The Subway Young Socceroos secured third spot at the ASEAN Under-19 Boys’ Championships after outlasting Malaysia 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out.
Melbourne Victory’s academy graduate Daniel Graskoski made himself a penalty hero after saving the only spot-kick following a 1-1 draw in the third-place play-off in Indonesia on Monday.
Earlier this month, Graskoski was one of three academy youngsters to have been elevated to Victory’s senior side for the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League season.
Against Malaysia, the young goalkeeper guessed the right way to keep out the spot-kick before Macarthur FC’s Zane Helweh converted the winning penalty.
The Subway Young Socceroos – featuring an all-A-Leagues-based squad – were out to win the tournament formerly known as the AFF Championship for a sixth time, having done so previously in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2016 and 2019 but fell to Thailand 1-0 in the semi-final.
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They did secure third place, however. Western Sydney Wanderers young gun Marcus Younis had put Australia ahead in the 29th minute.
Malaysia managed to claw their way back into the contest via an own goal from Jake Najdovski 17 minutes from the end of normal time.
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