Today we were welcomed by Wanneroo City. The pre match preparations for the 18’s were disrupted by the late withdrawal of 1 of our fullbacks Blue Doe Soe Hai. With this news, some quick decisions were made as to who would fill his place.
After the early disruption it was back to business as usual as we prepared for our match. The match started brightly for Balga with much of the early possession in Wanneroo’s half. Unfortunately though it was Wanneroo who took an early lead in the 9th minute against the run of play. The task was made even harder for Balga as Wanneroo doubled their lead in the 13th minute. After the 2nd goal, Balga regrouped and once again had the better of the play for the remainder of the half. Although Balga had plenty of opportunities they couldn’t find the back of the net. At half time the score remained 2-0 in favour of Wanneroo.
When the 2nd half got underway it was Balga who come out of the changerooms looking for an early goal with plenty of possession and chances. Finally the pressure paid of and in the 65th minute Nhat (Minh) Hoang pulled one back for Balga. This was just what Balga needed and it spurred the lads on looking for an equaliser. In the 72nd minute Balga made a substitution as Abdullahi Farah was replaced by Abdull Ali. This change was to prove pivotal just 8 minutes later Abdull took the ball out of the air and hit a sweet first time volley from 25 yards out into the top corner right corner to level the scores . In the 82nd minute Balga made another substitution with Gay Doh Htoo making way for Abdullahi Nuhr.
The last 10 minutes were frantic as Balga went all out to get a winner but unfortunately they couldn’t find the back of the net with several shots either hitting the crossbar or post. The match ended 2-2 with Balga picking up their first points of the season.
Line up: Nattawat Thongngom (GK), Ahmed Mohamed (CB), Nattawut Thongngam (CB), Gay Doh Htoo (CB), Caleb Scattini (WB), Najib Rahimi (WB), Abdullahi Farah (MID), Isak Falzan (DEF MID), Isaac Conteh (MID), Alieu (ATT MID), Nhat Hoang (S).