Beach Socceroos defeat Oman
Campbelltown City striker Michael Matricciani captained the Qantas Beach Socceroos to a 6-4 victory over Oman in their opening Group A match of the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Asian Qualifiers played in Doha, Qatar, last night.
Peter Crevani opened the scoring for the Qantas Beach Socceroos in the 7th minute with a stunning overhead scissor kick from an acute angle.
Panny Nikas doubled the Qantas Beach Socceroos lead two minute later from the penalty spot, before Oman pegged a goal back shortly afterwards and then equalised six minutes into the second period.
Some heroic goalkeeping by Simon Jaeger kept the Qantas Beach Socceroos in the game and Jaeger was instrumental in helping Panny Nikas take the lead back late in the second period, but once again Oman equalised soon afterwards.
Early in the final period of play, Nikas restored the Qantas Beach Socceroos lead when he made the most of an Omani defensive error to complete his hat-trick and then added his fourth shortly after to underline his stellar opening performance.
David Zdrilic sealed the match late when he added his name to the score sheet after working hard to round the Omani goalkeeper.
Oman reduced the deficit on the stroke of full time to round off the result.
The win places the Qantas Beach Socceroos second in the group after Afghanistan defeated host nation Qatar 7-3 in the other match.
The Qantas Beach Socceroos will face Qatar in their next group match today (8:15pm local (4:15am AEDT).
The top team from each group will progress to the semi final stage and the top three (3) nations from the tournament will progress to the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Tahiti .
All Qantas Beach Socceroos matches at the tournament can be viewed online live at www.footballaustralia.com.au or www.theworldgame.com.au
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