Scoring machine Thompson helping to guide Australia into game's elite

Melbourne Victory icon and Australian national-teamer Archie Thompson scored five goals in the 2007 A-League Grand Final. Chris Thorogood Jonah Freedman's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Jonah. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Jonah Freedman on Twitter

Pelé? Romário? Ferenc Puskas? Hacks. Last week in Melbourne, Australia, I was in the presence of true greatness: the most prolific scorer of all time.

Well, sort of. Archie Thompson may not be a household name anywhere outside his homeland, but he does hold a pretty terrific distinction. Seven years ago, the Australian national-teamer scored a whopping 13 times in a 2002 World Cup qualifier, breaking the single-game record in international play. The Aussies also set a record in that game for the highest score line in history, winning 31-0 ... against American Samoa.

"If you saw the opposition, you might have another opinion," Thompson sheepishly remembers of his place in history. "A lot of them guys didn't even have boots before they played in the game, so we had to give them boots."

To be fair, '01 was a lifetime ago for Australia. The Socceroos have since moved out of the Oceania Football Confederation and ended the days of battering nations that mine the very bottom of the FIFA rankings (Vanuatu, anyone?). They now compete as a member of the Asian confederation, where they face better competition such as World Cup perennials Japan, South Korea and Iran.

On Wednesday, Australia can take a big step toward its third World Cup appearance with a positive result against Qatar in a 2010 qualifier. The Socceroos have become an emerging power in the game, thanks to growing investment in the sport, better athletes competing at the highest level and an outback-sized spike in interest Down Under after their Cinderella run at the '06 World Cup. It was a shocking achievement that galvanized sports-crazy Australia, a nation that adores its underdog status.

"That was the turning point in Australian football," remembers Thompson, who was a member of that team. "Everyone is still sort of living off that World Cup experience, and that was more than two years ago. Everyone is just itching for the Socceroos to do well and go again to the World Cup, because if we do -- and I know we're going to -- it's just going to go to another level."

Australia manager Pim Verbeek named Thompson to the team that will face Qatar in Brisbane, marking the 29-year-old striker's return to the senior squad after nearly eight months out due to various injuries (Thompson was one of the three overage players named to Australia's Olympic squad this past summer, but he was severely limited physically).

Thompson is a cult hero of sorts for Australia. While the majority of key Socceroos figures play for big European clubs (Lucas Neill, Tim Cahill and Harry Kewell, to name a few), Thompson gave up a career in the Old World to become a founding father of Australia's revamped A-League in '05.

His highly unpredictable nature endears him to Aussies, too -- not just as a loose-talking free spirit (he once jokingly berated John Paul II after a Belgian TV reporter pointed out the late Pope passed away at the same moment Thompson celebrated a goal -- oops), but also on the field. You never know when he might explode with a bevy of goals on a hapless keeper.

That happened again a few years ago, another watershed moment for the growth of Australian soccer. Thompson scored five goals in the '07 A-League Grand Final, leading his Melbourne Victory to a 6-0 victory (what else?) over Adelaide United in front a feverish home crowd of 55,436. It was a moment that showed the new league -- formed from the ashes of the chaotic NSL -- had a growing fan base that would support soccer in a country that, much like the U.S., is distracted by several more popular sports.

"There are still people congratulating me for that," Thompson says. "It's strange when you're out and people stop you for autographs. For kids growing up, [soccer is] the No. 1 sport, and being a role model -- that's something I never dreamed would ever happen."

For fans of Major League Soccer, that final is particularly interesting for another reason: The Victory's attacking midfielder was none other than Fred, the Brazilian who has gone on to become one of D.C. United's best players. And just how much do the Victory miss him?

"I miss him, mate!" laughs Thompson. "He set me up for four goals in that game! He was a tremendous player. It's a shame they couldn't keep him because he was something really special."

True, but certainly not 13-goals-in-one-game special. Thompson is a far cry from the all-time legends of the game, and he's not even the most important Aussie national-teamer. But if the Socceroos continue their march toward the upper echelon of the sport, a lot more people will remember him as one of the real pioneers.