Melbourne Heart FC prevailed 6-0 winners in their practice match against a VCL All-Stars team at the Veneto Club in Bulleen on Saturday night.
By David Manuca
Melbourne Heart FC prevailed 6-0 winners in their practice match against a VCL All-Stars team at the Veneto Club in Bulleen on Saturday night.
Jason Hoffman continued his recent run of great form with a hat-trick, with Mate Dugandzic, Wayne Shroj and Kamal Ibrahim grabbing a goal a piece.
Captain Simon Colosimo said: “It was a great run out for the boys. We got out there and didn-t concede which was a goal of ours and we moved the ball around.
“The boys are quite happy to get through another game, we didn-t get injuries which are important and we can build on that.”
Dugandzic had given Heart the perfect start with a goal just thirty seconds into the contest. Jason Hoffman played in a low ball across the area from the left wing and the ball fell to Dugandzic at the back post who tapped it in from close range.
On seven minutes Heart doubled their advantage when Dugandzic returned the favour for Hoffman with the big forward also tapping one home from close range.
He had a second just five minutes later when Kristian Sarkies played him in with a great through ball, and Hoffman utilized the space in the area perfectly blasting a shot into the bottom right hand corner of the goal.
The Victorian Champions League All-Stars side almost pulled one back on twenty minutes after a quick counter attack but a shot from outside the box flashed past triallist Sebastian Mattei’s goal.
Dugandzic almost had a second on 23 minutes when he controlled captain Simon Colosimo’s long ball over the defenders, but could only scrape his shot across the face of goal.
Colosimo came off on the half-hour mark with former AIS captain Curtis Good taking his place in the centre of defence.
The scores remained the same until after half-time on 57 minutes when Wayne Shroj blasted a shot into the back of the net from just outside the six-yard box after capitalizing on a loose ball in the area.
On 79 minutes Jason Hoffman had his hat-trick when he tapped one home from close range after some great work by Ali Babalj down the left wing.
Kamal Ibrahim rounded off the scoring just one minute later with a fantastic effort from just outside the area which left the VCL All-Starts goalkeeper with no chance.
