A 4-0 commanding win over Kingston City has secured the VPL1 title and promotion to the NPL Victoria for the Victory Academy.
Summary
A healthy crowd packed out John Cain Memorial Park as Melbourne Victory’s Senior Academy looked to secure the VPL1 crown and earn promotion to the NPL Victoria.
An early chance came Victory’s way in the 12th minute through Austin Ganino. The attacker used his pace to break through the back line, however, his centring ball in the box pass was cut off by a City defender and cleared from any danger.
Another chance in the 16th minute on the counter, this time through Jack Mihailidis. The winger was found streaming down the left side of the pitch to then whip in a curling cross, but Kayne Razmovski’s shot was mistimed, with the City keeper collecting without issue.
Adem Duratović thought he had opened the scoring in the 25th minute, but his left-footed shot from inside the box just brushed the outside of the opposite post.
But in the 29th minute, Victory broke the deadlock. A dangerous cross was sent into the box, only to find Austin Ganino streaming into the goal all alone. The attacker made no mistake, beating the keeper to give us the lead and bring us one step closer to promotion and the VPL1 title.
A few more chance came our way as half-time neared but none were able to be converted.
Our boys in blue started the second half on the front foot, having upped the pressure on Kingston City.
And it didn’t take long for the pressure to become too much when Adem Duratović’s header found the back of the net to give Victory a 2-0 lead.
Then, Tommaso Minutoli all but secured the VPL1 title and promotion to the NPL Victoria, scoring a brace in less than a minute to give Victory a commanding 4-0 lead in the 65th minute.
It was domination for the remainder of the half, with City unable to get any attacks together.
The full-time whistle blew and Victory was officially crowned VPL1 Champions!
Having secured back-to-back promotions, we make our long-awaited return to the NPL Victoria.
Head Coach Luciano Trani’s post-match thoughts
On the performance…
“It was outstanding. They were (outstanding) from start to finish. They were relentless in their approach and the result obviously you know, it was very rewarding and satisfying.”
“We never gave the opposition any time and space on the ball and I think that those turnovers helped us to actually score a few more goals in the second half.”
On securing promotion to the NPL…
“It means a lot, I think it’s great that there was a lot of work done behind the scenes as well.”
“All the former players have all also contributed to this moment and all the former coaches that were part of the three year period. Special mention obviously goes to Joe Palatsides who had, you know, built the foundation of the team.”
“It’s nice to see that it’s been the whole Club that’s supported the whole programme and now and it’s amazing to see that we’ve got to the point where we’re now competing at the highest possible level in the state.”
Next Up
Victory’s ultimate game of the season will be against Western United JL Murphy Reserve on Saturday 17 August, kicking off at 3:00pm AEST.
VPL1 2024 Round 24
Melbourne Victory 4
Kingston City 0
Melbourne Victory U23s starting XI: 40. Christian Siciliano 3. Josh Inserra 4. Damien Bozinovski 27. Nikolas Čevizović 32. Jordan Hoey 6. Kayne Razmovski 8. Alex Menelaou (C) 16. Jack Mihailidis 14. Austin Ganino 9. Adem Duratović 13. Tommaso Minutoli
Subs: 1. Yona Sultan 28. Riley Foxe 21. George Karvounis 25. Zander Kapaklis 34. Marc Petheriotis 11. Daniel Lazarevski
