Australia too classy for Philippines

The Westfield Matildas have easily accounted for the Philippines in its second match of the AFF Women’s Championships being held at the Thanh Long Sports Complex on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

The Westfield Matildas have easily accounted for the Philippines in its second match of the AFF Women-s Championships being held at the Thanh Long Sports Complex on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

In a completely dominant performance from the youthful Australian squad, the scoreline could have easily been in double figures, if not for some wasteful finishing, particularly in the opening half hour of the game.

Renee Rollason, Jenna Tristram and Victoria Balomenos each bagged a double in the win, while Ashleigh Sykes grabbed the only other goal.

“Our approach play was excellent but our finishing let us down at times, especially in the first half,” said coach Alistair Edwards, who is taking the side for this tournament instead of regular coach Tom Sermanni.

“We should have been more clinical in the early stages; we could have been 3-0 up after five minutes.

“As the game settled our ball speed and movement picked up considerably and in the end it was a thoroughly convincing performance. It is challenging playing a team that stacked their defence, but this is good for our overall development,” Edwards added.

Australia indeed should have taken an early lead with Amy Chapman (1-), Jenna Tristram (2-) and Servet Uzunlar (4-) all missing the target with efforts they should have at least hit the target with. They continued to miss the target and became frustrated with the stacked Philippines defence that was clearly trying to limit the damage that their more fancied rivals could inflict.

In the 18th minute, Tristram eventually managed to beat the keeper from 15 metres, but he shot was cleared off the line.

A goal wasn-t too far away though and it eventually arrived after 34 minutes of bombarding the Philippines goal, with Elise Kellond-Knight-s brilliant work down the left rewarded with a goal to Rollason, who tapped ball over keeper from 15 metres out.

A second wasn-t long in coming, just two minutes in fact, with Tristram chipping the ball over the keeper, who failed to gather after coming out to challenge for a high ball with Uzunlar.

More chances kept coming, but Australia had to settle for a 2-0 half time lead.

Tristram thought she had a third goal straight after the half time break, but was disappointed to see it ruled out for offside and then missed a header just wide of the post in the 50th minute.

Three minutes later it was 3-0 when Chapman fought well to hang on to the ball; crossed to Rollason in the centre and she made no mistake with a finish in the top right corner.

Christine Walters was denied her first international goal after her great angled finish from the right channel of the penalty box was ruled out for offside, while a host of chances came and went with more wasteful finishing.

It wasn-t till the 69th minute that substitute Sykes, the youngest member of the squad, used her blistering speed to race onto a neat ball from fellow substitute Balomenos and she guided her low angled shot home for her first international goal.

The Philippines were then reduced to 10 women in bizarre circumstances, after the referee had failed to send off their player for two yellow cards and it was only the intervention of the assistant a minute later that saw the player given her red card.

The Australian-s ramped up the pressure with their numerical advantage, with Tristram grabbing her second of the evening with a solid strike and Balomenos, adding to her two goals against Thailand, with two late goals to seal the emphatic victory.

Match Details

AFF Women's Championship 2008 11 October Australia v Philippines Thanh Long Sports Complex 6.00pm kickoff

Australia 7 (Renee Rollason 34-/53-, Jenna Tristram 36-/81-, Ashleigh Sykes 69-, Victoria Balomenos 86-/91-) Philippines 0

Australian line-up: Melissa Barbieri (gk); Christine Walters, Kim Carroll (c), Brooke Spence (Lauren Colthorpe 76-), Lyndsay Glohe, Ella Mastrantonio, Renee Rollason, Servet Uzunlar (Ashleigh Sykes 65-), Amy Chapman (Victoria Balomenos 65-), Jenna Tristram, Elise Kellond-Knight.

Cautions: Nil