Scorpions crawl to Men’s F-League lead
They’ve scored the most goals (51 in seven matches), field the most scorers (14 players, six of the competition’s top 16 strikers), are unbeaten away from their Sydney home base – no reason at all why Scorpions aren’t deserved 2013 Hummel Men’s F-League leaders.
Scorpions pipped Boomerangs 4-2 then scorched St Albans 19-3 and Jaguars 12-3 to round out a perfect Melbourne trifecta and take a two point lead at the top of the table from Dural Warriors and Vic Vipers, who actually did them a favour with a 2-2 draw in their series-3 encounter. It’ll certainly be interesting when Scorpions clash with Warriors in Melbourne next month.
Boomerangs are fourth but still within sight of the leaderboard ahead of their crucial July meeting with Vipers, while Melbourne Heart broke through for a first victory.
Glen Lockhart wasn’t in Melbourne to mentor the competition leaders but his Futsal clone Ernie Bivona journeyed south to help make a huge statement for the fledgling club.
“[Ernie and I] coached NSW Thunder together and struck up a solid partnership together so absolutely the team was in good hands,” Lockhart said. “We coach together at training and share the same vision and philosophy for the club, so the squad went down with a specific game plan and knowledge of the things we could exploit in other teams.”
“We’re certainly not getting carried away with anything and the next round in Melbourne is critical. The other teams will be more prepared for us, and although there seems to be a definite top-five forming there’s absolutely no easy games in this competition. We have to make sure we’re strategically smart enough to carry through the remainder of the season.”
Lockhart expressed a long-term Scorpions mission and provided this ‘gold’ response toward the formation of a Sydney power-club: “Other coaches have commented on the players we have available, but it’s like being handed the keys to a Ferrari… you still have to know how to drive the bloody thing, don’t you?”
While the job is only the half-done, Lockhart couldn’t deny a credit to F-League cameraman James Brackenrig, whose video footage gave the Scorpions coaching staff a big heads-up going into their Victorian campaign. “He’s a good man and pushing the sport in the right direction, and our analysis of the footage he’s provided helped us immensely in Melbourne.”
Individually, Adam Cooper’s five-goal haul in the final game against St Albans lifted the Vipers weapon to the top of the scorers chart with 10 goals, one ahead of Dural’s Jarrod Basger, with Jaguars ace Shervin Keshavarzadeli and Scorpions stinger Mark Symington on eight goals each.
Strikers striker Vadim Mazurskiy and Dural’s Ben Lawson are next with seven goals apiece, closely followed by Wade Giovenali (Warriors), Sean Byrne (Boomerangs), and Scorpions team-mates Daniel Fogarty and Danny Martinez.
If Melbourne round 5 was a little cagey (25 goals scored, second lowest F-League round ever) then the bars were well and truly broken with league-high 47 and 40 goal hauls in the following two round to make this year’s F-League the highest scoring game average (8.68 goals).
The F-League switches focus to the women’s series at YMCA Derrimut, Melbourne, for rounds 6-10 of an exciting competition on Saturday-Sunday, July 6-7.
Men-s F-League
Round 7
Boomerangs 4 (Sean O’Neill 2, Daniel Fulton 3/25/28) Melbourne Heart 2 (Callum Davies 14, Resit Culculoglu 15)
Dural Warriors 6 (Goran Ljuboja 9/20, Nathan Niski 18, Tobias Seeto 34, Jarrod Basger 37/39) East Coast Heat 2 (Miles Downie 2, Andre Caro 4)
Sydney Scorpions 8 (Daniel Martinez 2, Mark Symington 3/20/25, Patrick Pace 19/39, Ediz Alpkaya 27, Robert Foti 34) Jaguars 3 (Jonathan Tabarkiewicz 24, Rocky Calfapietra 34/35)
Vic Vipers 12 (Adam Cooper 9/18/19/21/32, Diego Garcia 12/35, Ricardo Castro 14/25, Maxim Avram 18/26, Vinicius Leite 36) St Albans Strikers 3 (Jose Portillo 2, Vipers own goal 5, Alija Redzepovic 25)
F-League Men
Round 4
Vipers strike Jaguars
Vic Vipers dealt a 6-4 blow to Jaguars in their Men’s F-League Melbourne opener at YMCA Derrimut on Friday evening, the win elevating Vipers to joint competition leadership with Dural and Scorpions.
Thiago Priori scored just two minutes into the contest and when Vinicius Leite, Adam Cooper and Miguel Barrigos joined him on the scoresheet within minutes Vipers had gained a lofty 4-0 buffer.
Aguek Aguek pulled one back for Jaguars on the quarter-hour before Cooper struck again nearing halftime to restore the Vics’ four goal cushion, but Jaguars Jonathan Tabarkiewicz snuck one more in before the break to leave them trailing 2-5.
A Shervin Keshavarzadeli strike five minutes into the second half and a second Aguek goal tightened the screws as Jaguars trailed by one, and the two sides traded blows for the next 10 minutes when Aguek was sent off as Jonathan Barientos scored to give Vipers some breathing space, which they hold onto until the end.
