Australia 3 New Zealand 1
By the time Mo Toure and Nestory Irankunda had combined for three goals in Auckland – and the VAR and crossbar respectively and had denied them another one each – the Socceroos’ enduring attacking issues felt like a distant memory.
The 21-year-old Toure, with his wonderful maiden international goal and then his second, is the elusive striker Australia have longed for since Tim Cahill (he was denied a maiden hat-trick after his third goal was chalked off for offside).
And his close friend, 19-year-old Irankunda, with his dizzying solo effort to secure their country’s retention of the Soccer Ashes, has many more celebratory backflips ahead of him - not to mention almost adding to his Watford free-kick highlight reel.
With the World Cup less than a year away, Tuesday night’s 3-1 win was the most convincing yet under Tony Popovic. The team remain undefeated in his tenure, but until now that blemish-free statistic that has said more about this particular coach’s preference for a compact set-up than it has about a capacity to score goals.
Then he rung six changes to the XI that got away with a 1-0 first-leg win in Canberra, handing Irankunda a second international start alongside striker Toure and midfielder Max Balard, who scored Australia’s winner last Friday night some two minutes into his Socceroos debut.
Pre-match, Popovic said he’d made the selection calls to be “more dynamic from the outset”. Retrospectively, he might have tweaked that statement to say “just give it half an hour”.
It was worth the wait against an energetic and physical New Zealand led by Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood, who is about to call Ange Postecoglou his new manager amid reports the former Tottenham boss has already secured his ticket back to the English Premier League.
Wood scored New Zealand’s consolation – a toe-poke past Paul Izzo for his 45th goal from 86 internationals – but he was not the top headline at Mount Smart Stadium.
Or the second, or the third.
“We started off slow, but it happens sometimes,” said Irankunda. “But we got into the groove after the first goal from Mohamed … we got stronger, we came stronger, and then we went the whole way through.”
By that, Irankunda meant that the bright youth of Australia have offered a glimpse of not just what might be possible at next year’s World Cup, but also well into the future.
With an average age of 25 years and 331 days, this was the youngest starting XI since mid-2017, when Postecoglou was still in charge. Alessandro Circati was handed the skipper’s armband at 21 years old. The next golden generation appears to be on the rise.
Connor Metcalfe set up Toure’s opener, providing the challenge via a pass of impeccable weight and placement, and the striker proved he possessed the speed to get to it and the strength to hold off defenders for a cool finish.
It was matched only by Irankunda’s own effort, a passage of tricky footwork into space down the right, a dribble into the box and a shot that left All Whites keeper Max Crocombe with no chance. Had his rocket of a free kick been a smidge lower instead of off the woodwork it would have made for one of the great Socceroos set-pieces.
In the end it did not matter, because Toure had already scored his second, and a would-be third disallowed for offside from a Lewis Miller cutback.
“I’m so happy for him because when he scores ... it feels like it’s me that’s scoring,” said Irankunda, Toure’s former Adelaide United teammate.
“We train every day together, every day in the off-season. Our first five seasons as professionals was together. To do it for the national team as well has been amazing.
“We worked hard this off-season, us two. Me and his brothers, we’ve worked hard during the off-season for opportunities like this, chances like this. I feel like tonight we grabbed it with two hands and we’ve shown the country and the world what we can do.”
The golden oldies are on the rise, too. The 30-year-old Izzo, retained after Friday’s inexplicably long-awaited first cap, was again imperturbable both in goal and out, venturing well into no-man’s land whenever required.
The performance, which will have cemented the Denmark-based keeper as at least second choice behind Mat Ryan, was punctuated by two standout moments either side of the break. First he denied Tim Payne an equaliser with pure reflex and the tips of his fingers, and then called into a diving save to repel Ryan Thomas.
In all, the Socceroos resisted their trans-Tasman rivals more effectively from the start. The midfield appeared more robust, and an all-in defence thwarted intense pressure as the All Whites recycled attacks around Australia’s goal.
The initial foray came courtesy of Ben Old, the Saint-Étienne attacker brought into the starting line-up for the second leg and the source of many an assault (Sarpreet Singh was equally dangerous).
It included a passage of one-touch play which would have made for a pleasing team goal had the final shot of the series not rolled straight to Izzo.