Round 4 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League
The 2016/17 Football NSW Select NSW Premier League round four saw Inner West defeat South Coast 4-1, Enfield beat Boomerangs 6-1, Dural pip UTS Northside 6-5, while Mountain Majik and Mascot were deadlocked at 4-4.
After a galvanising opening three weekends victories to the ‘Big-3’ Inner West, Enfield and Dural saw them slowly inch ahead of the pack, leaving an absolute dogfight for the fourth and final playoff position.
The club championship is also shaping up as a real humdinger with Vipers, Warriors, Magic and Majik separated by a handful of points a quarter way through the season.
Mountain Majik 4 (Jordan Guerreiro, Samuel Gulisano, Kaan Kilinc, Jamie Dib) Mascot Vipers 4 (Mohammad Dubdub, Tuan Cao, Conor Quilligan, Santiago Rodriguez)
Inner West Magic 4 (Jonathan Barzel, Adam Khalaf 2, Daniel Fogarty) South Coast Taipans 1 (Aidan Breslin)
Dural Warriors 6 (Vic Koutsoufis 2, Jacob Basden, Nathan Niski, Glen Kelshaw, own goal) UTS Northside 5 (Joey Gibbs 2, Nathan Amore, Jun Arima, Emilio Manos)
Enfield Rovers 6 (Laureano Gomez Castro, Dominic Cox 3, Shervin Adeli) Boomerangs FS 1 ()
Majik, Vipers draw
Mountain Majik and Mascot Vipers battled out a terrific 4-4 stalemate at Blacktown Leisure Centre – the sides really sharing a great history of contests that’s seen three wins each before this draw.
The Mountaineers exploded out of the blocks with Jordan Guerreiro, Samuel Gulisano and Kaan Kilinc goals lifting them 3-0 up after five minutes of fire before disaster struck as star player Guerreiro hit the deck in agony clutching his ankle.
The game was stopped for several minutes and Majik’s pivotal player will return to hospital this week for scans that hopefully clears him of any long-term damage.
Majik lost a little pizzazz when play continued and Mascot got themselves back into the game as first Tuan Cao scored to make it 3-1 and then Conor Quilligan added a second from the spot on the strike of halftime following a sixth Mountain team foul and Vipers trailed by one goal.
Adding to Majik’s concerns was a first-half injury to goalkeeper Mark Brackenrig who landed heavily after a save and had difficulties breathing with bruises to his chest, and Vipers kept on coming – Mohammad Dubdub leveling the game on the half-hour before Santiago Rodriguez pushed Mascot in front for the first time 10 minutes from the end.
Mountain coach Babak Mentai called for a fifth-man press and Majik pinned Mascot in their own half for the final five minutes, a sixth Vipers team foul giving Jamie Dib the opportunity to equalise an epic contest at 4-4.
Mentai isn’t about to buy a lottery ticket anytime soon following his side’s rotten luck to start the season. “I’m happy with the result, that we got something from the game, but I’m very unhappy because I lose Jordan,” he said, lamenting Geurreiro’s influence on his team of youngsters.
“We came to the game with a plan to beat any team, we came with very good motivation and were 3-0 in front and suddenly I hear Jordan screaming in pain. After this my players lose their focus… and we let Vipers take the lead from us. But I was happy that we did not fall down and the middle of the second half the game was full of quality – attack, attack, attack.”
“It was a very exciting game, very competitive from both sides. [Mascot] played very good and looked ready for the game as well and to come back from three down is not easy, and I really give them congratulation for that.
“The situation changed for us after we lost Jordan, and losing him is a bigger concern than not winning. I just can’t believe how unlucky we’ve been this year… that first five minutes showed who we really are with a full team.”
No team’s drawn more premier league games than Mascot, their 12th stalemate in 98 contests (Dural have 11 draws in 100 games and Inner West 10 in 107). Majik’s only two draws have been in the last two weeks (from 46 matches).
Dural edge Northside
Dural Warriors withheld a gallant UTS Northside second-half fightback to win 6-5 at The Centre, Dural, and climb into third place on the ladder.
Inspired UTS stuck it to Dural from the outset with a long throw behind the Warriors defence finding Joey Gibbs whose first touch and then rocket into the bottom-corner gave Northside a dream start; but the defending champions did what they do best with three quickfire responses – a Vic Koutsoufis double and an own goal – handing them a 3-1 break at the changeover.
The second term resembled a slugfest between to heavyweight boxers as the two sides went blow-for-blow, Nathan Amore grabbing a goal for UTS straight after oranges before Jacob Basden restored the two-goal gap for Dural and Jun Arima countering a Nathan Niski strike to make it 5-3 to the home side in the 35th minute.