Strikers break Heart
In a scene that resembled a wild west shootout St Albans Strikers out-blasted Melbourne heart in an absorbing 7-4 result at YMCA Derrimut on Friday night.
Captain Jose Portillo gave Strikers a quarter-hour lead only for Tuan Cao to level the scores minutes later from the penalty spot.
Dino Redzepovic put St Albans ahead a second time a minute later only for Cao to restore parity almost immediately, the scoreboard going bezerk with all quick action.
Strikeforce Vadim Mazurskiy and Gavin Schipp laid on a late first half burst to try and break Heart spirits, and Tomislav Grgic added another straight after the restart to give St Albans a 5-2 shield, but Melbourne weren’t done with yet, Scott Fenn narrowing the gap a minute later to keep the fires burning at both ends.
The game went end-to-end when Strikers Mark Borchert and Heart’s Konrad Machoy traded blows, Felipe Tadashi Yamashita firing the last St Albans bullet in a classic Futsal gunfight, Strikers ahead 7-4 at the final whistle.
Round 5
Heat level Jaguars
A double late strike from East Coast Heat gave them a 2-2 draw with a controlled Jaguars on a dewy Saturday morning at YMCA Derrimut.
Jermaine Deng fired the Victorians ahead in the third minute and Shervin Keshavarzadeli doubled the advantage five minutes after the interval to give Jaguars a 2-0 stranglehold.
The game turned dramatically in the 40th minute when Andre Caro converted a spot kick and Miles Downie scored a second within seconds to draw level with Jaguars with 10 minutes still to play.
The action was breathtaking but both sides missed chances to steal the win and the game finished in the competition’s first draw.
Scorpions sting Boomerangs
Sydney Scorpions held Boomerangs at bay in a 4-2 victory at YMCA Derrimut on Saturday morning.
The affair didn’t take long to heat up when Pat Pace fired the Sydneysiders ahead on 10 minutes, team-mate Daniel Fogarty extending the advantage 10 minutes later before Jason O’Dwyer returned fire for Boomerangs seconds before halftime.
Marino Musumeci gave Scorpions a 3-1 grip soon after play resumed and a second Pace goal tightened the hold on the half-hour, but a Callum Smith strike gave Boomerangs some hope with 10 minutes to play but Scorpions held on for a two-goal win.
Vipers overpower Heart
Vic Vipers consigned Melbourne Heart to a fifth straight F-League loss following a 5-2 win at YMCA Derrimut on Saturday afternoon.
The match was minutes old when Fernando De Moraes opened the scoring for Vipers and team-mates Jonathan Barientos and Adam Cooper tripled the lead by the 12th minute.
Heart showed great tenacity to not let the Vics slip too far away when Fikri Bozdogan and Matthew Vragovski scored within minutes of each other to trail 3-2 at oranges, but Vipers returned to the court full of zest and Diego Garcia put his side further in front before a second De Moraes strike on the half-hour finalised the scoring with the Vics 5-2 up.
Warriors smack Strikers
Dural Warriors avenged their final Sydney round loss with a clinical 7-1 demolition of St Albans Strikers at YMCA Derrimut on Saturday afternoon.
Greg Giovenali, Wade Giovenali, Jarrod Basger and Ben Lawson all scored to power Dural to a 4-0 halftime lead and Basger added another on the half-hour to bang another nail in the St Albans coffin.
To their credit, the Strikers refused to throw in the towel and Vadim Mazurskiy got a well-deserved reward for some spritely St Albans play 10 minutes out from fulltime, but David Kanaley and Giovenali goals rounded out a super Warriors performance.
Round 6
Boomerangs burn Heat
Boomerangs bounced East Coast Heat 6-3 at YMCA Derrimut on Saturday evening to get their F-League campaign back on track.
Jake Wilsener pushed the Territorians ahead before everyone was properly seated and Daniel Fulton made it 2-0 after some neat build-up in the 10th-minute.
Jordan Mundall got East Coast back in the contest when he halved the deficit moments later, only for Thomas Zeitlhofer and Sean Byrne goals to give Boomerangs a 4-1 halftime lead.
Fulton’s brace just after the break increased Boomerangs stocks and, after a Chris Zeballos double for Heat was interrupted by a Callum Smith Boomerangs goal, the game ended with the ACT side three-goal victors.
Heart out-pulse Jaguars
A brave Melbourne Heart beat Jaguars 7-5 in an epic contest at YMCA Derrimut on Saturday night to finally break through for a maiden 2013 F-League victory.
The two sides went at each other in an evenly matched game, Jaguars taking a third-minute lead through Shervin Keshavarzadeli only to see Konrad Machoy return fire for Heart at the other end in the blink of an eye to level the scores again.
Machoy added another 10 minutes later before an immediate Breno Polatti and Aguek Aguek right-left combination put Jaguars ahead once more 3-2, Anthony Ramzy making sure the teams stayed tied at halftime with an 18th-minute Heart equaliser that glued spectators to their seats.
The second half was more of the same as Tuan Cao struck from the restart to place Melbourne in front for the first time and Ramzy tipped the scales further in his side’s favour with a second goal taking the ledger to 5-3 with 20 minutes to play.
