{"id":41058,"date":"2020-12-01T08:08:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T16:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=41058"},"modified":"2020-12-01T08:08:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T16:08:50","slug":"never-ever-in-my-life-seen-that-rasic-bosnich-relive-that-fateful-night-against-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2020\/12\/01\/never-ever-in-my-life-seen-that-rasic-bosnich-relive-that-fateful-night-against-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Never, ever in my life seen that\u2019: Rasic & Bosnich relive that fateful night against Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MyFootball.com – MELBOURNE, Former Socceroos coach Rale Rasic took a trip down memory lane with ex-Socceroo Mark Bosnich as they recounted that FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Iran at the MCG in 1997.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of Australia\u2019s footballing icons were in good spirits as they sat down to reminisce about one of the most difficult matches to stomach in the Socceroos\u2019 history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bosnich was centre stage, in between the sticks for the green and gold that evening while Rasic was watching on in the stands as the drama unfolded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

84-year-old Rasic has a crystal clear memory and had no trouble recounting the incredible atmosphere at the MCG in the lead up to the clash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI sat between the late Jimmy McKay and John Kosmina in the grandstand after we were paraded before the game,\u201d Rasic said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe came from St. Kilda in these fascinating Rolls Royces, that was like being Hollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen the stadium, MCG, just sensational.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all seemed to be going to script for the Socceroos as they raced to a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Harry Kewell and Aurelio Vidmar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, damage to the Iranian goal caused the match to be delayed and ultimately swung momentum in the visitors\u2019 favour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rasic asked Bosnich about the incident: \u201cI think the bigger issue for me was that when we came back, I actually think the Iranian coach made some very good changes and they started to get on top of us in midfield because of the amount of energy,\u201d Bozza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought that was the time that we needed to make some changes and you\u2019re right I think Terry Venables is one of the greatest coaches I\u2019ve played under but I think right at that time, it was easy to say in hindsight because the game should\u2019ve been over right now but that was perhaps the time to make changes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ex-Premier League goalkeeper believed there was one crucial mistake which some of the Socceroos players made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome players started thinking about France when there was still 15 minutes to go. The time to think about France is when you\u2019re celebrating afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rasic remembered the raw emotion from McKay and Kosmina after Iran pegged one back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI look at John Kosmina, he looked at me and he\u2019s crying and I said, I always thought he was Iron Man. I always imagined because he was the hardest man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disappointment and sadness that reverberated around the stadium when the full time whistle blew was an unforgettable experience for Rasic and all the Socceroos spectators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople crying leaving the stadium. I have never, ever in my life seen that at any stadium in the world that a nation got involved so deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Australia, always was proud when 11 players take the field and that was no question of national pride.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MyFootball.com – MELBOURNE, Former Socceroos coach Rale Rasic took a trip down memory lane with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":41060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,92,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news","category-c21-international-football-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1578,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41061,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41058\/revisions\/41061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}