Qantas Young Socceroos defeat Hong Kong
The Qantas Young Socceroos have kicked off their AFC U-19 Championship 2010 Qualification campaign with a 3-1 win over Hong Kong in Bandung, Indonesia last night.
Two goals to Karem Bulut and one from Kliment Taseski was enough to secure the points in a match which the Qantas Young Socceroos dominated for large passages of play.
Karem Bulut opened the scoring on the half hour when Nikola Stanojevic put a ball over the top to Kofi Danning on the edge of box. Danning then laid off to Bulut inside the box who made no mistake to beat the Hong Kong goalkeeper.
Four minutes later, Sam Gallagher played a long switching pass from one side of the field to other to Kofi Danning deep in attack. Danning beat his defender, to again lay a neat pass to Bulut inside the 6 yard box who neatly finished to the right of the keeper.
Ten minutes into the second half, Ben Kantarovski brought down a Hong Kong player in the box to concede a penalty. Wong Wai converted the penalty to reduce his team-s deficit to one goal.
The match was sealed in the 80th minute when Rhyan Grant flicked a pass to Kliment Taseski in the box who finished well to complete the scoring
After the match, Qantas Young Socceroos head Coach Jan Versleijen was happy with result but not so happy with the his team-s finishing in front of goal.
“We started well in the first 10-15 minutes and we put Hong Kong under a lot of pressure early”, said Versleijen.
“It was only a matter of time when the goals would come. We would have been further ahead at half time if we had been more accurate in the final third of the field.
“In the second half we were too slow in playing the ball and this gave Hong Kong a chance.
“We shouldn't have allowed them an opportunity to score.
“The moment we scored to make it 3-1 the momentum was back in our favour, but again we didn't convert chances we should have.
“But overall I am happy with the start - the first game is not easy and it was pleasing to get the win”, concluded Versleijen.
In the other matches, Singapore defeated Indonesia 1-0 and Japan recorded a 4-0 win over Chinese Taipei. The Qantas Young Socceroos will face Chinese Taipei in their next match of the tournament on Monday evening.
The top two teams from the AFC U-19 Championship 2010 Qualifiers will progress to the AFC U-19 Championship 2010 which will be held from 1-16 November. The host nation for the tournament will be determined later this month by the AFC Competitions Committee who are considering hosting bids from China, Thailand and Indonesia.