A stunning Marco Tilio goal, seconds after coming on as a second-half substitute, sealed Australia's win against Argentina at Sapporo on Thursday.
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In a physical game, which featured cards galore, a red card to Argentina's Fransisco Ortega's late in the first half proved significant.
A first half goal by Lachlan Wales and Tilio's late stunner sealed the historic victory. The full match report is here.
The result means Australia jumps to the top of Group C after Egypt and Spain played out a 0-0 stalemate earlier in the day.
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Meanwhile Australia's softballers came back in style with a 1-0 victory over Italy earlier today. Jade Wall hit a run-scoring single in the second inning and Kaia Parnaby took a three-hitter into the seventh. Australia is fourth among the six teams after an opening loss to Japan, and Italy fell to 0-2.
Australia coach Laing Harrow was happy with his team's defensive display but wanted to see more from his batting line-up.
"It was extremely close game - obviously went down to the top of the seventh inning there," Harrow said.
"Kaia (Parnaby) did an amazing job out in the middle and you know Ellen came in to shut it down for us with runners in a scoring position.
"Obviously we would like to be scoring more runs - we haven't really hit our straps and offensively yet and that's just something that we got to continue to keep working at.
"We've got to come up better in the batter's box."
- with Australian Associated Press
