Australia produced a dominant performance last night to win the AFF U16 Women's Championships final against Thailand 8-0 with a brace from both Caitlin Foord and Sam Kerr.Thailand played strongly in the first half, only conceding one goal but tired during the second allowing the Australians to finish well from some good attacking play.
The Australian team dominated possession in the first half with Thailand defending with discipline.
They dropped deep with 10 players behind the ball making it difficult for the Australian team to find a way through.
However the deadlock was broken in the 30th minute with Brittany Whitfield, who completed the tournament with a goal in every game, once again on the spot to finish from a Sharni Brown cross from the left.
In the last 2 minutes before half time, Thailand won the ball in midfield and turned the Australian defence around with a through ball but Ashlee Faul managed to chase down her opponent and her sliding tackle forced a corner. Australia defended strongly and went into halftime with a 1-0 lead.
The start of the second half was similar to the first, with Australia continuing to dominate possession against the disciplined Thailand defence.
Australia's pressing game caused a turnover in the final third for Whitfield to slip a pass through to Caitlin Foord to score in the 59th minute.
Key substitutions in the second half made an immediate impact. Sam Kerr came on to the right wing position in the 60th minute, with Whitfield moving to centre forward and Foord pushing across to the left wing.
In the 67th minute Sam Kerr scored after receiving the ball in her own half of the field, dribbling past a defender and playing a diagonal ball to the left wing to Foord who cut inside and skilfully clipped the ball into the box for Kerr to chest down and slot her shot past the keeper.
Heidi Makrillos came on in the 75th minute, scoring with her first touch of the game within the first minute of being on the pitch.
By this stage, Thailand were unable to deal with the attacking skills and speed of the Australian players with Kerr and Foord picking up a second goal each, Teigen Allen scoring directly from a corner kick and Emily Van Egmond scoring a long range shot with the last kick of the game.
"I am very pleased with the team performance tonight and through the tournament. I thought Thailand was in the match for the first half, but we controlled the match well and scored some good goals," said Coach Robbie Hooker. "I still think there are some things we need to work on including finishing, but it was a good result and valuable experience heading into the AFC Championships."
Heidi Makrillos and Brittany Whitfield scored one a piece to equal Caitlin Friend as top scorers for the tournament with 7.