Round 7 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League
The 2016/17 Football NSW Select NSW Premier League reached midway as Dural dusted Mountain Majik 11-1, Inner West beat UTS 3-1, Enfield nudged Mascot 5-4 and South Coast downed Boomerangs 4-2.
The top four remained tight with Inner West (16), Enfield (15), Dural (13) and UTS (10) narrowly ahead of Mascot (7), Boomerangs (6), South Coast (6) and Majik (6).
And here’s an interesting stat: In 10 premier league seasons the highest points accumulation from the bottom-placed team has been nine (last summer Majik and Taipans finished joint-last with three wins each) – a tally well within reach of the bottom four sides with seven rounds remaining.
On an individual front Rovers star Shervin Adeli and Magic’s Daniel Fogarty still lead the way with seven goals – 26 players now within four goals on the Golden Boot register.
In the club championship Vipers inched seven points clear of Magic at the top of the leaderboard; a handful of points separating Warriors, Rovers, Taipans, UTS and the Mountaineers – Boomerangs a whopping 70 points adrift at the bottom.
Mountain Majik 1 (Jordan Guerreiro) Dural Warriors 11 (Samuel De Oliveira, Glen Kelshaw, Vic Koutsoufis, Brandon Vella, Bruno Pivato 4, Nathan Niski 2, Peter Xenos)
Boomerangs FS 2 (Daniel Giovinazzo, Michael Rinaudo) South Coast Taipans 4 (Russell Crighton, Valentino Merxhushi, Robert Delbanco, Kyle Del)
Inner West Magic 3 (Jonathan Barzel, Matthew Lecce 2) UTS Northside 1 (Karim Moursi)
Mascot Vipers 4 (Shu Torihara, Leonardo Pinto 2, Leandro Pinto) Enfield Rovers 5 (Clayton Musumeci 2, Michael Kouta, Kris Vlismas, Laureano Gomez Castro)
Dural crush Mountain
Dural Warriors showed they were back in business with an 11-1 demolition job on Mountain Majik at Blacktown Leisure Centre – and without the services of key players Blake Rosier, Greg and Wade Giovenali.
Samuel De Oliveira, Glen Kelshaw, Vic Koutsoufis and Brandon Vella scored to help establish a 4-1 Dural halftime buffer, while a four-goal second-term haul from Bruno Pivato underlined the Warriors’ supremacy.
Dural’s seventh double-figure premier league score (Enfield 4, Campbelltown 2) is joint-second highest tally behind 12-1 Warriors wins over South Coast in 2011/12 and Mountain Majik in 2013/14.
It’s also the equal second-highest winning margin; Dural having beat Mascot 10-0 in 2012/13 and enjoying 11-goal margins against Phoenix (11-0 in 2014/15), and the 12-1 wins against Taipans and Majik. The only other known double-figure victory came when Sydney City Eagles crunched West City Crusaders 11-1 way back in the 2008/09 season.
As much as Warriors racked up the goals, coach Rob Varela paid tribute to the other side of the game. “The boys did alright; [but] I think it was our intensity in defence that proved the main difference – we gave them nothing from the beginning and never let up,” he said.
“[Regarding Pivato’s four-for] That’s three really good games in a row for us from Bruno, and not just in attack. We were disappointed after the South Coast loss [in a round-two 2-0 boilover] and had to have a good look at ourselves; and since then the attitude has been really good.”
“The experience of some of the boys has made it easier for the youth guys to settle in – [16s player] Peter [Xenos] did alright and scored a goal, and that’s good for his confidence – but we have to keep repeating this type of performance,” Varela said.
“The competition is strong enough to make it difficult for us and next week is another banana-skin game down in Canberra; We have to keep up this form.”
Taipans sting Boomerangs
They came, they saw, they conquered as South Coast Taipans wrapped up a 22-point club total against Boomerangs FS at the AIS Training Halls – including a 4-2 win in open men’s.
The visitors withstood a surging Boomerangs to start the match and managed to score just before the break to lead 1-0 at the changeover; a more-composed Taipans making more of a mark in the second term to run away two-goal winners – Russell Crighton, Valentino Merxhushi, Robert Delbanco and Kyle Del penning their name on the scoresheet for South Coast.
