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<\/p>\nBacked by Tony Popovic and handed the responsibility of starting Australia\u2019s FIFA World Cup\u2122 opener, Patrick Beach embraced the moment.<\/p>\n
The Melbourne City goalkeeper responded with a historic performance in the 2-0 win over T\u00fcrkiye before admitting afterwards he was \u201cjust over the moon\u201d with both the result and the occasion.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old was one of the stars of the Socceroos\u2019 opening Group D triumph, making eight saves and keeping a clean sheet as Australia claimed their first ever win over T\u00fcrkiye to begin their World Cup campaign in perfect fashion.<\/p>\n
Selected ahead of Socceroos captain Mat Ryan, Beach justified Popovic\u2019s faith with a remarkable display between the posts.<\/p>\n
The City shot-stopper became the second-youngest goalkeeper to represent Australia at a FIFA World Cup and delivered one of the finest goalkeeping performances in the tournament\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Beach\u2019s eight saves are the most ever made by an Australian men\u2019s goalkeeper in a World Cup match and the most by any goalkeeper on tournament debut since 2002. He also prevented 1.54 goals according to expected goals data while becoming just one of two goalkeepers across the last three FIFA World Cups to record eight or more saves while keeping a clean sheet.<\/p>\n
The only other goalkeeper to achieve the feat was Mexico\u2019s Guillermo Ochoa, who made nine saves against Germany in 2018.<\/p>\n
For Beach, however, the result and the occasion were foremost in his mind after full-time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know I\u2019m feeling so happy right now,\u201d he reflected. \u201cJust buzzing with the result, buzzing with the boys and staff as you saw out there in the crowd, the amazing crowd that turned out tonight and all the fans, it\u2019s unbelievable. And everyone back home in Australia, you know what this sport does, and what this result does for the whole country. So yeah, just over the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beach revealed he had learned several days before the match that he would be starting Australia\u2019s tournament opener and immediately embraced the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out a few days ago [that I was starting], and my immediate reaction was real excitement and joy and, you know, an understanding of what my role was to be played\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHaving the backing from the boss and the coaching staff, and the boys as well, always instills me with a lot of confidence to go out there and play my game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the enormity of the occasion, Beach said he never felt overwhelmed before kick-off.<\/p>\n
Instead, the City shot-stopper approached the match exactly as he would any other.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo nerves at all during the warm-up, I was just getting a feel with the ball,\u201d Beach said. \u201cIt\u2019s your first kick for a reason. It was just getting to feel the ball and the pitch, and it was really wet at the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beach was called into action repeatedly throughout the contest, producing a string of crucial interventions to deny a dangerous T\u00fcrkiye attack.<\/p>\n
Among the highlights was a stunning full-stretch save just minutes after Nestory Irankunda had opened the scoring, preserving Australia\u2019s advantage at a crucial stage of the match.<\/p>\n
Yet even after the final whistle, Beach struggled to separate his saves and identify a favourite moment from a whirlwind evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they were all good saves, I can\u2019t remember half of them now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a blur. I mean, you know, so much just happened out there, but, no, I think there\u2019s some [strong] saves there, maybe the one onto the post, or the one in the second half where I just made myself big as possible, you know, but I\u2019d have to look back and see all the other ones, but yeah they are the two I can think of right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The performance was another reminder of the qualities City supporters have witnessed throughout Beach\u2019s rise to become a first-team star.<\/p>\n
This time, though, it came on football\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n
Backed by his coach, trusted ahead of one of Australia\u2019s most experienced internationals and tasked with helping launch a World Cup campaign, Beach delivered in emphatic fashion.<\/p>\n
His first FIFA World Cup appearance ended with a clean sheet, three points and a place in the history books, and now his attention firmly turns to the Socceroos second Group Stage fixture. <\/p>\n
Socceroos World Cup Group D Fixtures<\/p>\n
United States of America v Australia
Saturday 20 June, 5:00am (AEST)
Seattle Stadium<\/p>\n
Paraguay v Australia
Friday 26 June, 12:00pm (AEST)
San Francisco Bay Area Stadium<\/p>\n
All Socceroos fixtures will be broadcast live and free via SBS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Backed by Tony Popovic and handed the responsibility of starting Australia\u2019s FIFA World Cup\u2122 opener, Patrick Beach embraced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1264,4719,260,28632,4721],"class_list":["post-31384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-a-league-men","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-melbourne","tag-patrick-beach","tag-socceroos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}