Round 5 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League
Round five of the 2016/17 Football NSW Select NSW Premier League might prove pivotal as Inner West demolished Dural 7-2, Northside beat Enfield 6-3, Mascot edged Boomerangs 3-2 and Mountain Majik saw off South Coast 7-4.
The results allowed Magic (13) to skip four points clear of Rovers (9) at the top of the table with UTS, Vipers and Warriors locked on seven points closely followed by Majik (5) and Taipans (3).
Here’s where it gets really interesting: Northside’s only two losses have been by one goal (to Boomerangs and Warriors) and they’re yet to play a game at home; Mascot’s gone unbeaten in three fixtures leading into this weekend’s crunch match against Dural; and although last, South Coast beat Dural 2-0 (the only time Warriors have been held scoreless).
The fact this is Dural’s worse premier league start since their inaugural 2009/10 season – where they suffered three losses in the first five rounds and didn’t make the finals for the only time in their club’s history – and the defending champs could be in real trouble.
A club definitely feeling the pinch is Boomerangs after Taipans racked up 16 points to improve their club championship standing and leave the recently-promoted Canberrans out in the cold, a massive 41 points behind the Coasters at the bottom of the table.
South Coast Taipans 4 (Val Merxhushi, Riku Iwauchi 2, Matt Mazevski) Mountain Majik 7 (Samuel Gulisano 3, Marco Turpeinen, Chris Barbera, Manuel Duarte, own goal)
Enfield Rovers 3 (Michael Kouta, Dominic Cox, Giovanni Leuzzi) UTS Northside 6 (Joey Gibbs 2, Agneesh Lahiri, Nathan Amore, Jun Arima, Grant Lynch)
Dural Warriors 2 (Brandon Vella, Samuel de Oliveira) Inner West Magic 7 (Daniel Fogarty 3, Daniel Vellonio 2, Jonathan Barzel, own goal)
Mascot Vipers 3 (Conor Quilligan, Konstantinos Tsournakakis, Shu Torihara) Boomerangs FS 2 (Jonathan Ciminelli, Daniel Giovinazzo)
Mountain topple Coast
Mountain Majik ran out comfortable 7-4 winners against South Coast Taipans at University of Wollongong Sports Hub to notch up their first three-pointer for the summer.
The Mountaineers were unrelenting from the get-go with a Taipans first-minute own goal followed by dual Samuel Gulisano strikes and a Marco Turpeinen goal that lifted Majik in front 4-0 in the opening quarter-hour before South Coast pulled one back before the changeover.
A couple of on-court flare-ups resulted in Mountain’s Jamie Dib being dismissed for dissent early in the second term, but the red card did little to halt Majik’s momentum as Chris Barbera and Manuel Duarte scored within minutes to extend the buffer, and Gulisano completed his hat-trick with seven minutes remaining to make it a six-goal break, Taipans rallying late to slot home three late goals and finalise the account at 7-4.
The Mountain men were definitely buoyed by influential player Jordan Guerreiro’s presence [injured last week], who wasn’t at full strength but continued to motivate his team-mates, while Riku Iwauchi bagged his third brace for South Coast in five outings.
Majik coach Babak (Bobby) Mentai was glad his players finally got the reward they deserved for all their hard work this season, but he won’t look back at his first premier league victory too fondly.
“I didn’t enjoy the game to be honest because the players started to argue, and I want to personally apologise to Bobby [Taipans coach Mazevski] for any bad behaviour from my players. Bobby is an absolute gentleman and South Coast are very good hosts and I wish it was a better game between the teams,” he said
“[About the match] Because I was still unhappy about last week [where Majik forfeited a three-goal lead to draw 4-4 with Mascot] when we made it 7-1 I focused on defending and tried to hold the game.”
“I told you last week it is my responsibility and this time I was prepared because the players showed they had good training during the week. There’s still work to do on our defending, but I was happy.”
“This game is now finish, and I told my players they can be happy until midnight and then they must focus on next week’s game against Boomerangs, who are a very good team and very hard to beat in Canberra [where Boomerangs have won eight times in a row],” Mentai continued.
“But we go there to take the three points – that’s our goal for every weekend. I analyse each team in front of me and play the game we need to against them. The strategy will always change with each team we play.”
Mazevski cut a frustrated figure as head of the men’s team, but wasn’t completely overrun following a great day out overall for South Coast that consolidated their premier league position.
“It was a very disappointing game in the men’s… ugly – from two depleted teams,” he said. “I’m happy though [because] as a club we grabbed our biggest ever total in a day with 16 points.”
Northside overcome Enfield
UTS Northside were terrific value in a 6-3 defeat of second-placed Enfield Rovers at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre to move into third position on goal-difference over Dural and Mascot.
It was Northside’s first-ever victory over Enfield in five tries and coach Grant Lynch was ecstatic.
“It was an entertaining game and a fantastic performance in that we created and were able to take so many chances,” he said. “There were defensive lapses at times but generally pretty good, especially in transition.”
“It was also another fantastic performance from [goalkeeper] Alex Pepper and Jun Arima, who have both had excellent seasons so far. We’ll look to build on the performance away at South coast next week.”
Rovers coach Ernie Bivona paid credit to a polished Northside performance. “UTS played very well. Two players that really stood out were Jun [Arima] and Grant [Lynch]. Also their keeper [Pepper] had a blinder of a game,” he said.
“Like I’ve said, you have to be on your game week-in, week-out [and while] UTS have been unlucky with some of their results this season, they took their chances against us. We missed some clear-cut chances and they punished us at the other end.”
