1999 U-17 World Championship The
Joeys best result in international football came in the
1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship hosted by
New Zealand, where Australia finished second. To qualify for the tournament Australia had to first win the Oceania qualifiers. This was achieved with wins over Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, American Samoa, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and again Fiji in the final which finished 5–0. Next up was a two leg play-off against
Bahrain who had finished third in the
1998 AFC U-17 Championship. Australia won 3–1 on aggregate. In the tournament proper, Australia lost their opening game 2–1 to Brazil although a come from behind 2–1 win over
Germany and a 1–0 win over Mali saw Australia top the group. Australia dispatched of
Qatar 1–0 in the quarter final and needed penalties to get past
USA after a 2–2 draw in the semi-final. They lost the
final to
Brazil; the match finished nil all after extra time and Brazil won a penalty shoot-out 8–7. A number of this
Joeys squad would go on to represent the
Socceroos including
Adrian Madaschi,
Jade North,
Joshua Kennedy and
Scott McDonald. ==Players==