Excitement began to grow in the crowd at HBF Park as soon as they began to realise what was happening. Palestinian players were circling the referee, furiously remonstrating as Nestory Irankunda grabbed the ball and moved towards the penalty spot. Moments prior, Yaser Hamed had flown to try and defend a Connor Metcalfe corner but inadvertently did so with his hand. It was going to be a penalty and Australian football’s starboy was going to take it. It didn’t matter that it was 4-0 at that point, this was what the crowd had come to see; a chance to see what will be hoped to be the first of numerous goals for the teenager, in one of the many, many wins he will be part of in green and gold.
Given that he’s got a foot like a tractor engine, there was little doubt about what was about to happen. And he duly delivered, thundering the ball beyond Rami Hamadeh. There was even less uncertainty about what was to happen next, either, with the Bayern Munich-bound prodigy performing his now trademark, backflipping celebration.
“He’s done everything we’ve asked,” said coach Graham Arnold of the teenager. “The older boys have looked after him and he’s had a great camp.
“Now he goes to Bayern and it’s really up to him. It’s just a start, not the finish.”
Winners of Group I in the second phase of Asian World Cup qualifying – the point at which Australia enter the field – capped off an excellent evening for the Socceroos, at the end of what has been a positive campaign. Arnold’s side has now played six games on the road to the 2026 World Cup in North America, and they have won all six games. It hasn’t always been pretty but, in the end, they will end this phase with 22 goals scored while not conceding a goal themselves. In fact, they have only allowed eight shots on target during this stretch, meaning they have scored 14 more goals than they have allowed shots on target during – while scoring at a rate of a goal just under every 25 minutes. Alessandro Circati, the 20-year-old Serie A-bound centre-back, was described as “incredible” by Arnold after making a series of crucial blocks and showing poise beyond his years in a first international start.
Perhaps one can take quibbles with the quality of opposition faced during this period. Nine of the 22 goals came against Bangladesh, seven of them in one game in Melbourne. But progressing through this phase of qualification in dominant fashion is what Asia’s best sides – which Australia has designs on being – are supposed to do. The Socceroos have filled the mission brief for this leg of the journey and now their thoughts can turn to the next, more challenging phase that awaits.
South Korea’s 1-0 win over China in other qualification fixtures on Tuesday evening means that Australia will be placed in pot two for the next phase of qualification, where 18 qualifying nations will be divided into three groups of six. And while the expanded 48-team World Cup means their odds of qualification are still strong, this does mean that they will be in a group with either Korea, Japan, or, facing them for the first time since that night in 1997, Iran.
Whoever they face, though, may have to confront a newly established talisman in Kusini Yengi.
If they do, however, they might just be doing so with a new talisman in Kusini Yengi. Just five minutes in on Tuesday, the 25-year-old fired a penalty beyond Rami Hamadeh and into the bottom corner of the net. The nature of its awarding was rather fortuitous, on another evening Hamed possibly escaped sanction for his contact with Aziz Behich and Palestine coach Makram Daboub acknowledged post-game it was an early gut punch that extracted a heavy toll. But Yengi didn’t care, given that it took him to three goals in as many games. Fortune again favoured him just before halftime when two marginal offside calls – one on him and one on Martin Boyle in the buildup – went Australia’s way, allowing him to turn cleanly, move around Hamed, and blast home.
Pressing and playing a role in the buildup, the Portsmouth striker also played an integral role in Australia’s second and fourth goals, too, scored by home town boy Adam Taggart and Boyle – with that pair also serving as provider for another. Indeed, that front-three connection highlighted the Socceroos’ best offensive performance in quite some time – Palestine hadn’t conceded a goal from open play in six months coming into Thursday – and there was Irankunda’s late cameo, too. But Yengi was the story.
Arnold has been giving the attacker every chance to seize the starting nine role for this cycle and, against Palestine, he went a long way towards doing so. “I’ve always been a big fan of him,” said the coach. “Even when he was at Adelaide I could see that he had that strength, power and ability. It’s going to grow and grow and grow. He’s going to play 60 games [with Portsmouth next season], so he’s only going to get better.
