Who said you can’t win with kids? Despite an alarming injury crisis, Melbourne City are up to second in the Isuzu UTE A-League standings and flying high after their academy graduates inspired a 2-0 win over rivals Western United.
There were notable onlookers for Tuesday’s showdown at AAMI Park, where Subway Socceroos Mathew Leckie, Marco Tilio, Andrew Nabbout and Jimmy Jeggo are among a casualty list that also includes foreign stars Yonatan Cohen and Andreas Kuen, while Max Caputo is also sidelined.
City’s director of football Michael Petrillo labelled it as the “worst injury count I’ve seen” in his 20 seasons in the Isuzu UTE A-League during his half-time interview with Paramount+.
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But on the field midweek, City’s academy graduates stepped up; 22-year-old Harry Politidis scored his second goal in as many games while 19-year-old Benjamin Mazzeo bagged his first goal of the campaign to extend the team’s unbeaten streak to six matches, moving within two points of leaders Auckland FC.
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In total, nine academy graduates featured against Western United, who saw their four-game winning streak come to an end as they missed out on winning five straight matches for the first time in their history. Western themselves, though, had five academy graduates on show in Melbourne.
Sixth-placed Western will now turn their attention to Friday night’s clash with rivals Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park after missing the chance to climb up to second, while in-form City look ahead to Saturday’s visit of Brisbane Roar.
Wong almost capped his special night with a dream goal just 14 minutes in. Playing out from the back, Western goalkeeper Matt Sutton passed the ball to Rhys Bozinovski, who lost possession in the box and City pounced but Wong was unable to punish the Green and Black as the shot-stopper got down low to deny the teen.
City looked in control throughout the opening half and they got their goal just past the half-hour mark when Politidis was on hand to tuck home a rebound after Benjamin Mazzeo’s header hit the post.
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Mazzeo then nearly doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time as his shot flashed just wide of the post.
The 19-year-old got his goal in the 59th minute. Tate Russell’s attempted cross-field pass was picked off and the ball then found Arion Sulemani, who played through the oncoming Mazzeo to finish emphatically past Sutton.
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It should have been 3-0 with 15 minutes remaining when Kai Trewin’s header left Sutton scrambling to keep the ball out and substitute German Ferreyra somehow stumbled in his attempt to convert the close-range rebound.
