Futsal Men’s Premier League Round 8 Review
The results leave a point between City and Dural ahead of this weekend?s top-of-the-table clash, with Enfield four points behind the Warriors. Just two points separate Boomerangs, Inner West and Campbelltown, while Mascot and Coast drew level on points and are still in with mathematical shots of making finals Futsal (seven points behind the top-four with five rounds still to play).
The action also heated up individually with a Daniel Fulton double for Boomerangs in their 3-6 loss to Dural taking the Aussie star to 16 goals for the season, leapfrogging City?s Chris Zeballos who didn?t play in Sydney?s 6-0 whitewash of Inner West. A hat-trick to Warriors pivot Greg Giovenali moved him alongside Zeballos on 15 strikes, while Enfield?s Shervan Adeli shifted up the charts to 12 goals with a hat-trick against Quake. Dural?s Corey Biczo (10) and Mascot?s Rodrigo Barbosa (9) are the competition?s next best sharp-shooters.
Dural beat Boomerangs
Dural Warriors defeated Boomerangs 6-3 at the Sports and Leisure Centre on Saturday night to set up an appetising top-of-the-table clash with league leaders Sydney City this weekend.
In a tight first half goals to Boomerangs players Daniel Fulton and Ryan Keir were cancelled out by Dural to underpin a tight 2-2 scoreline at halftime.
But the home side stepped it up a gear in the second term to secure a 6-3 victory, scores to Corey Biczo, Tobias Seeto, Steve Rosier and a Greg Giovenali hat-trick making sure of maximum points.
Fulton grabbed a double for the visitors to take him to the top of the goalscorers chart with 16 goals, one ahead of Giovenali and Sydney City?s Chris Zeballos.
The importance of the win was not lost on Dural coach Rob Varela. ?It was an even game in the first half; each time we scored they equalised,? he said. ?We had the possession but they defended well.?
?[With the big game against leaders Sydney City looming this week] We just concentrated on this game and didn?t look too far ahead; we wanted to get a result against a team playing well because it was a big game for them and points away from home are like gold.?
?Both teams had players missing, but I think our bench was a little longer than theirs? and when they fell behind and had to push forward, we got them on the break.?
Varela dipped his hat to the influence of Giovenali, who has scored in eight straight games for Dural, and had his sights set on a first place finish.
?Greg is in good form holding the team together at the back and getting the goals when we need it. We rotate our players so he can push forward and it seems to work well for us,? he said.
?[In terms of beating Sydney City] We won the minor premiership last season and our ambition is to make the semis; we?d like to finish first but we definitely need to improve to do that.?
Boomerangs co-coach Kristian Collins said his team had shifted residence over the past two weeks with the loss of so many players. ?We?re in Struggletown at the moment,? he said.
?We only had four men playing [two others were at a wedding, two were injured and two had to work] and were still in it at 3-3 with 10 minutes to go. We had our chances and hit the post three times at 4-3 down. If we had 2-3 more players we would?ve given it a red hot go.
?We?re looking to get back on track, get some wins and hopefully make the top-four as finals football is completely different; anything can happen once you make the top-four [Sydney City won last season?s title from fourth spot],? Collins said.
?The belief is definitely there; we?re still creating, we just have to be a bit more clinical. It was always going to be a struggle first year in and it looks like we should do enough to stay in the top division and build on what we achieved next year.?
City trump Inner West
Sydney City Eagles claimed the first clean sheet of the season with a 6-0 demolition of Inner West Allstars at Bankstown Basketball Stadium on Saturday night.
The Eagles applied pressure from the kick-off and Michael Candy opened the scoring after just 40 seconds to give the home side a perfect start.
Further goals to Andres Gomez and Ray Miller built a 3-0 lead by halftime and the second half was more of the same as Miles Downie scored and Ross Fazzalaro netted a brace to complete the six goal rout.
Thanks to some terrific team defence City keeper Peter Spathis didn?t have to do a great deal in goals but saved two 10m spot kicks and a penalty when it mattered most.
Sydney coach Jamie Amendolia said his players stepped up tremendously to fill in for the absence of competition high scorer Chris Zeballos (wedding) and playmaker Mojtaba Mohebbee (overseas).
?The boys played quite well,? he said. ?We were short a couple of players so it was good to be able to step up and play well.?
?The most important thing was our defence, something we?ve worked hard on over the past few weeks. I told the boys at halftime that the focus was to not let any goals in and overall it was a great team performance; defensively we all worked well together.?
With this weekend?s matches featuring the top two teams pitted together Amendolia reiterated that the competition was still quite open.
?When you look at the table there?s two teams pulling away from everybody, but any team in this league can still beat anyone. Our goal was to get nine points in three games and this week is the last phase of that goal,? he said.
?It will be a great game [against Dural]. Last time we played they were much better than us and deserved their win [a 9-6 epic, still the highest scoring game this season]; hopefully we can change things around this week.?
Enfield overpower Quake
Five minutes of madness cost Campbelltown Quake in a 4-8 loss to Enfield Rovers at Minto Indoor Sports Stadium on Saturday night.
Campbelltown again had to call on their superstar youngsters to cover the loss of five regulars but started off strongly to lead after 10 minutes via a Danny Martinez penalty.
Enfield equalised seven minutes later through Joe Foti before Bruno Antelmi (Quake?s 16 Boys young gun) converted a 10m spot kick and some fine saves from keeper Shane Borg took Campbelltown into halftime leading 2-1.
