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…


Mark Viduka
Debut: 8 June 1994
Australia 1-0 South Africa

After a stellar first season of senior football, claiming the NSL golden boot with 17 goals in 21 games, 18-year-old Viduka was handed his debut in the first of a two-game series against a touring South Africa side. Aurelio Vidmar netted early on in a painful win for keeper Zeljko Kalac, who kept a clean sheet but broke his collarbone.
 


Harry Kewell
Debut: 24 April 1996
Chile 3-0 Australia

Aged 17 years and 7 months, the emerging Leeds United prodigy set the record for the youngest-capped Socceroo when he started from the off and played the full 90 minutes of this one-off friendly in Chile’s northern port city of Antofagasta.


Lucas Neill
Debut: 9 October 1996
Saudi Arabia 0-0 Australia

At the age of 18, Australia’s future longest-serving skipper was introduced at the break and played out the second half of this scoreless draw in Riyadh. It was coach Eddie Thompson’s last match before he resigned to take the reins in the J-League with Japanese club Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

 


Brett Emerton
Debut: 7 February 1998
Australia 0-1 Chile

Clarence Acuna gave the visiting Chileans an early first-half lead in Melbourne. A fortnight before his 19th birthday, Emerton was ordered on by Terry Venables with a quarter of an hour to go, but the Sydney Olympic starlet was unable to change the outcome in front of the 12,000-strong crowd.
 


Mark Bresciano
Debut: 1 June 2001
Australia 1-0 France

What a game to make your debut! Clayton Zane converted on the hour-mark in South Korea to claim a Confederations Cup victory over the world champions, no less, who had Frank Leboeuf, Robert Pires and Nicolas Anelka in their ranks. Bresciano, aged 21, was a 79th minute sub for Josip Skoko.

The Socceroos went on to claim third place in the tournament, Bresciano again emerging from the bench late on in another memorable win over Brazil.
 


Tim Cahill
Debut: 30 March 2004
Australia 1-0 South Africa

Bresciano scored 19 minutes into this game at QPR’s Loftus Road Stadium in West London. A 24-year-old Cahill, who had previously played for Samoa at under-age level and recently rejected calls to represent the Republic of Ireland, emerged from the bench after 75 minutes.

The record scorer’s first goals in green and gold came in the 9-0 thumping of Tahiti two months later.