Behich: I actually didn't see the ball hitting the net
Subway Socceroos goal-scoring hero Aziz Behich said that defeating Japan for the first time since 2009 thanks to his 90th-minute winner goes “right to the top” of moments in his illustrious national team career.
Head Coach Tony Popovic agreed, expressing that it was a special night in Perth that sees Australia within touching distance of FIFA World Cup 2026™ qualification.
Hear from the two at the post-match press conference.
Hard work over 90 minutes
Behich: I don't want to take all the credit, that's for sure, because - not just the players that play, the players that come in, and even the boys that were on the bench or in the stands - we've worked hard this week. That’s the type of team we pride ourselves on. Of course, we've had better games. We've played better. We can do better. We improve. We knew it was going to be a tough game, there’s no easy game in international football. Against a nation like this, who we haven't beaten in a long time, we said we want to be the squad that does that. It feels great. I can't thank the staff and the playing group enough for this moment.
Popovic: We found it difficult to retain the ball. They were a lot tougher than us in the first half. When you can keep winning the ball, you can keep your momentum going forward, we didn't have a chance to retain the ball. And when we went into our duels, we were pretty much second best in every challenge. So yeah, they're very good. There's no doubt about that. We know there's room to grow and room to improve. But a lot of people have sat here talking about the what-ifs playing Japan, and not winning in a long time, and we’ve done something special tonight.
The goal
Behich: It was just about getting myself in a position, into the box. One thing that the boss said at half-time was, you know, we still have got to work hard. Be tough to break down. But we'll get our opportunity. If we stick to our structure and get numbers into the box, and we'll get one opportunity, and we'll take it. I was just trying to get myself into that back post area. As soon as it sat [up] and it's come off my foot, I felt I hit it pretty nicely. I actually didn't see the ball hitting the net. I just kind of saw the crowd erupt and players start running everywhere, and that's when I looked at the goal. Let's go. Beautiful moment.
Popovic: As soon as he hit it [I knew it was in]. I just had a great vantage point there, I could see the ball was going in as soon as it left his foot. Just a wonderful goal. That moment there - although football-wise, we need to get better, and we will get better – but in that moment, 90th minute, we had six players in the box. Six players trying to score a goal. The players were moving forward. Yeah, I'm sure they were fatigued. They do a lot of work. It was just a good reward.
Belief in the group
Behich: Playing against a nation that we haven't beaten in, I don't know how many years [16 years], and we're always the underdog and always expected to lose. But we always have belief within those four walls. This is right up there in my green and gold career.
Popovic: They're on a wonderful run [previously unbeaten qualifying campaign], and there's a reason for that. So they are the best, and we want to challenge them to be the best. We shouldn't shy away from that. Hopefully today, we take a big step forward knowing we can beat Japan.
Emotions of the victory
Popovic: There's no greater honour than doing what I'm doing if you can't play. So I'm very honoured with this responsibility, and I'm very proud of everyone involved.
Qualification not sealed yet
Behich: We've still got another important game to go now, away in Saudi [Arabia]. We want a good result there as well. This obviously is nice, but we want to be that team that has expectations of winning every game we go out to, so full focus is on that.
Popovic: You can't say it yet [that we’ve qualified]. If Saudi wins, we need to do a job in Saudi. We are in a great position, but we need to finish it off.