Australia consolidated their position at the top of Group B on Monday night with a strong performance against Vietnam, winning 5-0.
Vietnam, while disciplined in defence, were content to allow the Australians to play in their own half of the field. The Australian team, including seven changes to the starting line-up from game 1, did well in possessing the ball and showed patience in attack.
With constructive play in the middle third, Australia switched the ball well to open up opportunities to penetrate on a number of occasions in the first 15 minutes, attacking with speed and skill but were unable to finish.
The first goal came in the 18th minute with an individual effort by Nicola Bolger after the team won possession of the ball in the final third.
Australia continued to put pressure on the Vietnam players as they endeavored to play out from the back. In the 21st minute Caitlin Foord took advantage of another change of possession, picking the ball up on the left wing, beating a player and slotting the ball back to Caitlin Friend whose powerful shot was unable to be kept out by the keeper.
The third goal in the 30th minute was the result of a clearance from the goalkeeper Davey. The ball was contested on the halfway line and flicked out to the left wing. Foord running onto the ball used her pace, to glide past two defenders before shooting to score with the outside of her right foot from the edge of the 18 yard box.
The pace of the game slowed in the second half and while Vietnam were unable to truly threaten Australia's goal, Australia found it difficult to break down the defence of Vietnam.
The final two goals were scored in the 52nd minute by Brittany Whitfield from a rebound and Friend, again from a Foord cutback after she dribbled into the box at speed from the left hand side.
Australia failed to capitalise on a number of free-kicks given just outside the box, while Friend had a great chance to score a hat-trick in the 90th minute after some good midfield play but shot over.
Coach Robbie Hooker was pleased with consecutive wins after making major changes to the team from the opening match,
"This game allowed me to look at a number of different players in the starting line-up. I thought we defended very well from a tactical perspective. We executed free kicks reasonably well and created many goal scoring opportunities."
"I thought Caitlin Foord played particularly well, looking explosive and dynamic whenever she touched the ball. The players did look a little flat due to the training load they are experiencing in preparation for the Asian Championships. The next game should give us another opportunity to play different combinations of players and further acclimatise to the heat and humidity that we will face in Thailand in a couple of weeks time," Hooker finished.