“We obviously don’t usually have a problem scoring, we score more than all teams, but when we do [have a problem] it seems to hurt us – I really need to focus on defence.”
“This game’s over now; no point dwelling on it. All focus now is on the biggest derby, Rovers versus Magic – always an intense and emotional game. I can’t wait!”
Magic cast off Warriors
Inner West Magic dished out Dural’s biggest known premier league defeat following a crushing 7-2 blow at The Centre, Dural, despite Warriors leading 2-0 early in the game.
Goals to Brandon Vella and Samuel De Oliveira gave the home side a perfect start against the competition leaders and it looked like the Dural of old before Daniel Fogarty dragged one back for Inner West six minutes from the break, adding another as halftime closed in and Daniel Vellonio inexplicably putting the visitors ahead on the buzzer.
Both teams came out firing in the second term but with 10 minutes to go an agonising Warriors own goal, a second Vellonio strike and a Fogarty missile to complete his hat-trick gave Magic all the breathing space they needed as a late Jonathan Barzel goal put the icing on Inner West’s eye-popping 7-2 victory.
Magic’s third win over Warriors in 15 league clashes ended a dominating home run by Dural, 17 straight matches without loss over three summers at The Centre since Inner West dusted them 5-1 in late November 2014.
Magic master Matteo Maiorana hovered into the Dural carpark following the heavenly scoreline. “I was a very, very happy man tonight,” he said. “If our men’s team has had one weakness in the last few years it’s been goalscoring, but tonight we were clinical!”
“We went 2-0 down against the run of play but a Daniel Vellonio goal in the last seconds of the half gave our team momentum to start the second half [and] tonight was the Daniel Fogarty show, who was at his brilliant best including an absolute rocket to seal his hat-trick.”
"Dural might’ve been understrength, but Dural are Dural, they proved that last week versus Enfield. I was so happy with the performance tonight – at 2-nil down we could’ve gone hiding but we didn’t. It just goes to show the maturity of the team and their continued growth.”
“Some of the goals scored were ridiculous and Fogarty, when he’s in that form he’s unstoppable; Barzel was excellent as well. To win by that margin without [Chris] Zeballos was also extremely pleasing.”
“[Coach Steve] Knighty had the boys in tip-top shape and with next week’s game against competition favourites Enfield, we’re excited to see where we sit against them."
Warriors coach Rob Varela knew he’d been outplayed by a dazzling Magic show but didn’t show any signs of panic. “After a very good start where we dominated the game for 20 minutes, converting two good chances, we dropped our defensive intensity and Inner West came back with three very good goals,” he said.
“It was end-to-end for the first few minutes of the second half but then a very well-coached Magic team took over the game and we couldn’t match their pace and ball movement.”
“Inner West were well-deserved winners and have put themselves as the favourites to take out the title. We will dust ourselves off and try and come back strongly next week in another very difficult game [against Mascot].”
Mascot beat Boomerangs
Mascot Vipers made it three games without defeat following a tight come-from-behind 3-2 win against a difficult Boomerangs FS at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre.
The ACT travelers started a bit slow as Mascot pressed but found their groove with Jonathan Ciminelli putting them in front midway through the half before a series of neat one-twos freed Daniel Giovinazzo at the top of the D who nudged in to double the advantage by halftime.
Boomerangs continued to pressure in the second term but couldn’t put Vipers to the sword and this allowed Mascot to creep back into the game with Conor Quilligan and Konstantinos Tsournakakis leveling up proceedings 10 minutes from the end.
It was left to the last play of the game to decide the thrilling encounter with Boomerangs pressing forward for the win but turning the ball over and with four seconds left Shu Torihara let fly from 10m out with his shot flying under the Boomerangs keeper for the winning goal.
Incredibly it’s Mascot’s second win against Boomerangs in seven encounters and follows an 8-0 drubbing in Canberra in their last meeting in early 2014; the result lifting Vipers equal with UTS and Dural in third position on the ladder.
Tsournakakis also became the 55th player to score in Mascot colours over their premier league years, the highest number of any club by a long way. Inner West have had 44 different scorers, Campbelltown Quake 40, Enfield 33 and (somewhat astonishing due to their short stint in the top-flight) Mountain Majik is next with 31 different scorers, two more than stalwarts Dural having played half the number of games as Warriors.
Boomerangs have now gone on 10 premier league road trips without a win (Mascot holds the record with 11 fruitless runs over 2013/14-2014/15) and coach Kristian Collins is looking to the skies for devine intervention to save his club’s premier league seat.
“We completely dominated first half; it was a bit more even in the second half, but I’m exceptionally disappointed with the result,” he said. “Once we settled into the pace of the game we carved them up like a hot knife through butter but the ability to not finalise our chances wasn’t good enough.”
“We need a miracle [to stay in premier league]. We should be better in the second half of the season with six [of last nine] rounds at home… but we probably need to clean-sweep South Coast [when the clubs meet in a fortnight’s time] to have any chance.”
Next week’s games
The Football NSW Select Futsal Premier League round six Saturday action features South Coast Taipans against UTS Northside at the University of Wollongong Sports Hub (4.50pm), Boomerangs FS host Mountain Majik at the AIS Training Halls (7.20pm), Enfield Rovers play Inner West Magic at the Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm), and Dural Warriors face Mascot Vipers at The Centre, Dural (7.55pm). Visit the Football NSW website (Futsal tab) for full details.
-By Dan De Nardi
