Local clubs are the winners as Melbourne Victory tours the suburbs in preparation for its National Youth League season kick-off.
The Victory and Melbourne Heart went head-to-head in the A-League at the weekend at Etihad Stadium, while the youth league went for a lower-key game against Avondale Heights last Wednesday.
About 400 people watched the Victory youth win 3-1 at Doyle Street Reserve.
PICTURE GALLERY: Avondale Heights v Melbourne Victory youth
There was no hangover for the Heights, with many players still buzzing from winning promotion to state league 1 earlier this month with its 1-0 play-off win against North Geelong Warriors.
The Heights defended stoutly for the first half-hour before a poor pass out of defence presented an open net to Victory’s Johnny Buceto to make it 1-0. The Attwood youth, heading into his third season with the Victory’s feeder team, produced a creative and entertaining 90 minutes on Wednesday.
Former Brisbane Roar professional Anthony Proia was Victory’s main avenue to goal and found his range after a number of attempts to double the advantage in the 57th minute. Kaan Korkmaz played a perfect through ball to set Proia through for a one-on-one finish against the Heights goalkeeper.
Leo Celentano nearly scored in the 67th minute when his left-footed shot flashed wide.
And five minutes later the home fans had a goal to cheer when Andrew Le Page’s neat shimmy wrong-footed the Victory backline and presented a shooting chance at the top of the area. The deflected shot wrong-footed the Victory ’keeper and the ball fell into the net to make the score 2-1.
Heights then enjoyed their best period of play, with Zoran Pajic agonisingly close to equalising after his looping header across the face of goal hit the inside of the post but didn’t fall in. Proia then rounded out a double and sealed the win for Victory as he netted from Damien Miskulin’s cross.
“I’m pretty pleased with what I saw tonight,” Heights coach Adam Inglese said. “It’s huge for a club like us to have Melbourne Victory out here. You can see by the crowd tonight, it attracts people to our game.
“The crowd was going for us; they lifted the roof off the place when we scored. The boys saw the difference, the sharpness of a professional outfit; it’s just fantastic, a memorable night in the history of the club.”
Victory youth coach Darren Davies said his squad was just about at full strength. “We’re two and a half weeks away from the start of our season so it was a good hit-out for us to work on some patterns of play we’re putting into place,” he said. “Congratulations to Avondale; it’s been a very good season for them to clinch promotion.”
Victory starts its National Youth League season in Brisbane on October 26 and plays its first home game at Lakeside Stadium, Albert Park, on Sunday, November 3.
Melbourne Heart is interstate for the first two rounds of NYL before playing Melbourne Victory at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday, November 10. The Heart’s first of nine home games at Epping Soccer Stadium is against Adelaide on Saturday, November 30.
