25 years ago, Australia achieved their best-ever men's World Cup performance by going all the way to the 1999 U-17 World Cup Final.
Despite being the youngest member of the 1999 Joeys squad, Scott McDonald was a key source of goals up front for the Australian U-17s Men's side who finished as runners-up to Brazil.
To celebrate 25 years since the Joeys' incredible journey, we took a trip down memory lane with the man himself as McDonald reflects on an unforgettable tournament.
Selection for the team
McDonald was not always nailed on to represent Australia at the Under-17s tournament, given that he was one of the youngest in contention.
However, after making his National Soccer League debut at 15, McDonald caught the eye of Head Coach Les Scheinflug and was drafted in for the last camp before the Oceania qualifiers.
The forward demonstrated his talent - and repaid that faith - by bagging many goals and earning a starting berth in the team ahead of the 1999 tournament.
“I was a late bloomer into that [U-17] squad,” McDonald told us.
“I was that year younger, so I wasn't really on the radar at that point. I played for my state team, which was Victoria at the time, and then I got into the Victorian Institute of Sport thereafter under Ernie Merrick, who obviously works for Football Australia now.
“The opportunity came while I was playing at the VIS in the National Youth League to go on loan to Gippsland Falcons, at the time, under Stuart Monroe, to play in the NSL.
“That's when Les and a few of the other coaches started to take note and brought me into the last camp before we went to the Oceania qualifiers.”
Les the coach
McDonald believes that Scheinflug left a significant imprint on him that would go on to influence the direction of his playing career.
While a 'scary' figure at times, his teachings focused on key principles according to the striker.
“Looking back, the discipline was amazing, like what he gave us, and the respect that he gave us and taught us to have for the game, for your teammates, and for your coach as well,” McDonald explained.
“There wasn't a real understanding at that point because you were a young player coming through the stages. At the early parts of your career, some of the coaching that he gave us [was innovative] - and we did a lot of shape work, like a lot of work without the ball.
"You could look back at Arrigo Sacchi, who was probably one of the biggest influences at that point as well, within the world game at AC Milan. It was called Sacchi football, where the ball would move to a coloured mannequin and you'd have to go and walk across. We did a lot of that stuff. There was a lot of discipline work on the opposition shape.
“We played a back three as well. For quite a lot of teams at that time, it was 4-4-2, but we were a squad that played 3-5-2, which was quite different. And none of us had played that throughout our young careers until then, so he was teaching us a lot of different things at that point.”
The semi-final against the United States
After topping the group, Australia then downed Qatar 1-0 to make the semi-finals against the United States.
The USA boasted a team full of future stars, many of whom would go on to represent the senior national team for years to come, such as Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley.
However, after just 35 minutes of the semi-final, the Joeys were in dreamland, finding themselves two goals to the good, with McDonald bagging that second goal for the Aussies.
“It's actually one of my favourite goals because I chopped him inside and hit it pretty quickly,” he said.
“And when you hit the ball that quickly, the goalkeeper is sort of stuck, plugged to the ground when you hit it.”
The quality of the USA team began to shine soon after, as Donovan netted only a minute after Australia’s second, and Oguchi Onyewu scored not long after half-time to level the scores.
The game dragged into extra time and McDonald was taken off, meaning he did not need to take a penalty in the eventual shootout, where Australia prevailed.
The final and the aftermath
McDonald started the final against Brazil, which was a rematch of the Joeys’ narrow defeat in their first match at the World Cup.
The Australia U-17s gave their opponents a similarly frustrating time to their first meeting, managing to hold Brazil to a 0-0 scoreline heading into extra-time.
“You could see it was a final that everyone was worried about, where one mistake could cost them,” McDonald explained.
“We both sounded each other out and nullified each other. And it went to extra-time, where I then got substituted.
“And then all you can do is watch. It's a horrible situation when you can't influence the final from there on.”
The teams could not be separated at the end of extra-time, so Australia had to participate in their second penalty shootout of the tournament.
Australia quickly rectified an early miss in the shootout from Mark Byrnes and went goal-for-goal with Brazil to get the score to an incredible 7-7.
Iain Fyfe then stepped up for the Aussies, however, he couldn't find the net, leaving Brazil to claim their second title at the time.
“There's always has to be one person that becomes the villain of the piece, or the unlucky one, you could say, and that, unfortunately, for [Iain] Fyfe, was him on the day,” McDonald continued.
“But no one looks back at that - until I see him anyway, and I'll have banter, and I'll blame him [McDonald jokes] - but realistically, it's just one of those situations that he was, the eighth or ninth penalty taker, so he wasn't even one [of the players] that was meant to take one.
“It just tells you the quality of the penalties in the first place. But yeah, it was a heartbreaking moment for him [Fyfe] and obviously for the rest of our boys.”
McDonald said it was a sore defeat for the team to take, given the manner of it and the run they had been on.
“We were one penalty kick away from being world champions, which, when you say it like that, it was quite a phenomenal time and achievement to have been that close,” he said.
“I gave my medal straight to my mum after the game.
“Even when we got back to the hotel, it took everyone about an hour to two hours to get back to normal.
“Les was actually quite light-hearted. And he actually had a good sense of humour. He was quite dry once he let his hair down a little bit, which he was allowed to at that point. So we saw a different side to him.”
McDonald also said that he attributed the team's success to their familiarity with each other, which made the group feel more like club teammates than a national team.
“That was the upsetting thing, because when you lose the final, that's it. Everyone now goes their separate ways, and we'd been together on that journey for a good 12 months, maybe longer than that, some of the boys,” he reflected.
“It was a strange ending, but obviously, a lot of us would cross paths again because we'd go into the under-20s.
“It was great learning and preparation. It gave us great belief as well. And a lot of boys got some wonderful opportunities off the back of that success as well.”