Asia's land down under: the socceroos and the 2015 Asian Cup

On 31 January 2015, Australia's men's association football team (the Socceroos) won the Asian Cup for the first time, beating South Korea 2-1 after extra time in the final match played at Stadium Australia in Sydney. The victory in Sydney was a major milestone in two long-running processes – first, the ever closer relationship between Australia and Asia; second, the evolving status in Australian society of football, or ‘soccer’. In terms of assessing Australia's status as Asian, although part of the problem may lie with the Asian Football Confederation's definition of Asia, it is membership of that federation that has done more than any amount of trade relations and labour migration to give global public credence to the idea that Australia is possibly Asian, and almost certainly Asian-Pacific.