{"id":402177,"date":"2024-06-12T00:39:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T00:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=402177"},"modified":"2024-06-12T04:08:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T04:08:59","slug":"only-going-to-get-better-socceroos-young-guns-stun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=402177","title":{"rendered":"'Only going to get better': Socceroos young guns stun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kusini Yengi sent a clear message to Graham Arnold<\/a> during Australia's 5-0 triumph over Palestine \ufeffas he strengthens his case to earn a permanent spot in the Socceroos<\/a> starting line-up.<\/p>\n

The Socceroos piled on the points in the first half of the FIFA World Cup qualifier<\/a> as Yengi opened the scoring via a fifth-minute penalty before \ufeffadding a second to leave Palestine trailing 3-nil into the break.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old forward has \ufeffscored four goals in his past three matches for Australia and has now staked a compelling claim to be Arnold's first-choice centre forward.<\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> Returning star's blunt message to battling Tigers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Yengi then turned provider, sending a beautiful through ball to \ufeffset up Martin Boyle to claim Australia's fourth in the 53rd minute.<\/p>\n

Bayern Munich-bound \ufeffNestory Irankunda joined the party late on, coming on as a substitute before getting on the scoresheet, netting his maiden goal via a 87th-minute penalty.<\/p>\n

The Irankunda penalty resulted from a controversial call from \ufefffrom Saudi Arabian referee Khalid Al-Turais, who had previously been questioned by a furious Palestinian team after he pointed to the penalty spot that saw Yengi net the first goal.<\/p>\n

With no VAR in operation, Palestine could not challenge the decision, with Yaser Hamed fuming as his side conceded another goal due to his error.<\/p>\n

\"Second<\/p>\n

The result at HBF Park meant \ufeffAustralia ended the second round qualifying stage with a perfect record of six from six.<\/p>\n

Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has a big call to make ahead of the next stage after making eight changes to the side following their 2-0 victory over Bangladesh last week.<\/p>\n

Arnold praised Yengi's performance revealing he believes this is only the start of his success.<\/p>\n

"It's about the depth that we've been creating," Arnold said. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"Everyone probably panicked when I made eight changes but if we played 11 v 11 [with our squad members], it would be a very tough game to win.<\/p>\n

\"Graham<\/p>\n

"But I think if you've got too many young ones – that's when mistakes and play start to fall apart. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"I think [Yengi] is only going to get better. He's playing in the [EFL] Championship now."<\/p>\n

Despite the team's recent success, Arnold issued a warning for the squad to avoid replicating the dramatic two-legged playoff the Socceroos endured in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In that cut-throat scenario, Australia faced Peru before ultimately progressing to the World Cup finals in Qatar via a dramatic penalty shootout, clinching their World Cup ticket thanks to the heroics of specialist penalty stopper, the 'Grey Wiggle' Andrew Redmayne.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

"When we went through the last campaign we won the first 11 (matches)," Arnold said.<\/p>\n

"It's another goal that I've set the boys to achieve something special – winning more than 11 games straight.<\/p>\n

"The most important thing is that we keep growing as a team \ufeff<\/p>\n

"I have high expectations all the time and I drive those high expectations to the boys and I don't want to go through another Peru game. That's the last thing that I want."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kusini Yengi sent a clear message to Graham Arnold during Australia's 5-0 triumph over Palestine \ufeffas he strengthens his case to earn a permanent spot […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":402179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=402177"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402183,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402177\/revisions\/402183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/402179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=402177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=402177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=402177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}