Diamonds down Wolves in champion’s league final

Western Wolves 0 North East Diamonds 3 (Pasquale VIZZARI 52’ 82’, Anthony RAMZY 90 + 5’)

By Roy Hay

The grand final of the 2010–11 FFV Under-20 Champions League pitted the Western Wolves against the North-East Diamonds at AAMI Park on Wednesday night as the curtain raiser to the A-League clash between Melbourne Heart and Gold Coast United.

The Wolves were bigger and stronger and dominated much of the early play but the nippy Diamonds took the lead through an opportunist goal by pint-size striker Pasquale Vizzari after 52 minutes.

A nothing ball dropped between Wolves’ keeper Nenad Kukic and a defender and when neither controlled it, Vizzari nipped in to push the ball over the line.

Half an hour after that Vizzari took off on a break from just inside his own half and though his first effort was blocked by keeper Kukic, Vizzari kept his composure and slotted the ball home.

Wolves substitute Nemja Vucic had the ball behind Diamonds’ keeper Adrian Oversby but the ball was cleared from the very goal-line.

In the 5^th minute of stoppage time, the Wolves keeper kicked the ball straight to substitute winger  Anthony Ramzy who fired it straight back for the third goal to the Diamonds, who thoroughly deserved their win.

For Wolves, who never gave up, Brad Murray was excellent at the fulcrum of the midfield, and Guliano di Marco had some excellent efforts in attack until he was withdrawn just after the hour.

Vizzari was the stand-out for the Diamonds but all his team-mates put in a superb effort under a lot of pressure early to come out well on top in the end.

John Waddell was an interested spectator as he will be selecting the Victorian squad for upcoming matches, while Mehmet Durakovic, youth coach at Melbourne Victory, was also keeping a close eye on the talent on show.

Match details (Unofficial)

FFV Champions League Under-20 grand final

Western Wolves 0 North-East Diamonds 3 (Pasquale VIZZARI 52’ 82’, Anthony RAMZY 90 + 5’)

Wednesday, 19 January 2010

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Local kick-off: 4:30pm

Referee: Greg GONTSCHAROW

Assistant referees:

Fourth official:

Attendance:

Western Wolves

7 Nenad KUKIC (6 Luca MALIGNAGGI 78’), 41 Justin COUTINHO (57 Matthew GALEA 62’), 44 Ivan PAVLEKA, 45 Sinisa CELIC, 49 Daniel WALKER (39 Argjent MUSLIC 78’), 50 Giuliano DI MARCO (47 Nemanja VUCIC 65’), 52 Bradley MURRAY, 55 Abel FESSEHA, 59 Anthony BORAS, 60 John STOJCEVSKI, 61 Berkan YURDAKUL

Unused substitutes: 42 Turgut FANOSCU

Yellow cards: Matthew GALEA 87’

Red cards: Nil

North East Diamonds

20 Adrian OVERSBY, 2 Chris ANTONIADIS (18 Anthony RAMZY 68’), 4 John KOUTSODONTIS, 8 Shpetim MALA, 9 Pasquale VIZZARI (10 Sam ELBAZ 85’), 12 Liam COULTER, 13 Alexander DAO (7 George KAKKASIS 78’), 14 Louie RALLIS, 15 Luke CARDAMONE, 16 Dean ROMAS 3 Jack HAMILTON 88’), 17 Kristian KONSTANTINIDIS,

Unused substitutes:

Yellow cards: Nil

Red cards: Nil