Round 3 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League

The 2016/17 Football NSW Select NSW Premier League continued it’s exciting season with Dural finally notching up a win 6-2 against former ladder-toppers Enfield, Boomerangs held new leaders Inner West to a 3-3 draw, Mountain Majik and UTS Northside also drew 2-2, while Mascot edged South Coast 4-3.

After three incredible rounds just four points separates seven sides with Inner West on top of the pile, and it’s definitely a lot tighter than previous competitions as shown by the close scorelines – only two of 12 contests have been decided by more than three goals, and the three draws played out this summer’s already closing in on the record six registered in 2012/13.

Mountain Majik 2 (Manuel Duarte, Jamie Dib) UTS Northside 2 (Jun Arima 2)

Inner West Magic 3 (Adam Cooper, Daniel Fogarty) Boomerangs FS 3 (Jake Wilsener, Ben Basser-Silk, Jason O’Dwyer_ 

Enfield Rovers 2 (Michael Kouta, Marco Tilio) Dural Warriors 6 (Nathan Niski, Wade Giovenali, Vic Koutsoufis, Brandon Vella 2, Brendan Hoyer)

Mascot Vipers 4 (Leonardo Pinto 2, Leandro Pinto, Shu Torihara) South Coast Taipans 3 (Riku Iwauchi 2, Rentaro Osa)

Majik level with Northside

A late UTS Northside goal saw them nab a point from Mountain Majik in an exciting 2-2 draw at Blacktown Leisure Centre.

Manuel Duarte got Majik off to a flyer via a goal in just the second minute of play but the lead was shortlived as Jun Arima responded with a great touch to get beyond his defender and a cool finish that made it 1-1 five minutes later.

It didn’t take long for a fired-up Mountaineers to restore their advantage when a Jamie Dib strike pushed them 2-1 up in the 10th-minute and despite Majik’s continued pressure the score remained unchanged until an Arima screamer into the bottom corner leveled the game again five minutes from fulltime.

Mountain coach Babak Mentai had mixed feelings following a frenetic match. “We had an amazing game. In the first half UTS were very good and both teams very equal, but we had more than seven opportunities, 100% chances in the second half which we didn’t take, and I am very disappointed because we deserved to win the game,” he said.

“UTS are a very good team and looked like they had played together for a long time, but I could see their weak part and I knew they would change for the second half, so I wanted my players to hold the game and look for the opportunities, to be more considered, more focused.”

“I don’t know why we couldn’t finish them off. I always tell my players in Futsal if you don’t score the opposition will and that happened [on Saturday]. Again I have to take the responsibility because this is my problem and I have to do something different at training to make my players take more advantage of the opportunity in front of goal,” Mentai said.

“The progress is good, I’m happy with that, but we have to turn it into an end result. It’s not a congratulation to not get the win when it is there for you – a draw is like a loss in this situation. It is a tough league, but we will try. The players just need to be more confident in the final line.”

Northside player-coach Grant Lynch gladly took the belated result. “It was a tough game on a small court… it’s just a tough transition to play on different sized courts,” he said. “We train on a full international scale court so this was a tight, physical game and I thought we dealt with it well.”

“Our intensity was lacking a little in the first half and we didn’t achieve what we wanted to, but in the second half we forced them into a lot of mistakes. All credit to the boys for staying in the game; we’d been positive and looking good value for the equaliser and I was very happy to get the [second] goal.”

“It’s a good point for us – I’ll take it as to how the game played out. At the start of the match we wanted three points but now we move onto Dural next week and try to take advantage of their inconsistency.”

Magic, Boomerangs stalemate

Inner West Magic were held to a 3-3 draw with Boomerangs FS at Valentine Sports Park – the Territorians have now held both last seasons’ grand finalists on their home courts.

Boomerangs hit the front on 10-minutes with a swift up-court movement that Jake Wilsener finished off sweetly only to see Magic superstar Adam Cooper equalise with a bomb eight minutes later to hit the changeover locked at one-apiece.

Inner West gained the upper hand in the second term when Daniel Fogarty saw his strike deflect into goal straight after the break and he added another to consolidate Magic’s 3-1 position 10 minutes from the end, but while the home team looked the more likely the game spun on its head with four minutes to go when Boomerangs found a sudden burst of energy.

Ben Basser-Silk rifled home a left-footer for the Territorians just two minutes from fulltime and then Jason O’Dwyer capitalised on a goalmouth scramble with 90 seconds left to make it 3-3 – Wilsener missing a golden opportunity to steal all three points with a chance in front of goal on his weaker foot hitting the stadium roof instead.

Magic maestro Matteo Maiorana called it the lowlight of a dazzling club performance. “It was a disappointing way to end a great day for the club. After going behind early the boys regrouped and dominated for the remainder of the game against a well-drilled and enthusiastic Boomerangs team,” he said.

“But a team of our quality and experience shouldn’t give up a 3-1 lead with 90 seconds remaining, especially when you have complete control of the game.”

“I’m happy with the way Adam Cooper has fitted in the team and even though we remain in first place it was two points dropped for the club championship.”

Boomerangs coach Kristian Collins was impressed the open men’s team continued to shine despite the club’s lowly overall club position.

“I can’t be unhappy, but there’s still lots to work on,” he said. “To be honest they probably had 70% of the ball, but that’s what we expected… we won’t dominate possession in this competition but we will be competitive.”

