Finally, after 84 minutes, the echo of those calls crossed the Indian Ocean, reverberated over the Middle-East and the Mediterranean and reached the ears of the man who calls the shots, Bert van Marwijk, in the technical area of the NV Arena in Sankt Polten, Austria. It was time.

Daniel Arzani, the golden boy of the provisional squad and its youngest member by over five years, patted palms on the touchline with two-goal Mathew Leckie and crossed the white line to win his first international cap.

Assuming the 19-year-old survives van Marwijk’s final cut and makes the chosen 23, he’ll be the youngest player, and the first teenager, Australia have ever taken to a World Cup finals tournament.

It was a low-key six minutes for Arzani last night - but as was patently clear from his award-winning breakout season in the A-League, the fleet-footed midfielder has the potential, the raw ability, to have a huge impact for the Socceroos in years to come.

A bit like these guys. The nation’s hopes for them at the time of their Aussie debuts were just as big. What happened on their first outings in green and gold? Let’s look back…