Five days on from watching the Socceroos beat Lebanon on television while battling a virus, Craig Goodwin decided he was done missing out on all the fun.
Instead of resting up, Goodwin spent Tuesday night ripping in, tearing Lebanese defenders to shreds in Australia’s 5-0 win while having a hand in four of the goals.
He looked a player at the peak of his powers, firing in tantalising ball after ball and even thrashing home a dipping volley from well outside the box to ice the Socceroos’ most tasty cake.
But the 32-year-old Al Wehda FC talent dismissed the performance as what he owed the side for missing their 2-0 win against Lebanon last week.
“I probably have felt as good as that, but it was just a really good night for myself and obviously for us as a team to put in a decent performance and contribute to a lot of goals,” he said.
“For myself, really happy to be able to come in after missing last week, whenever these windows come up, I want to be involved in every single game and play as much as I can.
“To miss that one and watching it at home on TV, it was obviously a little bit hard to take. But really happy I could make up for it.”
Getting on the field was worth it within two minutes, Goodwin playing former Adelaide United teammate Kusini Yengi through for his first international goal.
Portsmouth striker Yengi performed Goodwin’s signature goal celebration with his teammate, somewhat of ‘thank you’ to the man who also assisted his first A-League Men’s goal.
“Really, really happy for him,” Goodwin said.
“He's gone obviously across to England and put in some really good performances there and he's starting to get the opportunity now at national team level.
“I've spent a lot of time with him at Adelaide, he's someone that has a really bright future ahead of him ... he's someone that has the potential to go very high in the game with the physical attributes that he has.
“If he can fine-tune some of the other areas, then he's going to be very tough to handle.”
