It was a Friday night in which the stars descended on Townsville. There was Bruno Guimarães, Raphinha and Vinícius Júnior in the Brazilian XI, with Endrick leading the line and Estêvão out on the flank, all instructed by Carlo Ancelotti in the dugout. But on this evening, their limelight was stolen by Australia’s star boy Nestory Irankunda.
His magnificent 68th-minute free kick may have been cancelled out at the death by Rayan’s header, ensuring Australia and Brazil shared a 1-1 draw at Queensland Country Bank Stadium, but on a night in which some of the planet’s biggest and best were on hand, Irankunda stood up to be counted.
It was a moment that almost everyone in the sold-out stadium of 25,440 probably felt coming; the kind of joint premonition that comes with watching a special talent. When Paul Okon-Engstler won a free kick about 25 yards out from goal, you knew it was a set piece screaming out to be hit. And when Irankunda stood over it, you definitely knew that’s what he was about to do; the 20-year-old is many things, but lacking in confidence isn’t one of them.
And then, he delivered. A perfectly placed free kick dipped over the Brazilian wall, leaving goalkeeper Hugo Souza with naught to do but watch wistfully as it nestled in the back of the net.
Out came the back flips as he raced towards the corner flag, a wry grin spreading over the face of Tony Popovic in the dugout. The most precocious of Australia’s talents certainly has a long way to go in his game but when he’s doing stuff like that, it again reiterates just how good he’s going to be for the Socceroos.
It sparked a late flurry of activity from Brazil, hurling themselves forward in an attempt to avoid the potential embarrassment of falling to a perceived lesser-footballing nation in Australia. And they were rewarded with the last kick of the game when a corner was swung in from the left by Raphinha and on to the head of Rayan, whose effort was sent goalward with enough power to ensure that, even if Patrick Beach got a touch on it, he couldn’t prevent it from ricocheting off the crossbar and crossing the goalline.
“I think it’s maybe a sign of progress if we are a bit disappointed, and I think the dressing room’s a bit quiet,” Popovic said. “I think that’s a good sign. Yes, of course, you’re delighted that you get a point in a game like this against Brazil. But when you have the lead up until the last kick of the game, then of course you walk off a little bit deflated. Once that settles down, I’m sure we can look at the performance as a whole and be very happy. But, you know, I’m actually glad there’s disappointment, because I have it as well.”
We’d seen flashes of the Brazil promoters of this two-game series – Queensland state government reminders of their role in organising the fixture have been everywhere this week – to that point. A brilliantly composed finish from rising 19-year-old Estêvão had the ball in the back of the net on the stroke of half-time, only for the VAR to rightly call it back for a foul by Bruno Guimarães on Harry Souttar in the buildup. A burst of acceleration by Vinícius Júnior set the scene for Estêvão to have an early shot deflected away soon after. Raphinha, in the form of his life for Barcelona, created space outside the box before dragging a shot wide just past the hour mark.
“It doesn’t feel like a defeat because it’s a draw,” said Ancelotti. “We could have won; we had our chances. We have to be patient. We fought back after conceding the goal and secured a deserved draw. These are tests we have to go through, give players opportunities and move on. It was a test. The next one is another test too.
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“It’s no surprise. They defend very hard, very well. We played well, but these things can happen. The match against Australia didn’t surprise me.”
But in football, there’s always an opposition, although on this evening, it’s also probably accurate to say that both Brazil and Australia had two: the 11 men opposite them, and the ice-rink of a surface at Queensland Country Bank Stadium that only degraded as the night went on – despite it being 20 days since it was last used for a North Queensland Cowboys NRL and NRLW double-header.
It was evident from the brief moments of hesitation or deliberately cautious movement that neither group of players were truly confident in the surface beneath them, but this still didn’t stop several of them from falling to the turf as the night progressed. Just how this was allowed to happen – especially in light of that aforementioned Queensland state government grandiosity – beggared belief. “[The pitch] was not good,” said Ancelotti. “The pitch … it was difficult to play on a pitch like this. And we hope to have a better pitch for the next game.”
But credit, too, goes to the Socceroos. There were certainly moments of defensive heroics and dogged determination that we’ve come to expect from them under Popovic. But there were also periods of assertiveness in possession, times when they defended higher up the pitch, and when players showed the gumption to run at their man and take him on.
