The Young Roos triumphant !
The Young Socceroos have won the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Championship Youth Tournament, after completing a clean sweep of its three games, with a 1-0 win over Malaysia in Kuantan, Malaysia on Sunday night.
Queensland Roar's Dario Vidosic scored the only goal with a first-half header, as the young Australian team fought persistent rain and a tough Malaysian side that had the better of the second half.
Australia won the previous two matches 3-0 against Thailand and then 4-0 against Vietnam, to be overall winners of the tournament, played between the South-east Asian countries that will represent the region at the AFC Youth Championships in India, that start at the end of next month.
The match kicked off in driving rain and remained that way for most of the first half.
The first real chance of the match came Australia’s way in the eighth minute, when a Vidosic free-kick was dropped by the Malaysian goalkeeper. In the ensuing goal-mouth scramble several attempts were blocked and the ball was eventually cleared away.
Three minutes later Bruce Djite should have opened the scoring when he was put clear in the box by Robbie Kruse, but unfortunately he put his shot wide of the right post with only the keeper to beat.
Australia’s dominance was rewarded in the 29th minute, when Tarek Elrich was played in behind the defence down the left and his inch-perfect cross was headed home by Vidosic.
It was a different Malaysia that came out in the second half, as they upped the tempo and for 10 minutes they continuously had the Australian defence under enormous pressure.
Their best opportunity came in the 53rd minute, when a strike was parried onto the post by Australian goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak and fortunately cleared away from danger.
Malaysia, after this initial outburst, continued to push the play, although the Australians regrouped and managed to hold on for the 1-0 win.
Coach Ange Postecoglou was pleased with the victory in what was difficult conditions.
"It was a good win in difficult conditions with the driving rain," he said. "Malaysia certainly gave us our toughest match of the three and we defended well."
"I'm really happy with how the team played and progressed with every game and we there is lot of positives to come from this tournament as a group, in preparation for the AFC Youth Championships in India."
Australia 1 (Dario Vidosic 29') defeated Malaysia 0
Australian line-up: Mitchell Langerak (gk); Peter Eleftherakis, Matt Spiranovic, Steve O'Dor, Tarek Elrich (Evan Berger 60'), James Downey, Shaun Ontong, Chris Grossman, Dario Vidosic (Nathan Burns h/t), Bruce Djite, Robbie Kruse (Brad Porter 76')
Cautions: Vidosic (23'), Berger (70')
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