Haque describes watching the tournament with friends who usually supported England, Brazil or Argentina, as well as different clubs. When Australia played, those allegiances were put aside.
“We all wanted Australia to win,” Haque says.
That is the special pull of international football. Club rivalries can divide a room, but a national team often creates an immediate common cause. In Canberra, that support reportedly spread through cafés, homes, clubs and the big screen at Garema Place, where strangers gathered around the same green-and-gold story.
Haque’s perspective is shaped by migration and community work. Having arrived in Australia in 1992, he says he could not have imagined later sharing a café with friends from different backgrounds, all supporting the same side.
His argument reaches beyond sport. Belonging is built through ordinary contact: volunteering, conversation, neighbourly support and shared public events. A major tournament can accelerate those connections by giving people a reason to meet, talk and celebrate together.
The players themselves can reflect that wider society, with family histories reaching across the world. Once they wear the Australian shirt, Haque argues, the focus shifts to commitment and teamwork.
“Nobody asks where a player’s parents were born before celebrating a goal,” he says.
One of Haque’s clearest memories came in Harrison, where conversation in a café stopped as Australia prepared for a penalty shootout against Egypt. Moments earlier, supporters had been debating tactics, players and favourite teams. Suddenly, the room shared one emotion.
That pause captures football’s unifying force: not a manufactured identity, but a feeling built collectively in real time.
The next Socceroos campaign will offer another chance to see whether that sense of belonging can travel beyond a single tournament-and become part of Canberra’s football culture year-round.