If the darkest hour comes just before the dawn, that hour for the Socceroos was on the 24th of March this year in Sydney.
The Socceroos were soundly beaten 2-0 by Japan at the Stadium Australia that day, giving up any hope of direct qualification to the World Cup.
While the Socceroos were shown up on the park, Football Australia (FA) board members were seething that the team's coach, Graham Arnold had broken COVID protocols by taking a walk on the beach and hit him with a $25,000 fine.
Arnold, meanwhile, felt he had no support from FA given he had medical advice that he was just shedding the virus from his COVID infection earlier in the year.
People close to Arnold say he felt heavily let down by FA and harboured doubts over whether he would keep his job.
Meanwhile, with the team having jetted in from around the world, the Socceroos had to make do with Arnold coaching via Zoom for five days in the lead-up to what was then the most important game in a World Cup campaign that began in 2019.
The side looked a rabble on and off the field.
It had all started so well with a record 11-game winning streak, but once the wheels started wobbling, it wasn't long before they fell off altogether.
The streak was followed by three losses, three draws and just one win as the drum beats started sounding for Arnold's sacking.
FA held their nerve amid the cacophony and took the unusual step of announcing that Arnold would keep his job to the end of the World Cup campaign.
Few thought it would last more than one or two more games.
But the Socceroos got back on track with a win over Jordan in a friendly, before accounting for United Arab Emirates in the Asian play-off, and now the historic win over Peru.
Twenty games over three years with only four at home through the ravages of the COVID pandemic took out numerous players, along with serious injuries.
The Socceroos have done it the hard way, against all the odds, but they've done it.
"It was so hard, you know the whole campaign," Arnold said this morning when he finally found the strength to speak after the stress of the penalty shoot-out.
"The way they stuck at it, and the way they've committed themselves to it … incredible.
"I believe this is one of the greatest achievements ever – to qualify for this World Cup the way we've had to go through things."
Few could argue.
The so-called Golden Generation that qualified for the 2006 World Cup finally exorcised the demons that haunted the team that had come so close on the two previous occasions.
That team was full of stars: Harry Kewell, Mark Bresciano, Mark Viduka, Lucas Neill, Vince Grella, Scott Chipperfield, Mark Schwarzer, and the list goes on — all plying their trade at the highest levels of European football.
Their qualification was vindication.
The only comparison that can be made between the 2005 and 2022 Socceroos is that they both achieved qualification via the most nerve-testing of penalty shoot-outs.
This team is something altogether different: a potpourri of A-League players and others from leagues around the world and only a couple in those top European sides.
Players like Tom Rogic, Mat Ryan and Trent Sainsbury are now the only link to the Golden Generation, along with the coach.
This team now has the chance to create its own legacy, its own image, free from the constraints of history.
They may not have the talent of previous generations, but they've shown they can battle with the best of them.
The Australian Boomers basketball side spoke glowingly of the culture in the team that had been passed down for generations when they made history winning their "rose gold" medal by coming third in the Olympics.
There's little doubt that this side has some of that same spirit.
The play-off hero, goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne, said Socceroos legend Tim Cahill had spoken to the team and told them that they had to make their own history.
"For the players (who) have gone on to cement a second and third World Cup for themselves and the young boys that'll experience their first World Cup, it's amazing," he said.
Redmayne also spoke glowingly of Arnold.
"Everyone's a part of it and he makes everyone feel so welcome and so at home within this group," he said.
"Everyone feels at home when they do represent the country."
Harry Souttar is one of them – one of two Scots scouted to play for the Socceroos over the past few years.
A few years ago he'd never set foot in the country.
Last December he ruptured his ACL playing for Australia and he's still in rehab after a knee reconstruction.
But he was there in Doha supporting the team and celebrating wildly with the rest of the players and staff when Redmayne pulled off the save that will go down in Australian sporting folklore.
Souttar will be back in central defence when the Socceroos play their first match at the World Cup in November.
He'll be joined by Celtic central midfielder and linchpin, Rogic, who missed these two matches.
Sainsbury will likewise be back from injury.
And Arnold — who before the Japan game bemoaned the fact that he couldn't instil any game plan for the Socceroos with his limited preparation — will have weeks in an intensive camp to hone his side.
By merely qualifying, the Socceroos have given the game a massive shot in the arm.
The CEO of the Australian Professional Leagues, which runs the A-League competitions, Danny Townsend, said the Socceroos' participation will remind everyone how big the game is.
"Nothing unifies football more than the World Cup and having the national men and women competing," he said.
"It will refocus attention on the game and give us a chance to unify the game in Australia and focus on working together to drive the opportunities that we know to exist."
But simply being there won't be good enough for the Socceroos, they'll want this journey to last as long as it possibly can.
It's a new dawn for the Socceroos — and their destiny is in their hands.
