Nestory Irankunda showed Asian football what the Isuzu UTE A-League hype is all about in a scintillating start to the Joeys’ 5-3 Under-17 AFC Asian Cup group win over China in Thailand.
The pulsating win, which leaves Australia’s group destiny in their own hands ahead of Thursday night’s game with Tajikistan, was headlined by the Adelaide United sensation.
The teen had a brace within 18 minutes – the second, a trademark rocket from distance, setting social media alight with the sheer audacity and quality of the strike, and the arrival of his trademark backflip on the international stage.
“Nestory Irankunda said…bang,” described 10 Football commentator Teo Pellizzeri.
Irankunda’s early blitz will dominate the highlights after a thrilling clash at Chonburi Stadium; Australia could have been 5-1 up at the interval, but missed two penalties. Instead, they went in 4-2, and they were made to sweat in the second stanza, especially after Wang Yudong’s well taken goal on the hour made it 4-3.
“We know he is a special talent,” Maloney told reporters post-game. “It was great to see him back to himself tonight. He probably wasn’t at his best in the opening match it’s fair to say. So it’s great to see him performing that way and having a really big contribution to the team and final result.”
Irankunda could have had a hat-trick by the 18th minute, having also missed a ninth minute penalty in a thrill-a-minute opening stanza.
Brad Maloney’s side went to the break 4-2 up, courtesy of strikes from Perth Glory’s Giovanni De Abreu and Sydney FC’s Mitch Glasson in the 12th and 17th minutes, but it was a half that included two missed penalties, with Daniel Bennie’s 40th minute effort also saved.
A goal from Kuai Jiwen in the seventh minute of first-half stoppage time left things interestingly placed at the interval, before China grabbed their third to set up a grandstand final half hour.
Although the goals dried up, the action remained end to end, and on the cusp of eight stoppage time minutes, the green and gold were indebted to Bailey O’Neil for a lunging block to end a threatening raid.
Finally, in the 10th minute of stoppage time, the Joeys were able to celebrate victory, with Nathan Amanatidis slotting the game’s eighth goal to secure the side’s first win of the campaign to keep their tournament hopes well and truly alive, despite having gone down to Saudi Arabia in their tournament opener.
“Excellent and very positive for us to get the three points,” Maloney said of the game following an opening-game loss to Saudi Arabia. “Obviously a few areas we can tidy up on.
“Lets be honest in the first half we had numerous chances we could’ve done better with but it’s great to see that we did get on the scoresheet. Credit to China, they never gave up. It was a challenging match.”
He added: “I made it clear to the players, it’s not even an 11-man campaign, it’s a 23-man campaign. Every player must expect to contribute one time or another. It’s great we rotated a few players from the first match. those players took their chance and performed well.”
