Gustavsson survives his Eminem moment as brave Matildas march on

Hayley Raso takes off towards the stands. Arms wide open, ribbons in her hair, ponytail fizzing with the electricity of 27,000 lurching to their feet.

She has just saved her country and brought them back from the brink with a belter into the bottom corner.

Two-goal hero Hayley Raso.Credit: Eddie Jim

Half a second later Raso has stopped running and those 27,000 are booing, spitting venom at the offside flag and its holder. The VAR review starts.

Everybody hates the VAR. The VAR has just killed Australian football, sent the co-hosts packing and sacked Tony Gustavsson.

But then the referee returns and blows her whistle again, announcing that the goal will stand.

How we’ve always loved the VAR. Raso does too. She is on her knees now, fists clenched in delight, Katrina Gorry wrapped around her neck like a scarf. We are only nine minutes in and everybody is already losing it.

Kids in full Matildas kit are losing their minds. The hips of chaperoning mums are losing their inhibition. Gustavsson is losing it with the fourth official, stalking his technical area in hoodied belligerence and then copping a yellow card for walking onto the pitch.

This had threatened to be Gustavsson’s Eminem moment. His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. There’s vomit on his sweater already, mum’s spaghetti. Spaghetti vomit was supposed to be Gustavsson’s nemesis.

He choked, they said. Time’s up, over, blau. Except that this is now all going rather well. Melbourne is a long way from Montpellier, but miracles still do happen.

Four years ago, Sam Kerr gave the world “we’re back, so suck on that one”. Australia, having lost their opening 2019 World Cup match to Italy, had just clawed back from two goals down to beat Brazil.

Australia players applaud fans after the team’s 4-0 victory.Credit: Getty

If that was the Miracle of Montpellier, this Monday night in Melbourne requires its own category. And Kerr needs a microphone.

Kerr’s words back then came from a siege mentality, and their preceding performance from a backs-against-the-wall place. History is repeating itself, and are we really so surprised?

Australia’s football teams – both women’s and men’s – seem to operate best when pinned to some facade or other, an abstract hand around their throats.

It’s unclear if Gustavsson got the memo because the day before the match he’d been a picture of lightly concealed terror.

His contract runs until after next year’s Olympics, but it was hard to see him lasting beyond this week had he led Australia to a group-stage exit in front of the home nation. And there is no free ride for the co-hosts.

New Zealand are already out. This is the tournament where Colombia beat Germany and Haiti pushed England, and the majority of the 32 countries in this expanded tournament have given an admirable account of themselves. The gap is closing, and there is a growing sense this is Australia’s chance to do something truly incredible before everybody else catches up.

Where they go from here is anybody’s guess, such is the nature of this team. Ask anyone for a prediction of almost any upcoming Matildas match and the answers will oscillate more wildly than Canada’s backline on this particular night.

That fact is what renders this so unbelievable, so beautifully unexpected and unexpectedly flawless. How big was this match in the context of the local game? Was it close to the Socceroos against Uruguay in 2005?

It can be called pivotal. It can be called legacy-defining. When Steph Catley scored a penalty – her second of the tournament – in injury time, the players raced to the bench as if they had won the tournament.

The crowd quaked with such possibility passers-by outside AAMI Park might have even thought they had. There is a long way to go yet.

But for now, at least, the dreaded post-mortem is on hold. Kerr was rested and will be for another week before the round of 16. Fowler is back and Aivi Luik will be too. And who knows, maybe even Kyah Simon.

From this point on, literally anything can happen.

Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.