Mitch Duke’s goal-scoring heroics didn’t come as a surprise to the man himself – he was telling anybody that would listen he was going to score against Tunisia, even coach Graham Arnold.
The striker became just the eighth Australian man to score at a World Cup, his sublime first-half header proving the difference in Saturday’s 1-0 win that has Australia in plumb position to reach the knockout stage.
Duke celebrated his strike with a touching celebration aimed at his son Jaxon – who returned the gesture in brilliant scenes – and revealed it was born out of a promise he made to illustrate the power of self-belief.
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“I spoke to my son as I got selected in the World Cup and as a striker you need to have that confidence and believe you’re going to score in every match,” Duke said.
“…. I was messaging some of my family saying I was going to score today and I told my son I was going to be able to share this moment with him and do that celebration.
“The gesture was the letter J – the first letter of his name. I haven’t seen it yet but apparently he did it back to me which is a very special moment I’m going to treasure for the rest of my life.”
Duke, who plays in Japan’s second division, revealed he also had a prophetic moment with Arnold prior to the match.
“The moment I scored was pure ecstasy. It was a crazy moment for me,” Duke said.
“After Craig Goodwin scored we were told he was the seventh Australian player to score at a World Cup. I said to Arnie a couple of days ago that I was going to be the eighth… or ninth.
“Im very happy to be the eighth. It was honestly a tough game, we knew they were going to be aggressive for the whole 90 minutes. I felt the boys did their jobs perfectly, we matched them physically.”
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Duke’s performance justified the faith shown in him by Arnold, who has backed the 31-year-old as his starter ahead of the likes of noted goal-scorer Jamie Maclaren.
Teammate Awer Mabil felt Duke’s ninth goal from 23 Socceroos appearances would help earn him overdue plaudits.
“Some people haven’t given him the credit he deserves,” Mabil said.
“You see how hard he works for the team … but nobody really talks about the fact he’s scoring a lot of goals.
“I think last year he was the top scorer for the Socceroos. He scored the most goals again this year and now he’s done it on the world stage.”
