We have already spoken about the United States’ dominant performance against Paraguay, and I would direct all readers to the excellent piece by our very own Adam Booker for the full picture. What has not been as widely discussed, at least not with the attention it deserves, is what happened in Vancouver on Saturday night. The Socceroos beat Turkey 2-0. 

Even as an Australian I can’t claim I went into the game fully confident of a victory, but even more importantly, I was not expecting the quality of the performance.  

Let me set the scene. Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Inter Milan captain, 104 international caps, Serie A champion, spoke to the media the day before the match. He had some thoughts on Australia. “I think we will dominate the game,” he said, “because we have more qualities and a more talented team.” 

It might be a cliché but I’m saying it anyway, ball don’t lie. It sure didn’t. Australia’s Aiden O’Neill’s response before the match was measured and rather good. “He’s allowed to have his own opinion,” he said. “We’ve got quality players on our team too, so we’re ready.”

As pre-match bulletin board material goes, Çalhanoğlu had done his bit. Whether the Australian dressing room printed it out and wallpapered the walls, I cannot confirm. The result suggests they were at least aware of it. 

Before getting into the match itself, Tony Popovic made a series of calls before kickoff that raised eyebrows across the football world and several living rooms in Australia. 

Maty Ryan, the captain, the man heading into his fourth World Cup, the most experienced goalkeeper in the squad, did not start. In his place, Popovic named Patrick Beach, twenty-two years old, Melbourne City goalkeeper, third international cap. Jackson Irvine, the experienced captain of German side St. Pauli and Socceroos vice captain, was dropped to the bench. Harry Souttar was given the armband instead. Paul Okon-Engstler picked up Irvines place in midfield in only his seventh international appearance. 

10 of the Socceroos eleven starters were making their World Cup debut. It was a simply unbelievable showing from a team dipping its toe in the most prestigious pool in the world.

At the time those selections were announced there was a collective intake of breath from Australian supporters. Looking back now, with the benefit of a historic 2-0 victory, Popovic looks less like a gambler and more like a genius.  

I do not like to say I told you so. I told you so.  In my Group D preview I highlighted Nestory Irankunda as the player pundits probably had not watched enough of yet. In the 27th minute, Irankunda collected the ball, left two Turkish defenders standing with a neat touch, and swept a finish past Ugurcan Çakır into the net.

He celebrated by punching the corner flag in tribute to Aussie hero Tim Cahill. The backflip, apparently his trademark, was saved for a future occasion. I’m thinking a 90^th minute winner in the World Cup final could do nicely. 

He is 20-years-old. He is playing at his first World Cup. He looked entirely unbothered by either of those facts. Connor Metcalfe added the second in the 75th minute, picking up a loose ball and trusting his instincts from distance. 2-0, a clean sheet, and most imporantly, three points. 

Now here is the thing that has been slightly misrepresented in some of the coverage since. Australia were not dominated and fortunate. Australia were not hanging on by their fingernails and benefiting from two long-range strikes that could have gone anywhere. 

Turkey had the ball for significant periods and created chances. Patrick Beach made eight saves and was extraordinary. But Australia’s defensive shape was disciplined and deliberate. This was not a smash and grab, it was a tactical performance from a team that knew exactly how they wanted to play and executed it to perfection. 

After the match, Çalhanoğlu was reminded of his pre-match comments by a journalist and asked if he was surprised by the Socceroos. He was not for turning. 

“We dominated today,” he said. “Australia was just behind, defending good. Two long goals, they scored. It was our mistakes. If you control all the game the whole ninety minutes and you don’t score, it means you have to always be focused.” 

The man lost 2-0 and is claiming dominance. I have a certain admiration for the commitment, though his manager, Vincenzo Montella, was more diplomatic, congratulating Australia on their performance. Çalhanoğlu, it is fair to say, did not. 

For what it is worth, I do not want to be too hard on Çalhanoğlu. He is a fine player who had a difficult night. But if you tell the world you are going to dominate and then fail to score while conceding twice, the footballing high ground is difficult to claim.  

The United States beat Paraguay 4-1 in a performance that was, by all accounts, exactly what the hosts needed it to be. Folarin Balogun scored twice and the press was relentless. The crowd was spectacular and helped the United States ride a wave to a famous and statistically historic win in the nation’s history. Pochettino’s side looked clinical, confident, and thoroughly at home on the occasion. 

What I will say is that the American performance was impressive enough that going into Friday’s match, they are the favorites, and rightly so. They are the hosts, they have a top scorer in form, and they dismantled a Paraguay side that had beaten Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay in qualifying. 

But Australia just beat Turkey 2-0 with 10 World Cup debutants, and a goalkeeper making his third international appearance. What’s more, it was not even remotely a fluke.

The match is at Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Sounders, known to those of us not in Seattle primarily as the stadium where the infamous ‘Fight and Win’ chant was born. Funnily enough, I would not be surprised to hear it from both sets of supporters on Friday night.  

Both teams believe they can win, and both have reasonable reasons to think it. The United States have the home crowd, the momentum, and a striker who has already scored twice at this tournament. Australia have the defensive structure, the shock result behind them, a goalkeeper who has been extraordinary in his brief international career, and a twenty-year-old attacker who ran past Turkish internationals like they were traffic cones. 

Unstoppable force, meet immovable object. Or, as Alexi Lalas might put it: this average team by any measure is two days away from playing the hosts in front of seventy thousand people in Seattle.