The Joeys have continued their goal scoring form at the AFC U-16 Championship – 2014 Qualifiers, out powering Macau 14-1 in their second game of the tournament.
The Joeys have continued their goal scoring form at the AFC U-16 Championship - 2014 Qualifiers, out powering Macau 14-1 in their second game of the tournament.
It was goals galore as the Joeys completely controlled the match maintaining comfortably 80% possession of the ball. Once again off to a positive and attacking start, the Joeys only needed to wait until the 4th minute before the first goal was scored. Having won a corner, the ball was swung in from the left and met by Perth based player Jamal Reiners, who was challenged, but contested well in the air to win the header.
Two minutes later, the Joeys found themselves up 2-0 after yet another quality corner was driven in and met by an unmarked Nicholas D-Agostino.
The Joeys third arrived in the 15th minute when Adelaide based Charlie Devereux found himself with the ball at his feet, dribbled past two defenders and neatly slotted home past the Macau keeper - Wong Chi Chon.
The goals were fast coming. Central defender, Caio De Godoy found himself on the scorers sheets in the 19th minute after a corner to the back post was neatly laid off to De Godoy who struck a sweet volley on the turn.
Powerful winger, Kosta Petratos, added to the Joeys tally in the 22nd minute, after some sensational possession play found the youngster on the edge of the 18 yard box, striking the ball past helpless Chon in goals for Macau.
A penalty was awarded to the Joeys in the 36th minute, with D-Agostino finding himself with his second for the game, slotting the ball confidently to the Chon-s right.
The final goal for the first half arrived in the 43rd minute, De Godoy found the ball falling to his feet after the Macau defence were unable to clear it from within their own 18 yard box after the ball sailed in from a right hand corner kick.
Once again, the Joeys were confronted with challenging Hong Kong weather. Despite this, the Joeys approached the second half with the same mentality and display as the first. The ninth goal arrived in the 61st minute when half time substitute, Daniel Maskin, made a surging run down the right wing and found Reiners in the box to finish from close range.
Against the run of play, Macau surprised the Joeys and were able to sneak one back, courtesy of some slack defending. Macau broke on the counter attack, however, the Joeys won the ball back deep within their defensive half. A poor defensive clearance found a free Macau player who had only the Joeys goalkeeper - Duro Dragicevic to beat.
The Joeys regrouped and continued to control the game with goals arriving in the 63rd minute - an absolute cracker by Danny Kim from some 35 yards out, 70th minute Gian Mendez, 76th minute Joe Caletti, 85th minute Petratos and finally, Maskin in the 90th minute.
After the match, Joeys Head Coach Tony Vidmar commented on the teams domination of Macau. “ Today was another good performance from the team where again being disciplined and structured set us up creating a lot of good chances”.
Satisfied with the teams improvement in front of goals, Vidmar said “a big plus was that we were ruthless in front of goals which is what we wanted”.
In the other group match Singapore defeated Chinese Taipei 3-1, while Hong Kong had the bye.
The Joeys next match is against Hong Kong on Friday 27 September (Kick-off 2:30pm local time, 4:30pm AEST).