Perth Glory Youth will quickly regroup and turn their focus to Sydney FC after several small lapses proved costly against an impressive Melbourne outfit at Clipsal Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Perth Glory Youth will quickly regroup and turn their focus to Sydney FC after several small lapses proved costly against an impressive Melbourne outfit at Clipsal Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Glory had the better of the opening half hour in terms of possession and territory however first half honours fell to the Victorians who found the back of the net twice before the break.
“I thought the first 30 or so minutes the boys had the game under control but there were a couple of small mistakes which let Melbourne back in and before we knew it we were going into half time 2-nil down,” Glory Youth Coach Gareth Naven said.
Melbourne-s Robbie Kruse did the early damage, his brace giving the visitors the upper hand in the opening 45 minutes, before fellow Hyundai A-League listed team mate Nathan Elasi put the finishing touches to a 3-0 win.
Two Kruse missile strikes in five minutes broke the game apart and despite Perth-s best efforts to get themselves back into the contest the visitors repelled their advances to register an impressive win.
“We had a plan of how we wanted to go about things and early on we did really well but second half it fell apart a little bit,” Naven said.
“Our boys worked hard, tried hard and played some good football but you also want good results and that-s what we-re missing at the moment.”
Both teams had opportunities in the first 22 minutes with an enterprising Scott Bulloch shooting wide for Perth while Melbourne’s Evan Berger and Elasi did likewise. Victory captain Aziz Behich had perhaps the best chance when he was one-on-one with Vrteski but his shot was well saved by the Glory custodian.
The early misses were turned into goals when Kruse found his way around a scrap in the box to put the ball past Vrteski. His second was then a classy strike on his left boot that gave the Glory ‘keeper little chance of keeping it out.
Perth had the first real chance on goal in the second half through Fondyke, but his powerful strike from long range was wonderfully saved by Melbourne shot stopper Mitch Langerak.
At the other end Elasi was menacing in attack and had one foray forward stopped by replacement Glory goal keeper Alex Pearson but finally found the opening in the 72nd minute.
National Youth League 2009: Rd10
Perth Glory 0
Melbourne Victory 3 (Robbie Kruse 28- & 33-, Nathan Elasi 72-)
Sunday, 15 November 2009 at Clipsal Stadium, Perth
Kick-off: 3.00pm AWST
Referee: Steven Gregory
Perth Glory: 2.Ryan PEARSON, 3.Steve HESKETH, 4.Sam MITCHINSON, 5.Howard FONDYKE, 6.Dean EVANS, 7.Cameron EDWARDS, 8.Andrija JUKIC (OA), 11.Scott BULLOCH (OA) (10.Million BUTSHIIRE 59-), 14.Glen TRIFIRO (9.Mario MARCINKO 59-), 15.Eugene DADI (OA) (13.Adam TAGGART 59-), 40.Aleks VRTESKI (gk) (Alex PEARSON (gk) 59-)
Substitutes not used:
Yellow Cards: Andrija JUKIC 5-, Howard FONDYKE 35-
Red Cards:
Melbourne Victory: 2.Matthew FOSCHINI, 3.Evan BERGER, 5.Diogo FERREIRA, 6.Mathew THEODORE (12.Tedros YABIO 59-), 7.Aziz BEHICH (15.Bradley NORTON 60-), 8.Stephen HATZIKOSTAS, 9.Robbie KRUSE, 10.Nathan ELASI, 11.Tony LA VERDE (16.Craig SWEENEY 54-), 14.Nick WARD, 20.Mitchell LANGERAK (gk),
Substitutes not used: 1.Sebastian MATTEI (gk),
Yellow Cards: Nick WARD 79-, Robbie KRUSE 91-
Red Cards:
