This was the first time in his six-month tenure that Popovic said he felt like the team was beginning to coalesce into what he has pictured for them in his head.

“I aim quite high,” he said.

“They’re not there where we want to be, but that’s not a negative, that’s a positive. They’ve taken strides forward, and it’s not easy to do what they did tonight. Five goals is difficult against anyone. We’ve played a good opponent. It’s a World Cup qualifier. We all want to always get better and try and improve the game style … that will happen with more games together.

“Unfortunately, with a lot of injuries and a lot of changes, it’s hard to build that continuity. But what we are building is squad depth.”

There is, obviously, significant room for improvement. Though they were the dominant team, the Socceroos only had 40 per cent of possession; their retention and control of the ball can and must get better. And while they are missing up to four members of Popovic’s likely first-choice back five through injury (Harry Souttar, Alessandro Circati, Hayden Matthews and Jordan Bos), they also can’t afford to defend as they did against superior opposition.

All three centre-backs on Thursday night – Jason Geria, Cameron Burgess and Kye Rowles – made bad individual mistakes. Geria’s cost them a goal in the 78th minute (and a clean sheet, which could have been their first under Popovic), while Burgess and Rowles both erred in the lead-up to the penalty Indonesia missed in the seventh minute.

“I think the goal they scored probably summarised how we defended today,” Popovic said.

“They didn’t create. We gave them chances. We gave them the penalty. We gave them the goal as well. Defensively, we weren’t great. We were a little bit on edge, a little bit sloppy in our defending.”

Had that early penalty gone in, or were it not for Maty Ryan’s miraculous save moments earlier to deny their captain Jay Idzes, Tim Garuda would have had something to defend, and it might have been a different game. Such was the ferocity of the Australian fightback, two-goal hero and man of the match Jackson Irvine reckons they would have found a way regardless.

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“It’s a step in the right direction,” Irvine said. “We showed a lot of different elements to our game.”

Much bigger tests await. The next is on Tuesday night in Hangzhou against China, the team they faced in Popovic’s first match in charge. The Socceroos are a better team now, but they need to prove it.

Three more points should bring direct qualification within reach. In a best-case scenario, they will need only a draw from their final two games in June to confirm it, and lock in a sixth consecutive World Cup appearance.

That’s important – not only so that everyone can breathe easy, but so Popovic can avoid an extended scrap for qualification and instead dedicate the following five international windows to fine-tuning his blueprint.

That way, come the 2026 World Cup, the Socceroos will be closer to the team that Miller – and everyone else in green and gold – thinks they could become.

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