Tim Cahill is an Australian former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder or forward for the Australia men's national soccer team (nicknamed the "Socceroos") from 2004 to 2018. During his international career, he scored 50 goals in 108 appearances for the side, making him the nation's men's all-time record goalscorer. He played his final game for Australia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup against Peru, and announced his retirement following the end of the tournament. Cahill was well known for his trademark goal celebration, in which he ran to the corner of the pitch and shadowboxed the corner flag.

Cahill made his debut for Australia in a friendly against South Africa in March 2004. He scored his first two goals for the side in a win over Tahiti at the 2004 OFC Nations Cup. In the next game of the tournament, he scored his first international hat-trick against Fiji. His 12th international goal, and Australia's first in an Asian Cup, was against Oman on 8 July at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. His 29th international goal against Costa Rica on 19 November 2013 equalled fellow Australian Damian Mori's record, which he surpassed on 5 March 2014 with two goals in a friendly against Ecuador. During a 4–0 win over Bangladesh on 17 November 2015 in a 2018 World Cup second round qualifier, he scored the first three goals of the match, marking his second and final international hat-trick. Excluding those two hat-tricks, Cahill scored twice in an international match on ten occasions.

During his international career, Cahill scored five goals against AFC rivals Japan, more than he scored against any other country. Two of these goals were at the 2006 World Cup, which were also the first goals scored by Australia at any World Cup. He also scored against Serbia at the 2010 World Cup and against both Chile and the Netherlands at the 2014 World Cup. His volleyed goal against the Netherlands was subsequently nominated for the 2014 FIFA Puskás Award, an award given to the player who scored the "most beautiful" goal of the calendar year.

On 10 October 2017, Cahill scored both goals in a 2–1 win over Syria during a 2018 World Cup fourth round qualifier. The second of these was Cahill's 50th and final international goal, making him the 59th man to score 50 international goals. During his career, Cahill scored six goals at three Asian Cups (2007, 2011, 2015) and six goals at one OFC Nations Cup (2004). Thirteen of Cahill's 50 international goals were scored in friendlies, all of them against nations from each of the six confederations.

Goals Scores and results list Australia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Cahill goal. No. Cap Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition 1 2 Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide, Australia 1–0 9–0 2004 OFC Nations Cup 2 4–0 3 3Marden Sports Complex, Adelaide, Australia 1–1 6–1 2004 OFC Nations Cup 4 4–1 5 5–1 6 4 Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide, Australia 1–1 2–2 2004 OFC Nations Cup 7 5 Craven Cottage, London, England 2–1 2–2 Friendly 8 11 Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia 4–0 7–0 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification 9 15 Feijenoord Stadion, Rotterdam, Netherlands 1–1 1–1 Friendly 10 17 Fritz-Walter-Stadion, Kaiserslautern, Germany 1–1 3–1 2006 FIFA World Cup 11 2–1 12 24Rajamangala National Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand 1–1 1–1 2007 AFC Asian Cup 13 28 Docklands Stadium, Melbourne, Australia 2–0 3–0 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round 14 29 Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Australia 1–0 4–0 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC fourth round 15 33 Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia 1–1 2–1 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC fourth round 16 2–1 17 34 Thomond Park, Limerick, Ireland 1–0 3–0 Friendly 18 2–0 19 36 Docklands Stadium, Melbourne, Australia 1–0 1–0 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification 20 40 Ruimsig Stadium, Roodepoort, South Africa 1–1 1–3 Friendly 21 42 Mbombela Stadium, Mbombela, South Africa 1–0 2–1 2010 FIFA World Cup 22 47 Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar 1–0 4–0 2011 AFC Asian Cup 23 4–0 24 53 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 2–1 2–1 Friendly 25 58 Saida Municipal Stadium, Sidon, Lebanon 1–0 3–0 Friendly 26 60 Grand Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar 1–1 2–1 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC fourth round 27 61 Stadium Australia, Sydney, Australia 1–2 2–2 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC fourth round 28 63 Docklands Stadium, Melbourne, Australia 2–0 4–0 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC fourth round 29 66 Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia 1–0 1–0 Friendly 30 67 The Den, London, England 1–0 3–4Friendly 31 3–0 32 68 Stadium Australia, Sydney, Australia 1–1 1–1 Friendly 33 70 Arena Pantanal, Cuiabá, Brazil 1–2 1–3 2014 FIFA World Cup 34 71 Estádio Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre, Brazil 1–1 2–3 35 73 Craven Cottage, London, England 1–0 3–2 Friendly 36 76 Nagai Stadium, Osaka, Japan 1–2 1–2 Friendly 37 77 Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Melbourne, Australia 1–1 4–1 2015 AFC Asian Cup 38 80 Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Australia 1–0 2–0 39 2–0 40 85 Pamir Stadium, Dushanbe, Tajikistan 2–0 3–0 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC second round 41 3–0 42 87 Canberra Stadium, Canberra, Australia 2–0 3–0 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC second round 43 88 Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh 1–0 4–0 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC second round 44 2–0 45 3–0 46 89 Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia 1–0 5–1 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC second round 47 3–0 48 92 Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates 1–0 1–0 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round 49 103 Stadium Australia, Sydney, Australia 1–1 2–1 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC fourth round 50 2–1

Statistics

+Goals by year Year Apps Goals 200457 200591 200683 200751 200832 200975 201092 201193 201252 201323 2014147 2015129 201663 2017102 201840Total10850

+Goals by competition Competition Goals FIFA World Cup tournaments5 FIFA World Cup qualification 19 AFC Asian Cup tournaments6 AFC Asian Cup qualification1 OFC Nations Cup tournaments6 Friendlies 13Total50

See also List of men's footballers with 50 or more international goals List of top international men's association football goal scorers by country List of Australia men's national soccer team hat-tricks

References