For a split second, Aziz Behich didn't know he'd scored the goal that secured the Socceroos a 1-0 win over Japan and, with it, all but punched their tickets to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Going behind himself to meet Riley McGree's cutback and send it on goal with his non-preferred right foot, he collided with a rapidly retreating Takefusa Kubo as he hit the ball, sending him sprawling to the turf. As he recovered, in the span of a moment, he saw a section of the 57,226 fans in the stands erupt. He saw his teammates begin to sprint towards him. And then he saw the ball rolling around behind Samurai Blue goalkeeper Kosei Tani.
Perhaps at that point, he also saw history, his name alongside the likes of John Aloisi, Josh Kennedy, Tim Cahill, Mile Jedinak, and Andrew Redmayne as green and gold-draped heroes of World Cup qualification. As now, after Saudi Arabia's 2-0 win over Bahrain on Thursday, the Socceroos need only to avoid a four-goal defeat to the Green Falcons on Tuesday to qualify for 2026.
"It sat pretty perfectly for me," Behich said. "I just had to get my body around it a little bit. But the ball kind of just stopped nearly dead, so it gave me an opportunity to get around it quickly."
"It was just about getting myself in a position, into the box. One thing that the boss said at halftime was we've still got to work hard and be tough to break down, but we will get our opportunity if we stick to our structure and get numbers into the box. We'll get one opportunity, and we'll take it.
"I just tried to get myself into that back-post area. As soon as it sat and it came off my foot, I felt I hit it pretty nicely. I actually didn't see the ball hit the net. I saw the crowd erupt, and players start running everywhere. That's when I looked at the goal and was like, 'It's in, let's go.' A beautiful moment."
Players would come upon Behich from all directions when he finally reached the corner flag in celebration, smoke rising in the background from a flare set off in the stands as a crowd that had been mostly muted for much of the game exploded into life.
"I felt borderline paralysed," Mitch Duke said to ESPN. "I wanted to celebrate and embrace Aziz, and I swear I couldn't sprint. I swear Maty Ryan got there before me, and he's at the other end of the pitch. It was intense and then it was goosebumps, hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck kind of feeling. And then just pure relief. It's just such a snatch-and-grab moment."
From his position on the sidelines, almost directly in line with Behich as he hit the ball, Socceroos boss Tony Popovic had a perfect angle to watch the attempt.
"As soon as he hit it, I had a great vantage point there, I could see the ball was going in as soon as it left his foot," the coach said. "Just a wonderful goal."
In the build-up, he'd also observed Alessandro Circati lay a pass off for Aiden O'Neill and continue his run forward when the midfielder played the ball out to Jason Geria on the right. He watched as Geria, introduced 20 minutes earlier for Lewis Miller, threaded a pass between four Japanese defenders to the feet of McGree, who turned Ayumu Seko and got to the byline before dragging the ball back.
He followed as Behich, Circati, O'Neill, Duke and Cameron Burgess all darted into the penalty area looking for the ball. And as the former sent the ball into the net, the normally stoic coach let out a primal roar, sinking to his knees in celebration.
"That moment there -- although football-wise we need to get better, and we will get better -- in the 90th minute, we had six players in the box, six players trying to score a goal," Popovic said. "The players were moving forward. I'm sure they were fatigued. They had to do a lot of work. It was a good reward for the group.
"Emotions were very high, for many reasons. We know what we're aiming to do is to get direct qualification. You're playing the best team in Asia at the moment. And when you win it so late, you can't script it better than that. Although it's a nervous 90 minutes before it gets to that point."
Indeed, the Socceroos had been under siege to that point; this was not the kind of performance, against a rotated, under-strength Japan, to hang one's hat on. Across the length of the game, the Samurai Blue would control 68% of possession, send in 13 shots to six, and play 336 passed in Australia's half of the pitch; the Socceroos would play just 215 passes in total.
"At halftime, it had been a stressful first half," Connor Metcalfe said. "But the coaches were just like: 'Stay calm, keep moving it. Keep moving it. And if we have to score in the 90th minute, then we have to score in the 90th minute.' And then we scored in the 90th minute!"
And for all of Japan's control of the game, they didn't create all that many clear-cut chances.
Of their 13 attempts, just one was on target -- a long-range first-half effort from Yū Hirakawa that went straight at Ryan; and for all the smoke they breathed, they would only produce 0.47 expected goals (xG). Thrown on as a late substitute, Takefusa Kubo would send a scare through the hosts when he found space and shot from the top of the box in the 80th minute, only for it to flash wide.
"I didn't know [the goal] was going in," Socceroos defender Miloš Degenek said. "I was hoping, I was praying like the other 50,000 people here. I was praying, mate. It was unreal.
"That relief once that ball hit that net and that sprint, that 70-metre sprint to that corner flag, was just a relief. It was the biggest relief. It was just so fun.
"This game means more to me, and I feel more joy out of winning a game like this... because this one's a lot harder for us defenders."
At the other end of the pitch, looking back after the momentum he brought into the cutback had taken him off the playing surface, McGree's hands were in the air even before Behich had made contact on his strike. It wasn't, however, because he knew what was about to happen. The opposite, in fact.
"I more put my hands up thinking, 'It's a good cutback, why is no one there,'" McGree said. "And then all of a sudden, Aziz checks his run, comes back, and as soon as it leaves his foot, it's bound for the goal. I had a great view of it, and then it was one of those moments I just put my hands on my head and ran over and celebrated."
Brought on as a halftime substitute for Martin Boyle, McGree had run himself ragged at that point, kneeling over on his haunches after the goal as his teammates leapt into Behich.
Beset by injuries, the attacker had played in just three games for Middlesbrough in 2025 and needed to prove his fitness in a pre-window training camp in Abu Dhabi to earn a place in the Socceroos squad. Popovic openly admitted after the game that he was worried about McGree with about 15 minutes to go, fearing he'd probably only had half an hour or so in the tank.
"I think it's all kind of just in sync and natural," McGree said of his turn. "The way it happens, it's one of those things where you come off after the game and you don't know how you did that. You don't practise that kind of stuff. It all kind of came intuitively as it happens and as it flows in the game."
Coming into Thursday evening, Behich had scored only two goals for Australia. Both had come in the same game, in an 8-0 thrashing of Taiwan at the EAFF East Asian Cup on Dec. 9, 2012.
Somehow, though, the 4561 days since may have been worth the wait.
"It's right up the top, that's for sure," Behich said. "With what's on the line for us, what we've had to go through this campaign. And playing against a nation that we haven't beaten in [16] years.
"This is right up there in my green-and-gold career."