore is hoping to help lead his country to Asian Cup glory before calling time on an illustrious career.

Looking back to the World Cup, what were your thoughts when you were losing 1-0 to Japan with only six minutes to go in the first game?
We knew we needed to get at least a draw to have any hope of getting through to the knock-out stages, so we were starting to get a little bit worried. A defeat would have meant our World Cup campaign was over before it had really begun. We were by far the better side in the game, but the scoreline didn’t reflect that, nonetheless we kept on going right until the end and turned the game around. Our equaliser was typical Timmy Cahill, arriving late in the box, and then he produced a stunning goal to put us in front.

How do you reflect on the next game against the then champions Brazil?
We went into it without any fear and wanted to have a go, so we were disappointed to lose 2-0. For large parts of the game we were in control. The first goal went through Chipper’s legs, so our keeper didn’t get a good sight and then they scored another late on when we had pushed up. When they were winning 1-0 we had a great chance to equalise through Harry Kewell but he didn’t take it. Harry said he had his celebrations already in his mind before he had scored it. He couldn’t believe he missed. That would have made it 1-1, so who knows what would have happened?