Going into the game, Taiwan heavily rotated their starting line-up, with all but only two players– captain Chen Ying-hui and midfielder, Hsu Yi-yun– retaining their place from the last game.

Seizing the chance to make a name for themselves, Taiwan’s reserve players showed little hesitation and scored within the opening fifty seconds of the game when Liu Yu-chaio headed in Wu Kai-ching’s corner. Wu then scored four minutes later with a header of her own before creating a third for Taiwan with a delicate pass to set up Huang Ke-sin.

By halftime, Taiwan had scored five goals after Liu got her second with a close range finish and then Wu also doubled her tally with another header.

At this point, Taiwan could have pumped the brakes and slowed down but instead the rotated line-up pushed on.  Chang scored perhaps the game’s best goal with a curling shot from just outside the box to make it six. Chang then got another with a close range header less than sixty seconds after He Jia-shiuan had scored her first international goal for her country.

He picked up her second for Taiwan when she tapped the ball into the net after Chang’s cross bounced off the crossbar. A reckless challenge in the box from a Northern Mariana player then allowed Chen to score from the penalty spot and the Mulan were into double digit goals with just sixty-five minutes played.

Chang then got her hat trick when she reacted quickest to a deflected shot bouncing around in the box and He pocketed her own hat-trick when she turned with the ball just outside the six yard box and finished cooly into the bottom corner. A powerful strike into the roof of the net by Li Yi-wen finished off proceedings just before the start of injury time.

In the end, Taiwan settled for ‘only’ thirteen goals but as far as one-sided victories go, this will take some beating. Make no mistake, Northern Mariana were poor and seemed exhausted despite the two day break between games. A much stronger test awaits in the qualifying tournament’s final match against South Korea but Taiwan made it clear that they will be coming into the game with real momentum.