A sensational hat-trick from Mitchell Mallia has inspired Sydney FC to a thumping 5-1 victory over Melbourne Heart at Leichhardt Oval in the National Youth League on Saturday.
A sensational hat-trick from Mitchell Mallia has inspired Sydney FC to a thumping 5-1 victory over Melbourne Heart at Leichhardt Oval in the National Youth League on Saturday.
The huge win has kick-started Sydney’s campaign after they were unlucky not to earn more than a 1-1 draw against Adelaide United last week.
Sydney and Heart both fielded several players with Hyundai A-League experience with Shannon Cole operating at right fullback and Hirofumi Moriyasu in the midfield for Sydney FC, while Nick Kalmar did likewise for the visitors.
Sydney commenced brightly and livewire attacker Joel Chianese fired an early effort over in the opening stages.
The Sky Blues were rewarded for their endeavour as Chianese went to ground attempting to dribble past Nikola Roganovic, with skipper Jared Lum converting the resultant penalty.
The visitors started to slowly come back into the contest with Kalmar cutting smartly in from the right, before firing dangerously across the face of the goal from an acute angle.
It proved to be a portent of things to come with Kalmar then slotting home a sublime chip from 20 metres to restore parity.
The match was proving to be an open affair and with chances coming at both ends it was little surprise when the scoreboard attendant was again in operation.
The home side hit back almost immediately as Mitchell Mallia easily converted from close range at the far post after a superb run down the left from Chianese.
Sydney commenced the second period brightly creating several openings before extending their lead just past the hour mark in what was a carbon copy of their second goal.
Chianese dribbled cleverly into the penalty area and squared the ball across goal for Mallia to convert from point-blank range.
The match continued in an attacking vein with the Heart briefly threatening to come back into the contest with the ever-dangerous Kalmar and substitute Nic Walker narrowly missing the target.
However, it was Sydney that extended their lead with a debut Sky Blues’ goal for Caleb Rufer nine minutes from the end.
Rufer, the son of Oceania Player of the Century Wynton, curled a gorgeous strike inside the far post from the edge of the penalty area.
Kalmar then clipped the crossbar with a lofted effort for the Heart in the dying stages, but it was the home side who rounded out the goalscoring as Mallia completed an impressive hat-trick three minutes from full time.
Sydney FC 5 (Jared Lum 13p, Mallia 32, 65, 87, Caleb Rufer 81)
Melbourne Heart 1 (Nick Kalmar 27)