Duke strike ends 12-year barren run for Socceroos

The last two tournaments were not (good). We want to avoid a repeat of this. The focus is on concentration. This is the final for us

DOHA: they would now back teams from the region.

All this made Mitchell Duke’s strike as incongruous as fireworks preceding afternoon games. The contest was physical, even and often bruising. Australia played out from inside their penalty area to the midfield where a Duke backheel found Riley Mcgree near the circle. Mcgree passed to Craig Goodwin on the left and by the time Goodwin sent a delivery, Duke had fetched up in the area. Goodwin’s ball took a deflection off a Tunisian player but there was nothing lucky about the flicked back header that arced beyond Aymen Dahmen’s goal.

Duke is 31 and plays for a team in J2 League. In nine years since his debut for Australia, the central attacker has made only 21 appearances. To score a goal that got the sliver of Socceroos fans bouncing and in Australia’s first win in the finals since 2010 — and their third overall — is the kind of storyline only a World Cup can provide. The heroics of one journeyman, keeper Andrew Redmayne, kept Australia among the top 32 teams. Duke’s winner has kept them breathing and ready for Denmark.