THIS is the day Australian football came of age. Forget 2006 when we beat Japan at our first FIFA World Cup finals appearance in 32 years. That was a game we always dared to dream our green-and-golden generation could win.

Today was different. In the Socceroos’ first match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, nobody expected anything. Not Chile, not neutral fans watching in their hundreds of millions, and let’s be honest, not many of us Aussies either.

That’s what made this so special. Forget the 3-1 scoreline. If you’re one of those people who only reads headlines and tweets, you’ll have missed what made today’s match so enthralling from an Australian perspective. In short, we were competitive. We held our own. Simple as that.

Actually there’s a little more to it than that. It wasn’t just that we held our own, but the way we did it. Australia attacked. Australia recovered from the most horrific start imaginable to take control of the match. In the second half, we gave Chile the fright of their lives. You only had to see their coach pacing the sidelines and replacing attackers with defenders to see that.

Unbelievable atmosphere inside Arena Pantanal #Cuiaba #GoSocceroos pic.twitter.com/dGu9If8z5Z — Clint Stanaway (@cstanaway) June 13, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: Unbelievable atmosphere inside Arena Pantanal #Cuiaba #GoSocceroos pic.twitter.com/dGu9If8z5Z— Clint Stanaway (@cstanaway) June 13, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: Unbelievable atmosphere inside Arena Pantanal #Cuiaba #GoSocceroos pic.twitter.com/dGu9If8z5Z— Clint Stanaway (@cstanaway) June 13, 2014

The best part is, we didn’t put the fear of god into Chile with some indecipherably complicated game plan hatched by a grim-faced mercenary European coach, but with good old-fashioned Aussie have-a-bloody-go.

Attack. Daring. Skill. Guts. These are the hallmarks of the Socceroos now, as they are the hallmarks of all great Australian sporting teams and individual champions

Our goal, of course, came from the head of Tim Cahill. He later netted another chance which was disallowed, correctly, by the world’s narrowest offside margin. He shortly afterwards headed yet another chance over the bar by less than a metre. God bless you, Timmy.

But as Cahill said after the game, it wasn’t about him. It was about the whole team.

“They got in twice and punished us but after that you could see their legs were going and we knew we could get something from this game… overall from a team performance we really stood up strong,” he said.

“It’s all about defining moments. I’ve said this every single time being one of the older boys, this is the stage to do it and when you’re called upon you have to show up. At the start we showed a bit of fear early and then we stepped up and we started getting in their faces and started rolling them a bit.

“The good thing is, we believe in our football, we believe in our structure and last week they were questioning whether we can create chances. Tonight tonight we created quite a lot.”

That last Cahill quote embodies what this game was all about for Australia. Belief. The Socceroos have that now, with a team of no-names who most Aussies couldn’t pick in a line-up. Heck, even our PM doesn’t know the captain’s name, as he embarrassingly showed today.

But Australians will soon know Mile Jedinak’s name and more. Matthew Leckie stood up today, weaving his magic all over the field. Alex Wilkinson cleared what looked like a certain Chile goal off the line. Jason Davidson impressed.

Before today, only families and clubmates knew anything about half the guys in our youngest ever squad at a World Cup. Now the whole of Australia knows they can play. And the world knows too. That sounds like the sort of overstatement the inimitably optimistic SBS commentator Craig Foster is prone to, but it’s true.

For all this, coach Ange Postecoglou can take the credit. Aussie Ange has made our team value the ball. For him, football is a game to be won with the ball at your feet rather than with counterstrikes.

@ozjuliancox @newscomauHQ BRILLIANT game! Don't care about the score. Oz soccer coming of age. — Peter Goodyear (@petergoodyear) June 14, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: @ozjuliancox @newscomauHQ BRILLIANT game! Don't care about the score. Oz soccer coming of age.— Peter Goodyear (@petergoodyear) June 14, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: @ozjuliancox @newscomauHQ BRILLIANT game! Don't care about the score. Oz soccer coming of age.— Peter Goodyear (@petergoodyear) June 14, 2014

We don’t yet have the finesse of most of our rivals, but we’re tackling the game as though we do. Because that’s the Australian way. Because negativity is for countries who don’t believe in themselves. Because Ange has galvanised us.

“They’re against a super football team, make no mistake.” Craig Foster reminded us today when talking about Chile. He’s right. Remember, they’re ranked one spot higher in the rankings (14) than the Netherlands (15), who today smashed defending champs Spain 5-1.

Australia happens to play the Netherlands next. Maybe they’ll belt us too. At least they’ll now respect us before the game. But even if they don’t, it doesn’t matter. Because we can respect ourselves now. The scoreboard shows we lost, but in many ways, today’s 3-1 loss was a more significant result than our 3-1 win over Japan in 2006.

The scoreline might have heralded the death of our 2014 FIFA World Cup campaign, but the way we played felt like the birth of Australia as a global football power.