Lost in the celebrations of Australia’s victory over Turkey was its poignant opening. the image of young Paul Okon-Engstler, wiping away tears brought on by his World Cup debut.
The 21-year-old was one of the surprises to be named in Tony Popovic’s starting XI. as the coach chose to leave veteran Jackson Irvine on the bench. To those watching on the broadcast. Okon-Engstler made an impact even before the first whistle, when his surging emotions underscored the enormity of the occasion.
“I don’t know if you can call those tears,” he said after the match, offering a chuckle. “But yeah, obviously very, very emotional just for me and my family.”
In the cavernous BC Place in Vancouver. as the broadcast cameras panned across the Socceroos during the anthem, Okon-Engstler was the most affected of all of the Australians. His eyes welled up. at the end, the midfielder wiped away the tears – or whatever they were – from his face.
It was not the rousing bars of Advance Australia Fair that triggered him, however. “In the tunnel, honestly, just walking out. seeing all our fans and the noise and the crowd and just seeing all the Fifa signage… it really hit me that I’m at a World Cup and I’m at the highest stage that any footballer dreams of. Just so happy, I was stoked.”
Okon-Engstler would go on to play a crucial role in the victory. His assist for Nestory Irankunda has been widely praised,. he proved a crucial cog in a Socceroos machine that prevented the highly-fancied Turkish players from getting a breakthrough. “The way we defended. we fought as a team was just so special and I think that this group has so much more left to show,” he said.
His effectiveness was an endorsement for the A-League Men. where he has been a key contributor for runners-up Sydney FC over the past season. Even close observers of the domestic competition. however, may have been surprised by how comfortable he looked on football’s biggest stage.
The performance also dismissed once. for all any allegations of nepotism, given his father – Paul Okon – is an assistant coach for the Socceroos. The 54-year-old was a star in Belgium for Club Brugge. played for Leeds and Middlesbrough in the Premier League during the 1990s.
Okon Snr had an experience not dissimilar to his son’s in Vancouver. Following the second goal he shared an embrace with head coach Tony Popovic, his long-time Socceroos team-mate. It was an acknowledgment of his own arrival at the World Cup.
“We go a long way back and he’s passionate, he’s emotional,” Popovic said. “For me, playing his son is special. I play him because he deserves to play. I love the kid. I’ve loved him since, well, 12 months ago when I first brought him in. I knew there was a special talent there and he proved it today. And it was just a special moment with two close friends embracing.”
Popovic – two years younger than his long-time friend – held on as a player just long enough to be involved in the Socceroos’ 2006 Germany campaign. their first since 1974. Okon Snr was one of the fine Australian players of the 1990s who never got to play at a World Cup. The closest he came was the playoff loss against Uruguay in 2001.
He told SBS he. his son shared their own moment before the game, but it was one of coach and player rather than father and son. “My chat with him would have been like the chat with any other player in the team,. that was: ‘You’ve got a job to do, make sure you do it, and we have full confidence in your ability, and now’s the moment you’ve been waiting for it for a long time. It’s what you’ve dreamed of’, Okon Snr said. “Of course, yeah. I just happened to be his father.”
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