Australia joined defending champions DPR Korea, Korea Republic and Japan in the semi-finals of the AFC U16 Women's Championships 2009 following a comfortable 7-0 win over Chinese Taipei.
After making a number of changes from the side that defeated China on Thursday night, Australia proved too strong against Chinese Taipei.
Rebekah Stott opened the scoring in the 3rd minute after finding herself on the end of a corner by Caitlin Friend that was flicked on at the near post by Heidi Makrillos.Makrillos then added to Australia's lead in the 5th minute, when she managed to collect a wayward Chinese Taipei goal kick and calmly placed the ball back over the head of Chinese Taipei goalkeeper, Lin Shih-Ting.
Australia continued to dominate the play when Sharni Brown added to the lead in the 12th minute.Brown then turned provider with a pin point cross for Michaela Hatziridos to head home and extend Australia's lead in the 19th minute.Hatziridos then found her name on the score sheet again in the 33rd minute after finishing off a Teigen Allen cross who had advanced out of the back line into the attacking third.
With three minutes left in the half Caitlin Friend found herself unmarked inside the 18-yard-box to finish off Australia's scoring for the half.
Chinese Taipei proved much more resilient in the second half and looked to have shutout the Australians.However, with four added minutes of stoppage time in the game, Caitlin Friend managed to beat the offside trap, courtesy of a through ball from Makrillos. Friend, in a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, neatly slide the ball past the advancing Lin Shih-Ting. This rounded out Australia's scoring for the afternoon, with Chinese Taipei conceding 7 goals.
Westfield Australia U16 Women's Head Coach Robbie Hooker was pleased with his teams performance and happy to see his players continued progression in the tournament,
"We used a very different line-up in today's game but I'm glad the girls stepped up and put their case forward for selection in the semi-finals," said Hooker.
"We still have Japan to play and it would be fantastic to finish top of Group B and also try to continue our run of clean sheets.
"We have to continue playing positive football and work on our technique but all-in-all I am very pleased to have made it to the semi-finals without yet conceding a goal," finished Hooker.