Game three Futsal International Friendly Series vs Russian FC Doctor
An enthusiastic crowd of around 200 people gathered at the Michael Wenden Centre to see if the NSW Thunder could repeat the triumph of the previous night over the Russian touring team, FC Doctors.
From the outset it was easy to see that the visitors had learnt some of the lessons from the first game by setting up a very compact defensive zone around their ?D? area. This tactic, coupled with some early turnovers from the locals, meant that it took NSW until the 13th minute to get on the scoreboard when Toby Seeto finished off a very slick move tapping in at the far post. FC Doctors showed some good touches on the ball but they were always put under pressure by the younger and more mobile Thunder boys. When World Cup referee Scott Kidson blew for half time the locals held a 2 ? 0 advantage with Ross Fazzalaro having scored with a very good shot from a tight angle; the score line was kept at reasonable levels due to some very good saves by Karpov, the Russian goalkeeper and lacklustre shooting by the locals.
The second half gave us more of the same early on with the NSW team putting the pressure on the visitors but unable to make it count on the scoreboard. FC Doctors then began to work their way into the game and caused problems for the local defence forcing the Thunder keeper, Gavin O?Brian, into a very good save and hitting the post on another occasion. NSW weathered the storm and hit back with 2 good goals: classy Lachlan Wright scored the third one finishing off a good corner kick routine with a very powerful shot with the highlight a very nicely worked free kick resulting in an easy tap in by Ross Fazzalaro for the final score of the night.
All in all a very good start for the NSW Thunder team in a series of games that gave the coaching staff the opportunity to try out several different combinations against an outfit that showed some very good skills at times.
NSW Thunder
GK. Gavin O?Brien, 12. Tobias Seeto, 7. Rhys Giovenali, 10. Adrian Vizzari, 5. Simon Keith 8. Andre Gomez, 30. Lachlan Wright, 3. Chris Zabballos, 12. Danny Martinez, 23. Dean Lockhart, 9. Marino Musumeci, 25. Ross Fazzalaro, GK. Peter Spathis
FC Doctor
GK. Dimitri Karpov , 5. Michael Alexandrov, 3. Vitaly Samokhvalov, 10. Uri Predybaylov, 2. E Kutyrev , 6. I Volkov, 12. S Toms, 9. Dimitri Lupakov, 8. Serge Aladin , 11. Denis Afanasyev, 14. Konst Slobodin
Goals
NSW 4 (Ross Fazzalaro x2, Tobias Seeto, Lachlan Wright)
FC Doctor 0
Officals
Referee: Scott Kidson
2nd Referee: Nicholas Backo
Timekeeper: Ashley Medway
3rd Referee: Owen Ferguson
