Perth Glory have produced a resounding 5-1 rout of the Western Sydney Wanderers in the National Youth League on Saturday at Intiga Stadium.
Perth Glory have produced a resounding 5-1 rout of the Western Sydney Wanderers in the National Youth League on Saturday at Intiga Stadium.
Perth and Western Sydney went into the match in third and second bottom on the standings respectively, but the Glory made the gulf between the sides look far greater than one position.
Ryo Nagai staked his claim for a first-team call up when the Japanese star opened the scoring in the fourth minute.
Nagai reminded senior manager Ian Ferguson of his class with a curled a strike from the edge of the 18-yard box into the top right corner of the Wanderers’ goal.
Lewis Italiano made a strong block at his near post to prevent Labinot Haliti from scoring Western Sydney’s first before Perth went up the other end and Jesse Makarounas delivered a slick left-foot finish to double the lead.
Perth made it three in added time of the first half when Ndumba Makeche ran onto a Ryan Lowry clearing ball, headed to advantage, slipped between two defenders and rolled the ball home past Thomas Manos.
The contest was all over when Perth scored from the restart with Makarounas again involved as he cut the ball back from the by-line to Brandon O’Neill, who buried it from distance with a clean, powerful strike.
Moses Kalau put the icing on Perth’s cake in the 74th minute with a classy finish after Makarounas set him up with another assist.
Barac saved some face for the visitors in the 78th minute when he headed past Italiano, who got fingertips to the header, but could not prevent the goal.
Italiano had thwarted three other Western Sydney attacks with strong saves.
The first was in the 19th minute when he made a strong, one-handed, reflex save.
Italiano made a stretched two-handed save from a Barac strike as Western Sydney struggled to make anything more of their few opportunities.
The Glory had controlled the majority of the play early in the first half before the game settled to be played in the middle of the park.
Nagai almost had a brace inside the first six minutes when a cross evaded the pack at the near post and slid across the face of goal but he just couldn’t get his foot to the ball.
Perth Glory 5 (Nagai 4, Makarounas 43, Makeche 45, O’Neill 46, Kalau 74)
Western Sydney Wanderers 1 (Barac 78)
Perth Glory: 1. Lewis Italiano (GK), 2. Matthew Davies (c), 3. Ryan Lowry, 4. Jack Clisby (14. Lawrence Shuruma 61), 5. Riley Woodcock, 6. Brandon O’Neill, 7. Adrain Zahra, 8. Kearyn Baccus, 9. Ndumba Makeche, 10. Jesse Makarounas, 11. Ryo Nagai (13. Moses Kalau 45).
Melbourne Victory 2. Alastair Quinn, 3. Jacob Williams (12. James Baldacchino 36) (13.Zakeriya Elrich 58), 4. Stepjan Paric (c), 5. Jayden Koulizakis (14 Jake McGing 51), 6. Reece Caira, 7. Labinot Haliti, 8. Yianni Perkatis, 9. Daniel Barac, 10. Nicolas Olsen, 15. Jason Trifio, 20. Thomas Manos (GK)
