Solomon Islands vs Northern Beaches / Campbelltown City Quake Report
What a great game of Futsal an enthusiastic crowd of around 200 people witnessed at the Dural Sport and Leisure Centre on Tuesday night!
The protagonists: the young and inexperienced Solomon Islands All Age team, up against a fired up Northern Beaches / Campbelltown City Quake outfit featuring 2 current Australian Futsalroos, and a host of current and former State players ably marshalled but current Australian assistant coach Steven Knight.
Everyone in the crowd, including recently appointed New Zealand coach Erkin Osman, would have been impressed with the superb start by the Northern Quake outfit who put the shellshocked young islanders to the sword and led 4-0 with only 10 minutes gone on the clock.
Coach Rob Varela put an temporary end to the slaughter by calling a time out just to settle his troops down and reorganise a defence that was being run ragged by the quick ball movement of the Minto seasiders. Whatever he said must have worked for in the next 10 minutes the Solomon boys took control of the game with their speed and ball skills and managed to pull back 3 goals and, frustratingly, missing several more clear cut chances.
The 4-3 halftime scoreline was a true reflection of how the half had panned out.
The second half proved to be a reenactment of the latter part of the first stanza, with the the Solomon Islands pressurising the the Macarthur Beachboys into errors, while their speed continued to pose problems for the tiring blue-and-gold defence. It was not surprising to see the tyros from the South Pacific take the lead with 2 superb goals only to see their advantage nullified by a great goal from the North-South boys. Not to be denied, the the Solo kids kept pushing for the victory with lightning fast attacking raids which were rewarded with what was to prove to be the winner with 4 minutes remaining. The Combined Army threw everything at the lads from Honiara but to no avail, whilst the S.I. outfit could have increased their lead with some very good counter-attacking play which was foiled by superb goalkeeping.
The final whistle saw the crowd come to their feet to applaud all players for a fantastic exhibition of attacking futsal by both teams played in great spirit and refereed in very good style.
The island boys back up again on Wednesday 28th against the might of the current N.S.W. Premier League champions in what will, undoubtedly, prove to be another thrilling encounter. YOU need to be there!
