First, he provided the assist from the free kick that was headed home in the second minute of first-half stoppage time by Lewis Miller, who handed a surprise start by Popovic for his first minutes since a nightmare performance in the Asian Cup quarter-final against South Korea.
The Socceroos celebrate their third goal.Credit: Getty Images
And then, eight minutes after half-time, Jackson Irvine spotted Goodwin in acres of space and delivered a crisp, measured pass. Galloping towards the famous scoreboard at Adelaide Oval’s cathedral end, Goodwin let rip from long distance. He does that. The ball nestled beautifully into the back of the net, the Socceroos were 2-1 up, the crowd of 46,291 exploded with joy, and all was right with the world again.
Goodwin wheeled away with his trademark celebration, pointing two fingers to the sky in a tribute to his late grandmother. There are several statues scattered around the perimeter of Adelaide Oval, honouring local sporting greats like Sir Donald Bradman, Barrie Robran and Malcolm Blight. Having also won an A-League grand final there, Goodwin deserves one, too, and that celebration should be the pose. This was his game in more ways than one; he had been one of the loudest advocates for bringing the Socceroos to Adelaide for the first time since 2017, and he made the occasion his. At the end of it, he was calling for an encore.
He was one of four local lads handed a start. Teenage sensation Nestory Irankunda operated in the other wing role, but had a far less productive evening than Goodwin, and was withdrawn at half-time, but the structure Popovic unveiled blossomed in the second half with different personnel and helped foster the quicker, more dynamic play he has been promising.
“I feel there are a lot of creative players in the squad and in those pockets, those half spaces, I feel we have a lot of good ability,” Popovic said. “We turn on the ball quickly, we can combine quickly and it’s just trying to work out in which position each player is better suited, but they’re versatile.”
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Thomas Deng was also taken off at the break, having lost the aerial duel – from a route-one bomb up the middle of the field from China’s goalkeeper Wang Dalei – that led to the opening goal. And the goalkeeper who watched on in horror was another Adelaidean, Joe Gauci, who was given the gloves over usual skipper and long-time custodian Maty Ryan. Neither is playing regularly at club level, but few expected Popovic to pull that rein.
“It was just a choice that I made,” Popovic said. “I wanted to give Joey an opportunity.”
He gave another one to his former Melbourne Victory charge Nishan Velupillay, who enjoyed what Popovic described as a “dream debut” off the bench, scoring the clincher in the 92nd minute. Job done, crisis averted, and attention can now shift to Tuesday night’s daunting clash with Japan, the Group C pacesetters.
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Popovic was pleased with not only the result, but the performance and the fortitude it required. Five minutes after China’s goal, as his players stuck to his plan despite the sense of impending doom ricocheting around the stadium, he knew they were fine.
“That can always be a nervy period, where you start forcing the action, and there’s an opportunity to concede another goal. But they looked really composed and just kept playing,” he said.
“I’m really happy. That was a good sign for us. Then of course the goal helps just before halftime. Then I thought in the second half we improved in the middle and front third with the ball. It gave us a lot more opportunities to score.
“There wasn’t much wrong with today. It wasn’t a bad performance at all.”