THE Under 18 lads travelled to George Andrews Reserve Dandenong for round 6 with a 3pm kick off on Saturday June 8.
As we were heading to the ground the sky was black and it looked like doom and gloom, however, this seemed to pass before our warmup. With Spencer Boughton and Luca Dicorleta returning from holidays we had three on the bench with a squad of 14 players.
From the first whistle the Gippsland boys showed their dominance with great ball movement and most of the play in our forward half. Lucas Vic and Ethan Biljna continued to assert forward pressure constantly on Dandenong Thunders defence, whilst Levi Colantuono, Dylan Rosato and Nicolas Nardone all linked up well in the midfield and constantly drove the ball forward passing to teammates feet with precision. Captain Abraham Konyi, Adam Dean, Leeton Hili and Jack Midleton were also solid in defence throughout the first half.
Gippsland had multiple chances at scoring from corners and through balls but just couldn’t find the back of the net until some fancy footwork from Lucas Vick at the 34-minute mark saw United put one on the scoresheet when he struck the ball leaving Dandenong’s goalie no chance to save. It would take only nine more minutes for Nicolas Nardone to score from the ball ricocheting inside the 18-yard box. Half time United 2 Thunder 0.
The second half saw coach Beke make some changes and only six minutes into the second half Lucas Vick delivered a through ball, which he ran onto 1v1 the keeper and slammed it into the back of the net for his second goal.
Unfortunately Lucas had a few more chances to get a hattrick with one shot hitting the right post with venom, and another saved by the keepers toe and hitting the left post, this resulting in a corner, taken by Leeton Hili and welcome back Luca Dicorleto as he soared above the defence with precision timing heading the ball passed the keeper at the 74 minute mark.
Although United’s keeper Jed Foster had a clean sheet making a few great saves, you could say he had a quiet day, however, he made up for it with his voice instructing the defence constantly where to be on the pitch. Ethan’s constant forward pressure was fantastic, and he was unlucky to score when he drilled it passed the keeper only to be offside by the narrowest of margins. Spencer’s ability to get himself out of 1 v 3 situations with the ball was also unlucky not to score with a great run out of the midfield and getting through the defence missing his scoring opportunity by not much. It was a great game played by all with the final score Gippsland United 4 Dandenong Thunder 0.
