Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes after the final whistle. On the music played, drumbeats echoing around western Sydney’s sporting theatre, reverberating out from Lebanon’s active support. The celebrations held up by a spirited Cedars performance on Thursday night. The scoreboard might have read a 2-0 win for the Socceroos, but in the finest traditions of sport, nobody left a loser. This was a world away from the war in Gaza that forced Lebanon to shift its home match to the Australian capital next week – geographically, and emotionally. The clash on Thursday was buoyant, respectful, and – apart from an array of injury misfortune – full of life. It was even injected with humour, in the form of two mishit goals that secured Australia the points. After Keanu Baccus won the ball in midfield in just the fourth minute, he floated to the right and hit a deep cross that dipped into the far corner. After the match, a journalist described it wryly as a “wonder goal”. Coach Graham Arnold could only smile. He was more open about the second, a Kye Rowles slash off a second half corner. “A fluke,” Arnold interrupted when his young defender, having scored his first international goal, was asked to describe the moment. “I didn’t mean to slice it, I meant to smash it,” Rowles said. “But it went where I wanted it to go, I guess.” Comedy aside, Australia gave a “good performance”, Arnold said, “but we must do better”. Lebanon’s players could be “satisfied” with their effort, according to their Montenegrin coach Miodrag Radulović, giving them at least some hope for Tuesday. But if the players didn’t fully deliver on Thursday, the fans at Parramatta certainly did. The crowd of 27,000 was close to capacity and the source of much of the night’s energy was the bank of red, black and white in the south-eastern corner. In the third row, Yessar Daou had come to the match with his family and girlfriend, and taken in a meal at a Parramatta Lebanese restaurant on his way to the ground. “We’re always celebrating big when it’s a wedding or anything like that, but we rarely do when it comes to sport,” he said. “The result actually doesn’t matter.” This was an evening to acknowledge the world game in one of the country’s multicultural hubs. Almost a quarter of a million Australians have Lebanese heritage, and many live in Sydney’s west. At restaurant Baba Ghanouj minutes from the stadium, two families were up from Melbourne, their three daughters clad in red and white flags and headbands. They ran off with joy down the street when they caught a glimpse of their cousins, similarly kitted out in Lebanon attire. Nearby sat Jim Bell, a veteran of six World Cups as a Socceroos fan. He hoped Central Coast midfielder Josh Nisbet would be rewarded for his good A-League form with a debut. “Arnold has got to learn,” Bell said, “start to give some A-League players a game.” Within an hour, he would be disappointed. Nisbet was the only fit player in Australia’s oversized squad not given a number when the 23-player team list was announced. By then the Korean, Italian, and Indian restaurants that fill Sydney’s western CBD were full of yellow and red shirts. At the best table on the corner of Church and Phillips streets sat former Socceroos Mile Sterjovski and Matt Smith, now coach and assistant at Macarthur Bulls further to the south-west. Up the road, more former Socceroos were catching up at the official players association get together. But not all who went on Thursday were regulars. This was, after all, just the fifth visit by the Socceroos to Sydney in six years. Seated on Church Street in his Australian kit was teenager Lachie Obradors and his father Danny. The son was going to his first national team match, and his father hadn’t been to a Socceroos game since John Aloisi’s penalty in 2005. A lot has changed since then. Swarming at the edge of a pedestrian crossing two blocks from the ground were nine yellow-shirted children, chaperoned to their first game by three sets of parents including one father Toby Gullan. “We just tried for Matildas tickets but they sell out too quickly, so we’re stuck with the second-choice Socceroos,” he said, before correcting himself with a grin. “Nah, we’re just super excited to watch any Australian team.” Amid the party atmosphere, it felt right when one of western Sydney’s own opened the scoring. He may have meant it to be a cross, but South African-born Keanu Baccus – the former Western Sydney Wanderer and product of Parklea Soccer Club some 15 minutes drive away – had his first Socceroos goal. And that meant something.