Qantas Joeys suffer heavy defeat to England at FA Men's U17
The Qantas Joeys were convincingly beaten 0-4 by England in their second match of the FA Men's U17 International Tournament played at Blundell Park in Grimsby, England.
Lincolnshire, England
The Qantas Joeys were convincingly beaten 0-4 by England in their second match of the FA Men's U17 International Tournament played at Blundell Park in Grimsby, England.
From the start of the match the English team applied plenty of pressure to the Qantas Joeys with a pressing, high tempo game which gave them the early control.
England eventually took the lead in the 33rd minute when Matthias Fanimo, struck a left foot shot from the edge of box, sending the ball neatly inside the left-hand post.
Two minutes later England doubled their lead after Qantas Joeys goalkeeper Lachlan Tibbles cleared an English free kick from just outside box, but unfortunately the ball landed in possession of Courtney Meppen Walters whose resulting shot found the back of the net.
England increased their lead again early in the second half after a fine solo effort from Raheem Sterling. Sterling dribbled the ball nearly the length of the field and then calmly slotted his one-on-one opportunity with Tibbles into the bottom right corner of the goal.
The Qantas Joeys lifted midway through the second half to control some passages of play and had a number of shots on goal, but were not able to break England down sufficiently to get back into the game.
England completed their scoring in additional time when Nick Powell placed his perfectly weighted free-kick in the top right corner of the goal giving Tibbles no chance of saving.
After the match, Qantas Joeys Head Coach Jan Versleijen admitted that his team was not as competitive as their previous effort against Portugal, but recognised that the lessons learnt from playing high quality opposition would be beneficial in the long-term.
“The level of this game was too high for us and it was evident that these (England) players play at a higher level week in, week out,” said Versleijen.
“This was the first time our players have faced a team as good as this in a match situation and it was evident that we were playing a very high quality opponent.
“The players will learn a great deal from playing a match like this,” concluded Versleijen.
In the other match of the tournament, Turkey defeated Portugal 3-2.
The Qantas Joeys face Turkey in their final match of the tournament on Sunday 29 August.
The Qantas Joeys are using the FA Men's U17 International Tournament as part of their preparations for the upcoming AFC U-16 Championship 2010 which will be played in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 24 October - 7 November 2010.