The Street Socceroos were up against the Portuguese, whose impromptu ball juggling skills while waiting for a seminar left everyone slack-jawed in amazement.

And the Australian women’s team, which had only been announced on the eve of the event to fill the gap left by a team that bowed out at the last minute, hadn’t really played together, much less trained and developed the necessary match fitness.

The matches were played four hours after I’d finished volunteering and I was, frankly, so shattered from concentrating — I know, it doesn’t even need to be said — and writing on the fly that I considered going home instead.

Thank fark I didn’t.

The Street Socceroos employed some exceptional fox terrier-like tactics to jam the Portuguese players’ beautiful moves. Former jockey and quite possibly the smallest-in-stature player in the Homeless World Cup, Stephen Maloney, put his body on the line countless times to both thwart and then score against Portugal. He might be small in stature, but he’s big in heart and he beat bigger, stronger guys to almost every ball.

Thirty seconds from full time, one of the Portuguese players was sent off for a deliberate, unsporting tackle from behind that landed Maloney flat on his back. The entire stadium prayed that the Street Socceroos—down 2-3 at that time—could claw back an equaliser. They didn’t quite manage it, but after seeing Portugal absolutely demolish teams over the past two days, I’m convinced that the Street Socceroos’s performance and sportsmanship — which included dancing with the Portuguese in celebration after the match — were as good as a win.

But it was the women’s team that provided the biggest surprise of the day. Outstanding keeper Miki Kobyashi ventured out onto the pitch and had some deft touches on the ball. This chick is seriously loving it and the crowd quickly warmed to her.

Much to their surprise, the Aussies found themselves 3-0 up at the end of the first half before Cameroon clawed their way back to even the full-time score.

Under the Homeless World Cup rules, there must be a clear winner at the end of each match so they went to a sudden-death penalty shoot-out before a capacity Fed Square stadium. It was a grand final atmosphere, not a Day Two match mood, and I was screaming myself stupid.

Incredibly, both keepers saved all penalty shots and they had to start again from the beginning of the line. In an I-couldn’t-have-scripted-it-better moment, it was crowd favourite Kobyashi who netted a goal in the top left corner to secure the win for the Australian women.

Expect to see these underdog teams get up again.