The minarets of Red Square are finally visible on the horizon after the longest, windiest qualifying road in World Cup history concluded in Sydney on Wednesday night.
Bookended by goals from the boot of Mile Jedinak, it’s not been the prettiest 29 months of qualification football, but it has at least proved effective. Back in June 2015 Australia left Kyrgyzstan with a 2-1 victory, the first of 22 matches that have taken the Socceroos to all corners of Asia, around Australia, and finally across the Pacific and back. Much of this has been hard-going, for players, coaches and fans alike.
Like much of the qualifying campaign, the decider against Honduras was a nervous affair with little for aesthetes to admire. For 54 minutes ANZ Stadium was a study in anxiety – coaches too agitated to sit down, players too eager to time a tackle, and fans, the poor tormented fans, burned at similar moments in previous sudden death scenarios, waiting expectantly for chances that never came.
Then Tom Rogic somewhat accidentally wandered on the run of the match, weaving his way towards the Honduran penalty area with mounting intent. After he was upended and Jedinak’s free-kick deflected beyond Donis Escober the collective celebration captured the mood of a nation.
When Jedinak made the net bulge with his second and third set-pieces the mood verged towards euphoric. Not the delirious John Aloisi-running-down-the-touchline-waving-his-shirt-around-his-head kind, but a reminder all the same why the 33 and-a-half hours of football to get to that final final whistle were worthwhile.
The memories of Uruguay, Iran, Scotland and more, are never far from the memories of Australian football fans. Like the banners in the stands paying tribute to Johnny Warren and Les Murray, reminders why nights like Wednesday can never be taken for granted.
While this is job done for Australia, it remains to be seen if Postecoglou still has work to do. The coach was emotional but non-committal when asked about his future after becoming only the second Australian to guide his country to a World Cup finals.
“It’s pretty overwhelming to be honest,” he said. “When you’re coaching your own nation the burden of responsibility is even greater. We deserve to be there. These players deserve to be there. They’ve done it the hard way but they got their rewards.”
If this was his last game, Postecoglou will bow out after 49 matches on a deserved high. He won the Asian Cup. He navigated the most arduous World Cup qualifying campaign ever devised.
Watching players and staff celebrate in the centre of the pitch, showered in green and gold ticker tape, it seemed unthinkable the mastermind of the occasion may not get to experience the fruits of his labour in Russia.
It’s such a puzzling situation. These are Postecoglou’s players. This is his team. It’s a group only part way through its progression, embarking on only the fifth World Cup in Australia’s history.
Moreover, in the process Postecoglou’s ambition and bravery have taken on the gargantuan task of conceptually reframing perspective of the national team. Not only are the ghosts of playoffs past being extinguished but they’re being supplanted by bullish, optimistic rhetoric, the kind other Australian sports thrive on. If Postecoglou does take Australia to Russia, he is taking them to win.
“I think it’s important to stand for something, I’ve said it all along,” the coach said, with his players enjoying a lap of honour behind him. “I showed them the interview I did when I got the job and I said that day that we’re not going to take any backward steps over the next four years and we’re going to be bold and we’re going to be ambitious. That doesn’t come without challenges. That doesn’t come without obstacles and stumbles but stick to what we believe in.”
As Postecoglou embraced his jubilant players, tears welling in his eyes, it was impossible not to think there was unfinished business.
“It’s quite overwhelming,” he said. “This last four years is the hardest thing I have ever done. Where our starting point was, going to a World Cup with a rookie squad, knowing we had to win the Asian Cup then taking a group of players on a journey they had never been on before. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
There is one even harder job still to tackle, if he wants to take it on.