“I didn’t expect the results so far but the boys have worked exceptionally hard, especially defensively, so the results are deserved for the amount of work put in. The beauty of the league is it’s anyone’s game on the day. We have to come prepared and well organised and willing to put in the hard yards, and credit to my boys for putting that in week in and week out.”

Interestingly, Boomerangs have shared three wins each with Inner West in seven premier league meetings over the years – two of them on the road, which is in stark contrast to their current eight game winless streak away from the ACT (now just three behind Mascot’s record set over the 2013/14-2014/15 seasons).

Warriors down Rovers

Dural Warriors finally got their ball rolling with a 6-2 defeat of Enfield Rovers at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre, four unanswered second-half goals proving the difference.

The two old foes went tit-for-tat in the opening term, Enfield’s Michael Kouta countering Nathan Niski’s fourth-minute goal for Dural and Rovers open men’s debutant Marco Tilio responding to Wade Giovenali’s quarter-hour strike to hit halftime in a 2-2 deadlock.

But the second half belonged to Warriors with four goals – Vic Koutsoufis, Brandon Vella (twice) and Brendan Hoyer – lifting them to a commanding 6-2 win. It was Dural’s 10th victory over Enfield in 15 past premier league encounters (three draws) in enthralling contests that average over nine goals a game (136 in total).

Dural coach Rob Varela was modest about his champion side’s position after three topsy-turvy rounds (draw, loss, win), with stalwart Greg Giovenali coming back from a groin injury picked up at the recent World Cup and Glen Kelshaw still out with a bruised ankle bone.

“We just didn’t play well enough in the first two games. It’s no excuse to be short on personnel but we played well against Enfield – our defence was a lot better, and we pinned them back in the second half and got a couple of good goals,” he said.

“They’re always dangerous with the ball; you’ve got to defend well against any team but particularly against Enfield and take your chances when they come.”

“We’re slowly getting back into our rhythm but this won’t be a turning point unless we back it up in the next few weeks. From our point of view the league’s always been competitive… we’ve done well over the years because we’ve been consistent and need to get that back.”

Rovers coach Ernie Bivona had his own personnel issues (injuries and players attending the Indigenous Cup in Nowra) but was already itching to have another crack at Warriors. “It was a tight one in the first half, but Dural looked like they wanted it more,” he said.

“I know we can score goals but there’s days you don’t – you hit the post, keepers have blinders, etc – we just really need to try and get a better defensive record, because that’s what will win you games at the business end of the season.”

“Fatigue did set in on some of the young boys on the bench who were backing up from other games, but a positive I can take from the match was the performance of two 15-year-olds Marco Tilio and Daniel Goni – they did an exceptional job for me. Marco showed plenty of confidence in his first senior game and took Dural on; but Bobby V knows what he’s doing… he’s got a very well drilled team who were too good for us overall.”

“I love close comps! You don’t want just four teams competing and I don’t want to win by five goals. I want to be tested and the players to be tested – I want every game to be a big game. This season you can drop points at any time so you’ve really got to show up every week, which is good.”

Vipers nip Taipans

Mascot edged South Coast Taipans in a 4-3 thriller at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre to secure a first Vipers win of the summer.

The two opponents sparred for the opening quarter-hour before a deflected goal pushed Mascot in front, Riku Iwauchi leveling for South Coast just before halftime and a second strike putting his team ahead 2-1 early in the second period.

Moments later a well-worked Taipans move left Ben Rolfe open at the far post but his miss from 2m out proved costly as Vipers equalised shortly after and then hit the front themselves with a third goal making it 3-2.

South Coast refused to buckle and Rentaro Osa made the most of a deflected ball flicked up in the air with a clever header that found the back of the net to restore parity inside the final 10 minutes with the game there to be won by both sides.

Mascot lifted and re-established their lead with an intercept-goal 90 seconds from fulltime forcing South Coast to push hard in the closing moments, and Taipans earned the chance to snatch a draw when a sixth Vipers team foul saw Shohei Okuno step up for the game-tying penalty after the final whistle; but his placement into the bottom-right corner was toed away for a 4-3 Mascot win.

Coast coach Bobby Mazevski could only lament the result. “It’s points we threw away; a game I thought we had reasonably control of despite conceding a few goals and I’m a little disappointed in that. I felt we deserved a draw if nothing else,” he said. “Mascot played very well as well to take nothing away from their performance… but we move on and have to regroup for next week.”

“It’s a much more even comp than in the past and it’s good for the league that Taipans are more competitive and Boomerangs are proving a difficult opponent. We’re getting better each week – I’m hearing it from opposition coaches and players and that makes me pretty proud of the boys. We want to be a difficult opponent, and I can’t fault our performances.”

Mazevski also praised the return of ‘Wollongong boy’, veteran keeper Gavin O’Brien, to the South Coast stable. “He really kept us in the game early on with some good saves, and he’s just a great asset for the club,” he said. “He’s someone I regularly get support from; he’s got wonderful experience, he’s great at reading the game, and someone like that associated with the club is a big bonus for us.”

Next week’s games

The Football NSW Select Futsal Premier League round four on Saturday night features Mountain Majik against Mascot Vipers at Blacktown Leisure Centre (4.40pm), Dural Warriors host UTS Northside at The Centre, Dural (7.05pm), Inner West Magic tackle South Coast Taipans at Valentine Sports Park (7.40pm), and Enfield Rovers play Boomerangs FS at the Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm). Visit the Football NSW website (Futsal tab) for full details.

-By Dan De Nardi