By Greg Blake
It was one of those astonishing come-from-behind victories. Unexpected, uplifting and ultimately emphatic, Heidelberg United’s 5-1 torching of Hume City on Friday night at the ‘Home of the Matildas’ was as unforgettable as it gets.
Brushing off a bleak opening, the Warriors lit a flame thrower and scorched usually hard-to-beat Hume with a white-hot four goal second half, highlighted by Asahi Yokokawa’s hat-trick of subliminal class and quality.
Bul Juach nailed a couple but Yokokawa made the second half his own. The Japanese firecracker created one, scored a gem of a goal to smash the game open and sweetly garnished the 5-1 scoreline with a display of balance, poise and surging confidence to add two further imperiously taken strikes.
His triple came up inside half an hour, starting with his 62nd minute gliding run and balanced angle inside to set up a right foot rocket which is one for the highlight reels. Indeed, grab a beer and some popcorn and watch all three of his goals, over and over again. Yokokawa’s second came on 84 minutes and the hat-trick was registered as 90+2
Make no mistake, Heidelberg United Alexander had to claw claw their way back into this contest, but the manner of the recovery was stunning against a Hume City side undefeated since round one.
Without coach John Anastasiadis – in the naughty corner following his send off at Dandenong last weekend – and still minus the beguiling Jamal Ali – still on World Cup qualifying duties with Sudan – things took a turn for the worse when Josh Okane scored a belter for Hume just five minutes into the game.
Sabit Ngor was one of the few desperate to spark a pedestrian contest into life into life and it was he who was bought to ground somewhat imprudently by Hume goalkeeper, Michael Weier, and Juach converted the resultant penalty to make it 1-1 midway through the first half.
Toward the back end of a largely predicable and labour intensive opening half the game started to get the feel of a re-run of last week as the Warriors lost another player to first half injury, this time Dalibor Markovic.
It took just 40 seconds of the second half for Yokokawa to set the tone for his blistering second half by angling the ball in from the left for Juach to make it 2-1 and injury-plagued Hume’s evening toppled rapidly downhill from that point.
An hour in and the fate of Hume boss, Riccardo Marchioli, mirrored that of Anastasiadis the week prior, as he was red-carded into coaching purgatory for the remainder of the evening.
Perhaps mitigating Marchioli’s disappointment was not having to sit front row centre to witness Yokokawa’s virtuoso performance, which left his Hume side humbled and earned Yokokawa a standing ovation from Alexander supporters. Many of whom would still be applauding now had security not moved them on just before the lights went out and the gates were locked.
The trip down to Dandenong City and a showdown with former Heidelberg ‘King’ Kenny Athiu is the next stop on the 2025 journey