The home side was looking good at the ?Epicentre? but a four-goal Rovers blitz (Rob Foti and Shervin Adeli netting twice each) turned the tables as Enfield raced to a 5-2 advantage in the blink of an eye.
Campbelltown recovered and a good goal to Jake McGing and a Josh Curtin header in the 39th minute set up an exciting final 10 minutes with the visitors hanging onto a 5-4 lead. With both sides going at it, Joe Foti scored twice and Adeli once more to bring Enfield home to a 8-4 victory.
Rovers coach Ernie Bivona loved the atmosphere at the Epicentre and was delighted to come away with the points.
?Their keeper pulled off some tremendous saves in the first half and we went in behind 2-1, but the Foti brothers caused some tremors of their own in Minto and we managed to pull away for the win, he said. ?It made the drive back home even better.?
?It was a great atmosphere on the night and we went into the break pretty relaxed as we just had to put some of our chances away. It was definitely a good win.?
Bivona said the result set Enfield up for a tilt at a higher position. ?The way I look at it is to make sure we?re in it come finals time,? he said. ?We now have a bit of a buffer on the teams behind us and a top-two finish isn?t beyond us as every team is causing upsets.?
While it wasn?t a happy ending for Campbelltown, club secretary Carlos Martinez again paid tribute to his young brigade.
?We were somewhat undermanned and had to call on our youth to back up for us again, but Enfield Rovers are a very experienced outfit and at the end of the day they got us,? he said.
?It really was a game of two halves [because] I thought at halftime we dictated the tempo but were unable to convert the many chances we had and four minutes of madness in the second half cost us the game.
?Futsal is such a quick sport that sometimes you don?t have time to correct things. We managed to regroup somewhat after they led 5-2 and when it got to 5-4 with our young guys on the court and our experienced guys fresh on the bench I thought we just might be able to do it.
?But the experience of Enfield turned around from a poor first half from them to a super game and a well-deserved win. We were disappointed and the guys frustrated because we were playing well enough to win, but Rovers are a quality side.?
Martinez agreed results in other games had kept Quake in touch with the top-four and called on his squad to prove they are finals contenders.
?We think we?re still in it but we have to back it up on the court,? he said. ?If we?re good enough to make the semis then we have to start showing it. This week [against Mascot] is an absolute must-win match if we?re any hope at all.?
?The confidence is a little bit down with key players out, but our youth players like Bruno Antelmi, Josh Curtin, Daniel Vellonio and Harley Da Silva have all showed great promise. The trouble is we?re used to throwing one or two young players into the men?s team to blood them, now we?re throwing them in in lots of four or five. At one stage [last night] we had all youth players on the court.?
Taipans out-hiss Vipers
South Coast Taipans made it back-to-back wins with a 4-3 strike against Mascot Vipers at the Illawarra Hockey Centre on Saturday night, drawing the two sides together on the points table.
The Taipans struck first in the battle of the snakes with goals to Pete Gaffney, Alvin Ceccoli and Jon Hatton giving the home side a 3-0 cushion at halftime.
Vipers Jacob Radas and Rodrigo Barbosa returned fire early in the second half to bring the deficit back to 2-3 before a Ricky Zucco score restored a two-goal break for Coast.
A second Barbosa goal with 12 minutes to go made sure everyone stayed on the edge of their seats but the Taipans held on to win their second match of the season.
South Coast coach April Van Woerkom laughed when asked if she thought the competition points should really start from round 8. ?It took us halfway through to warm-up,? she said.
?They did work hard and were still on a high from last week, but we?ve been trying to put it together for weeks and only now are they pretty content in what they?re doing. We?re just starting to get used to what it?s like in Premier League.
?Dinis [Guerreiro] had a very good game in goals and our first half in particular was good; we defended well and finished off our goals. In the second half we just sort of scraped through and it got a bit tense in the last 10 minutes [with the score at 4-3]? the clock couldn?t go quick enough,? Van Woerkom said.
?The boys have now given themselves a goal to win every remaining game and they might still make the semis. I don?t know, let?s see.?
Mascot club president Zvi Ben David lamented the fact his team only had three regulars to try and carry them through, and they still had a shot at winning it.
?We only had Yavus [Ekinci] and a fringe player, and another one came 10 minutes into the game,? he said. ?The others were out with injuries and work commitments and one had a birthday to go to, but I?m very proud of our youth players, especially 17 year olds Jacob Radas and Jonathon Kontalis who stood up and played out of their skins.?
?At 3-0 down at halftime I knew we just couldn?t go at them, so I told them to sit back and hit them on the counter, try to get the goals back and then go for it in last 10 minutes.
?We missed so many chances, clear, clear chances, and in the last 30 seconds could have even got a penalty [on Kontalis], but it wasn?t meant to be our day,? Ben David said.
?We are simply losing too many close games, but we have never had a full team either. We lost this one but there were still many good things to come out of it and I will look at the positives [the youth players] rather than the negatives. There?s five rounds to go and we can still win the club championship.?
Next week?s games
Round 10 (Saturday, December 3) sees Dural Warriors host Sydney City Eagles in a top-of-the-table clash at the Sports & Leisure Centre, South Coast Taipans play Inner West Allstars at the Illawarra Hockey Centre, Campbelltown Quake meet Mascot Vipers at All Sorts Fitness Centre, while Enfield Rovers welcome Boomerangs to All Saints Grammar Belmore.
By: Dan De Nardi
