When the Socceroos turn up the whole country stands a little taller

Nobody gave them a chance, and on paper nobody should have.

Drawn into a World Cup group alongside tournament hosts the United States, a battle-hardened Turkiye stacked with players from Europe's biggest leagues, and a proud South American football nation in Paraguay, the Socceroos were written off before a ball was kicked.

This is a side that could boast just one player per line, defence, midfield and attack, plying their trade in a top European league, and against that pedigree Australia looked to have no business being on the same pitch.

Someone forgot to tell the players.

In Vancouver on Sunday afternoon in Australia, against a Turkiye outfit that would go on to enjoy 72 per cent of possession and fire off 30 shots, Australia did what it always does on the world stage and turned up when it mattered most.

It took just 27 minutes for 20-year-old Watford winger Nestory Irankunda to remind everyone watching why this country falls in love with the Socceroos every four years.

Seizing on a counter-attack, he used his sheer pace and a perfect touch to burst clear and finish coolly, becoming Australia's youngest-ever World Cup goalscorer before running to the corner and boxing the flag.

It was a celebration that sent a jolt of recognition through every Australian of a certain age, because two decades ago it was Tim Cahill throwing those same punches, and the torch has clearly been passed.

What followed was a masterclass in the kind of football that has come to define this team under Tony Popovic, with no illusions of grandeur and no attempt to out-football a more credentialled opponent.

Instead there was a clear plan executed with discipline, parking the bus, soaking up the pressure and striking on the break, and while it is not always pretty it is unmistakably Australian.

At the heart of it all was a defence that simply would not break, marshalled superbly by Leicester City's Harry Souttar, who threw himself in front of everything Turkiye could muster in the dying stages.

Behind him a star was born, with 22-year-old goalkeeper Patrick Beach handed a shock debut in place of the vastly more experienced Maty Ryan and answering with a man-of-the-match display in his first World Cup appearance.

A tidy second-half finish from outside the box by Connor Metcalfe all but put the game to bed and completed the unthinkable, a 2-0 win nobody outside the camp saw coming.

This is the magic of the Socceroos, a side without the budgets, the academies or the household names of the football powerhouses but armed with something money cannot buy.

What they have is a willingness to fight for the badge, for each other and for a nation that, for a few mornings every four years, sets its alarm for the small hours and dares to believe.

The road ahead is steep with the United States and Paraguay still to come, but if this opening result told us anything it is that you can never count these blokes out.

When the Socceroos turn up, the whole country stands a little taller.