Qantas Young Socceroos thump Macau

The Qantas Young Socceroos strode through their second game at the AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers at the MBPJ Stadium in Kuala Lumpur with a straight forward 12-0 win over Macau.

The Qantas Young Socceroos strode through their second game at the AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers at the MBPJ Stadium in Kuala Lumpur with a straight forward 12-0 win over Macau.

Before the match, Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Jan Versleijen gave instructions to his team to pressure Macau, who were playing their third game in five days.

Fielding a completely fresh team after the successful opening game against Singapore, the Qantas Young Socceroos began on fire and scored twice within the opening 7 minutes. After five minutes, skipper for the day James Donachie found space at a corner and firmly headed Australia into the early lead. Two minutes later, Paulo Retre was brought down in the penalty area and striker Anthony Proia stepped up to take the penalty., After having his initial attempt blocked by the Macau goalkeeper, Ho Man Fai, Proia buried the rebound to double the lead. In the tenth minute Proia had the ball in the net again but was given offside.

A minute later the Qantas Young Socceroos- task was made decidedly a lot easier when Fai was sent off by the Chinese Taipei referee for bringing down Liam Wooding in the box. This second penalty was successfully converted by Jesse Makarounas and within 11 minutes the Qantas Young Socceroos found themselves 3-0 ahead.

The Qantas Young Socceroos did not take the pressure off the ten-man Macau team and wing backs Corey Brown and Jason Geria found great freedom on the flanks. It was no surprise when Proia scored his second goal on the half-hour mark. Five minutes later, a flowing combination move involving Brown and Wooding was finished off by Retre for the fifth goal. Proia then set up Makarounas and then Brown to send the Qantas Young Socceroos into the half-time break seven goals ahead.

Seven minutes into the second half, Proia completed his hat-trick and shortly afterwards Versleijen replaced the hard working Makarounas and Wooding with the fresh legs of Jake Barker-Daish and Adam Taggart. This immediately paid a dividend as, with their first touches of the game, Barker-Daish set up Taggart for the Qantas Young Socceroos- ninth goal.

On a drying pitch the Qantas Young Socceroos continued to press home their advantage and confidently, and regularly, broke down the tiring Macau defence. Wave after wave of attack led to double figures when Geria finished off another flowing move. Proia scored his fourth and Taggart his second in the 75th and 89th minutes respectively and the Qantas Young Socceroos satisfyingly finished the match with twelve well taken goals.

After the match Versleijen was particularly pleased that all goals coming from good combination play and that his team maintained their discipline throughout the game.

Looking forward to the remainder of the tournament, Versleijen stated “Now the tour really begins with games against the stronger Indonesia and China PR. These will be the deciding matches.”

In the other Group G match played today, China PR beat Singapore 11-0.

The Qantas Young Socceroos will next face Indonesia on Sunday 6 November (kick-off 2.00pm local, 5.00pm AEST).

During the AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers, each group will play one round league and the top two teams from each group will progress to the AFC U-19 Championship 2012.

The AFC U-19 Championship 2012 will serve as the qualifying event for the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup which will be held in the Turkey.