Australia on Monday celebrated the antics of dancing goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne whose penalty shoot-out save against Peru saw them to a fifth straight FIFA World Cup finals.
The 33-year-old clowned his way along the goal-line as Peru’s players prepared to take their penalty kicks and his block of Alex Valera’s shot gave Australia a 5-4 win after the two sides had been deadlocked without a goal for 120 minutes.
The plan to send on substitute goalkeeper Redmayne in the event of a penalty shoot-out had been on the table for weeks, but remained such a secret that not even captain Mat Ryan knew about it.
Photo: Reuters
Ryan was replaced in between the sticks as time ran out at the end of extra-time, as coach Graham Arnold made the bold call to hand Redmayne just this third international cap at the most critical of junctures.
Redmayne, who has become something of a penalty-stopping specialist, said he never thought the Socceroos’ long-winded qualification campaign would end in such a dramatic fashion, even though the plan had been floated “a month to six weeks ago.”
“The longer the camp went on the more comfortable I felt with this scenario,” Redmayne said. “I don’t think any of the players knew about it, a few clocked on at halftime, because I went through a few drills to keep the eye in.”
Photo: Reuters
Martin Boyle missed Australia’s first penalty, but the next five were all on target.
Redmayne danced and jigged along the line to unnerve the Peru players and Luis Advincula’s shot cannoned off a post. Redmayne’s save of Valera’s shot set off wild celebrations among the Socceroos and their band of a few hundred supporters.
Arnold said that Ryan is a “fantastic goalkeeper,” but Redmayne “is a good penalty saver, and at that stage of the game I was just trying to do something that could affect them [Peru] mentally.”
“Maybe that’s why they hit the post,” Arnold said. “They thought they had to put it closer to the post to score. It’s a risk, but it worked.”
Redmayne denied he was the hero of the night, saying his routine was “a little thing I do” for his club Sydney that has “proved quite successful.”
“If I can gain 1 percent by making a fool of myself then I will,” he said. “I love this team, I love this country and I love this sport. I am under no illusions that all I did was to save one penalty.”
Victory gave Australia the penultimate place available for the tournament that starts on Nov. 21. They are to play defending champions France in Group D one day later to start their sixth appearance at the World Cup in all.
Peru, who beat Australia 2-0 at the 2018 World Cup group stage, were roared on by 10,000 fans, most of whom had flown halfway round the globe for the playoff only to see a frustrating encounter between the rivals with few clear-cut chances.
Arnold said that his whole team were heroes for getting through.
“What we have been through in the last year and a half with the pandemic, not being able to get back into Australia, players getting [COVID-19], not being able to get the best squad together a lot of the time... I am so proud and happy for the players,” he said. “The sacrifices they have made. No one thought they could do it, but they kept on believing.”
Peru’s Argentine coach Ricardo Gareca said the whole side felt “enormous disappointment” at the way in which they were beaten, but would not criticize Redmayne.
“It hurts not to make it as we were doing well in the game,” Gareca said.
Peru’s red and white army of supporters gave the Gulf state a taste of what they can expect in November when about 1.4 million visitors are predicted to come to town. Their distinctive red and white shirts dominated the streets.
For more than two hours the fans chanted: “Come on Peruvians, tonight we must win.”
Most of the team were left in tears of disbelief after the defeat.
Additional reporting by the Guardian
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