Emilio Manos got Northside back within one again and the game got very interesting when Warriors star Wade Giovenali was red-carded with 10 minutes still to play, but a last-minute Glen Kelshaw strike sealed the deal for Dural with Gibbs adding a consolation on the buzzer to make the final score 6-5.
Warriors coach Rob Varela paid his dues to a stubborn Northside opponent. “I’m happy with the three points against a strong and well-organised team, despite our performance being a bit patchy,” he said.
“We did some good things with the ball and scored some very good goals, but we had a couple of lapses in defence and were punished. We must improve for next week’s game to be competitive against an excellent team in Inner West.”
Considering UTS hadn’t scored a goal in two previous meetings at The Centre (6-0 and 2-0 losses) coach Grant Lynch was thrilled to have matched it with the perennial trophy-winners and indicated his side was ready for a top-four dash this season.
“We were pretty confident going into the match and taking the lead obviously helped; [Warriors] had more of the ball and more chances in the first half but I also felt we had a better share of possession and chances over the last 10 minutes,” he said.
“The result was more about us chasing the game and pushing for the equalisers. We were slightly sloppy at times and Dural are all about punishing mistakes, but the amount of goals we scored and the times we really dictated the game was excellent to see.”
“I would’ve loved a draw but better than that is being much more competitive than we were last year. From my point of view as a coach it’s fantastic to see the level of confidence in this group of players. The way we’ve been playing has been so pleasing; I’m not pleased to lose but very happy with the performance.”
Magic take Taipans
Inner West Magic accounted for South Coast Taipans 4-1 at Valentine Sports Park to consolidate their top-of-the-table position ahead of crunch games against Dural and Enfield over the next fortnight.
Magic took the lead on 10-minutes through Jonathan Barzel before Aidan Breslin found himself in the right spot at the right time to nudge in a Taipans equaliser, only for youngster Adam Khalaf to restore Inner West’s advantage moments out from halftime.
The second-half was more of the same as Magic made their gluttony of possession count with further goals to Khalaf and Daniel Fogarty rounding out a comfortable 4-1 victory, their fifth straight over South Coast.
Fogarty’s strike took the dynamo to 49 premier league goals and his next one places him among esteemed company in the ‘50‘ club – only Shervin Adeli, Danny Martinez, Mark Symington, Greg Giovenali, Lachlan Wright, Dean Lockhart, Chris Zeballos and Daniel Fulton have notched up half-centuries.
Inner West club manager Matteo Maiorana couldn’t hide his delight at being number one on the men’s ladder and praised a youthful performance.
“Tonight put the cherry on the cake on a fantastic club performance. I went home a lot happier than last week after dominating and this time taking home the three points heading into next week’s big game versus rivals Dural,” he said.
“The team is still without four regulars, so to be sitting top is exciting. Youngsters Michael Loupis, Matthew Lecce and Adam Khalaf, who joined the club this off-season and has already scored four goals… and special mention must be made of the performance of Brian Griffin Colls who was at his gritty and physical best.”
“Taipans won’t be easybeats. They have some very good technical players, but we were just too good tonight as a team.”
South Coast coach Bobby Mazevski agreed. “They just had too much experience for us on the day. [Inner West] really showed their class – their movement and efficiency, you can tell they’ve played together a long time,” he said.
“We hung in for a long period of the game and had our chances, but they deserved the win… they’ve been the best team we’ve met in terms of how well-drilled they were.”
“Defensively we scrambled well; our goalkeepers played really well and kept us in the game. We’re not kidding ourselves, the players we’ve got aren’t seasoned Futsal players and in some aspects are still learning the game, myself included, but we’re more competitive than before and if we can keep this squad together we’ll only get better – top four is definitely not out of the question.”
Enfield beat Boomerangs
Enfield Rovers cruised to an emphatic 6-1 victory over Boomerangs FS at the Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre to maintain their top-two spot in the competition.
A fiery start to the game saw Enfield veteran Lachlan Wright pick up a yellow card in just the fourth minute before Rovers put their foot down with three unanswered goals – Laureano Gomez Castro and Dominic Cox (twice) – elevating them to a 3-0 halftime lead.
Boomerangs tried to stay in touch but couldn’t keep pace as Cox completed his hat-trick in the 6-1 demolition.
The two sides have gone tit-for-tat over the years with the home side winning every time, but this was by far Enfield’s biggest result against the Territorians following 6-5, 2-0 and 7-6 victories in Sydney.
Next week’s games
The Football NSW Select Futsal Premier League round five Saturday night action features South Coast Taipans against Mountain Majik at University of Wollongong Sports Hub (5.40pm), Enfield Rovers versus UTS Northside at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm), Dural Warriors welcome leaders Inner West Magic to The Centre, Dural (7.55pm), and Mascot Vipers host Boomerangs FS at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (8.50pm). Visit the Football NSW website (Futsal tab) for full details.
-By Dan De Nardi
