June 26, 2026 — 3:36pmJacinta Allan might drop a note thanking the Socceroos and FIFA for their splendid practical support for her signature election-year policy.Working from home proved a runaway success on Friday.Federation Square was packed. Workplaces, not so much.Justin McManusOffice towers across the CBD stood so spookily empty that an enterprising con artist could very nearly have sold floors of vacant workspaces, no questions asked, to unsuspecting investors.Cafe owners seemed less enthusiastic.Their coffee machines sat idle, their banana bread wilting for want of office workers taking a spot of respite.A neutron bomb could barely have done a more successful job of creating a ghost town.The entire city, it seemed, was on a break.It was, of course, the timing of Australia’s game against Paraguay that did the neutron bomb imitation. Kick-off at midday, with 90 minutes plus added time of held breath ahead.It is a wicked exaggeration, of course, to relate that no one was in the city.There were thousands, all of them, it seemed, at roiling Federation Square and pubs sensible enough to hoist big screens above their overworked taps.The smoke of illicit flares drifted across the tightly packed crowd at Fed Square, and empty plastic water bottles were ritually tossed skywards before the Socceroos and La Albirroja even appeared on the field at the far-away San Francisco Bay Area Stadium.Fans watching the game at Federation Square in Melbourne.