The momentum then swung Jaguars way when Keshavarzadeli and Aguek hit back with two goals inside a minute to even the scores a fourth time, but Machoy’s hat-trick goal and a 40th-minute support strike from Jordan Michaelis brought Melbourne home on a 7-5 knife’s edge.
It was a second successive insult to their Melbourne neighbours after Heart’s final round victory over Jaguars consigned them to last year’s wooden spoon.
Vipers, Warriors stalemate
Vic Vipers and Dural Warriors fought out a tense 2-2 draw on a brisk Sunday morning at YMCA Derrimut, the home side leading twice in a titanic battle.
Fernando De Moraes fired Vipers ahead on five minutes to at least raise the temperature only to have Ben Lawson restore parity at the other end five minutes before halftime.
Warriors keeper Alistair Bruce was sent off just past the half-hour and some Vics pressure forced Dural to concede just minutes later to raise the roof, but Greg Giovenali silenced the crowd with a well-taken goal that kept the scores locked at 2-2 for the final 10 minutes.
Scorpions devour Strikers
Sydney Scorpions ran rings around St Albans Strikers in an amazing 19-3 feast at YMCA Derrimut on Sunday morning, the F-League debutants taking full advantage of a 2-2 draw between Vipers and Warriors in the previous game to jump both of them and charge to the competition lead.
There were almost as many goals than were scored in the entire fifth round (25) and incredibly 18 goals were scored in a 30-minute spurt in the middle of the match.
Mark Symington bagged five, Daniel Fogarty and Anny Martinez hat-tricks, while Marino Musumeci, Johnathan Kontalis and Dean Lockhart netted twice each to turn a 10-1 halftime split into a 16-goal winning fissure by fulltime.
Surprisingly this wasn’t the biggest F-League victory – Dural walloped St Albans 20-1 in last year’s final round.
Round 7
Boomerangs down Heart
Boomerangs did well to keep a resurgent Melbourne Heart at bay in the midday matinee at YMCA Derrimut on Sunday.
Sean O’Neill and Daniel Fulton got the ball rolling for the ACT side with a double strike that pushed them to a lightning 2-0 lead after just three minutes.
Melbourne had other ideas and their own dual blast from Callum Davies and Resit Culculoglu inside a minute of each other drew Heart level 2-2 on the quarter-hour, Jason O’Dwyer dismissed from play seconds later to make matters a little more difficult for the travelers.
Fulton put Boomerangs back in front just before the break and completed his hat-trick a few minutes after the players returned to the court, the Territorians weathering many Heart attacks to hold onto their 4-2 scoreline and remain in sight of the table peak.
Warriors douse Heat
Dural Warriors came from two goals down to defeat East Coast Heat in a spirited match at YMCA Derrimut on Sunday afternoon.
Dural were caught napping as Miles Downie and Andre Caro gifted East Coast a 2-0 lead after just two minutes before Warriors finally clicked into gear, Goran Ljuboja pulling one back in the ninth minute and team-mate Toby Seeto drawing level near halftime, Ljuboja adding another just before the break to push Dural noses in front.
Last year’s champions then surged ahead in the second term with Toby Seeto and a Jarrod Basger double (taking him to the top of the scorers chart) giving Dural an unassailable 6-2 lead with 10 minutes to go.
The result ensured Warriors could stay close enough to have a crack at overtaking leaders Scorpions in next month’s series-3 Melbourne heavyweight clash.
Scorpions cage Jaguars
Sydney Scorpions smashed Jaguars 8-3 at YMCA Derrimut on Sunday afternoon, elevating the new F-League entrant to a debut competition lead.
Fresh from their 19-3 demolition of St Albans the match was minutes old when Danny Martinez and Mark Symington struck to make it 2-0, Patrick Pace and two more Symington goals compounding a damaging the 5-1 halftime start for Jaguars.
Ediz Alpkaya scored minutes into the second term to extend Sydney’s lead before aRocky Calfapietra 60-second brace lifted Jaguars spirits at 6-3 down, the eyebrows twitching when Symington was sent off on the half-hour; but a Robert Foti and second Pace goal sealed the deal for Scorpions.
Sydney took a deserved step toward the F-League peak ahead of a grueling series-3 schedule that includes Dural, Boomerangs and East Coast.
Vipers blitz Strikers
Vic Vipers smashed St Albans Strikers 12-3 at YMCA Derrimut on Saturday evening to nestle alongside Dural in second place on the F-League tree.
St Albans came out blazing and took a shock second-minute through Jose Portillo, doubling their advantage a few minutes later via a fortunate Vipers own goal.
Key Strikers player Lionel de Souza was red-carded in the 14th minute and Vipers finally steadied themselves, an Adam Cooper hat-trick attached to Diego Garcia, Ricardo Castro and Maxim Avram goals lifting the Vics to a ruthless 8-2 halftime lead, second-half Cooper, Garcia, Avram and Vinicius Leite goals signing off a comprehensive victory.
The result is sure to give Vipers plenty of confidence with series-3 set to continue in Melbourne on July 13.
-By Dan De Nardi
