Brisbane’s Perry Park will be forever immortalised as the answer to the trivia question of where Tim Cahill made his competitive, senior debut for an Australian club side, at age 37.
The venue put up the sold out sign and just over an hour into proceedings, the main attraction took to the pitch.
It was there the crowd found themselves in a bizarre position. They were cheering against the man who is an icon of the national team, who they were so used to backing at every possible instance.
Cahill’s place in Australian football is well established. The scorer of Australia’s first two World Cup finals goals, a stunning volley in 2014 against the Dutch and many others at the most crucial of moments, he has built up a certain amount of good will among many members of the public.
POPULAR ARTICLES
‘Game Over’ – New Balance Football releases Blackout and Whiteout Furon 2.0 range
Player Ratings: Brisbane Strikers 1 Melbourne City 2 – Bruno steals the show
Talking Points: Brisbane Strikers 1 Melbourne City 2 – City labour to victory
Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat: We got away with it
Marco Rojas set to sign for Melbourne Victory: reports
But now, back on home soil, the crowd which had come to see him, were also hoping he would not succeed. Any doubts over the allegiance of the 3,500 people inside the ground were quickly erased when Brisbane Strikers defender Greg Henslee scored the opening goal and the crowd erupted. Sure, they would have cheered if Cahill scored, but at the end of the day, they wanted the home side to win.
It is just the start of what will be an interesting change for the face of the Socceroos.
Sure, many Australians have their own Premier League club to follow. Cahill would have certainly drawn many to Everton in his time there, and they would have been supporting their club side there, but this is a different situation.
He would be used to coming home to Australia and having the entire crowd on his side, willing him to score. Here his achievements for the national team will only go so far as to drawing more eyeballs on his play.
When Cahill takes the field in his first league appearance in October, there will be an insane level of scrutiny on his play. The fans of nine other clubs will be wanting to see him in action, but at the end of the day, any mishap will be pounced upon, the supporters will sing that he is a waste of money.
Whether he landed at Adelaide United, Perth Glory or even the Brisbane Roar, those fans would get right behind him. But instead, he is at someone else’s club and wearing the wrong jersey to them.
So while Cahill has long been able to play the hero of Australian football when coming home for the Socceroos, he had better prepare to try and silence those opposition fans he is used to having at his back, and with the resume he has produced, you would back him to do just that more often than not.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
