For the world, it was unbelievable.
But for Goulburn Valley’s football populace, it was inevitable.
On Tuesday night Shepparton’s Garang Kuol announced himself on the national stage with a goal on debut for Central Coast Mariners, burying the side’s fourth as a substitute in a 6-0 rout over APIA Leichhardt Tigers during an FFA Cup quarter-final.
Not surprisingly, it was dressed with all the hallmarks of a clinical Kuol finish.
Slipped through by new signing Cy Goddard, Kuol scythed through the Tigers’ defence with a driving run and coolly slotted into the bottom corner in the 67th minute — and in doing so, he stepped out of the enormous shadow cast by older brother Alou.
Twitter caught ablaze at the sight of Kuol’s goal just seven minutes into his senior debut for the Mariners, with shouts of “Alou 2.0” bandied around the web after the 17-year-old converted with carbon-copy aplomb to his sibling.
Mariners coach Nick Montgomery had rich praise reserved for all the academy graduates to feature in the win.
“We had six different goalscorers all with an average age of about 20 years old and for us that’s fantastic,” he said.
“We’re obviously really proud but also for me, it’s not surprising. We’ve worked with these academy boys for a couple of years now and have dominated NPL2 two years on the run.”
Coincidentally, one of the Mariners’ youth constituents dominating NPL2 during Montgomery’s reign as academy coach was Alou Kuol.
The Stuttgart striker was fearsome in yellow and was highly lauded back then by Montgomery, who tipped Kuol as one of the hottest prospects the club possessed.
On December 31, 2020, Kuol proved the manager correct by scoring his first senior goal — the club’s and 355 days later, teenage brother Garang would do the same.
While the Mariners’ semi-final opponent is yet to be revealed, Garang Kuol’s next chance to steal the limelight comes on Monday night when the side squares off with Wellington Phoenix in the A-League Men’s sixth round.