Taipans have won all three open men’s encounters with Boomerangs and became the first travellers to win in 10 Territory-based fixtures (league’s third-longest home run, Dural went 17 unblemished games at The Centre from late-2014 to late-2016 and a dozen from 2011-2013).
South Coast’s 22-point haul also comes less than two weeks after the club set a then high-mark of 16 points against Mountain Majik – an achievement not lost on coach Bobby Mazevski.
“[It was] a grand day for the club amassing a record 22-points in Canberra. It’s also the first time since our last three grades all won in Premier League on the same day,” he said.
“The youth boys that stepped up in men’s this week did very well in a dogged performance where we weathered the early storm and got ourselves in the game eventually, comfortably seeing out the match 4-2.”
Inner West outplay Northside
Inner West maintained top spot on the ladder with a solid 3-1 win over UTS at Valentine Sports Park, Magic scoring two second-half goals to break away from a stubborn Northside.
The home side controlled the ball in a possession-dominant first period and Jonathan Barzel scored the opener midway through the term only for a patient UTS to make the most of their minimal first-half chances when Karim Moursi (who also scored a double in the Men’s Youth match) chipped the keeper on the counter to restore halftime parity at 1-1.
Magic remained confident in the second half and Matthew Lecce bagged a brace to stake a two-goal gap, their task made easier when, during a fifth-man powerplay, Northside keeper Alex Pepper received a second yellow card for an incorrect substitution and Inner West claimed a 3-1 victory.
This is the fourth-straight Magic-versus-UTS encounter to be decided by two goals or less (all won by Inner West) since Northside stunned the seasoned veterans 6-3 in their first ever meeting at Valentine Sports Park in late-2014.
UTS coach Grant Lynch didn’t play due an ankle-knock he received at South Coast last week, while leading-scorer Joey Gibbs (six goals in six matches) was on holiday, but Lynch called it a fair result.
“They kept a lot of the ball but in the first half, but we executed quite well and kept it a tight game,” he said. “We understood that we’d have to defend a lot with a few players out, and we did that extremely well.”
“We came out in the second half and matched their energy levels, but Alex Pepper who had a really good for us was sent off with five minutes to go and it was too hard from there.”
“We put ourselves in a good position at halftime and were really frustrating them; and missed one or two chances… but I can’t deny Inner West the victory, they played well and deserved it.”
Rovers nip Vipers
Enfield came from behind twice to score a last-gasp winner against an unlucky Mascot Vipers at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre, the 5-4 victory the fifth one-goal difference between the sides in 11 scintillating challenges (Rovers winning eight).
Shu Torihara put Mascot in front just two minutes into a frantic opening only to see Clayton Musumeci even the score for Enfield moments later, a Leonardo Pinto goal restoring the Vipers lead in the 10th-minute before a triple-strike in three minutes from Musumeci, Michael Kouta and Kris Vlismas surged Rovers ahead 4-2, a second Pinto goal making it a nervy 4-3 halftime score.
The thrilling match ebbed and flowed with Mascot desperately seeking an equaliser and Enfield unable to kill off the game, and when Leandro Pinto scored in the final minute with Vipers in fifth-man mode it looked like the reward would be shared.
Enter Rovers signor Laureano Gomez Castro who, with 30 seconds left, received the ball on the flank, saw the defence open up, touched to 10m out from goal and let fly a gem that dazzled past an indelible Vipers keeper Soner Omac into the top-left corner for the winning goal from the last kick of the game.
Enfield coach Ernie Bivona admitted his swear jar would’ve rivaled global economies following the pulsating finish. “Mascot are so unpredictable! They’re freestylers, and they make it hard to come up with a good game plan ‘cause I really don’t know what to expect from them,” he said.
“I knew I needed my targets to be prepared and Michael Kouta did a really good job for us; he held the ball up well… but I have to credit their keeper. Every time we play him, even last year [in a double loss to Vipers], he was on. The amount of chances he saved, and he’s plus-40 or something… he’s just amazing!”
“I have to say it’s our youth players who have come up and now added speed to our game. We’ve had plenty of experience, but the fitness of these young boys – I have to put it down to the new players coming in that’s made such a big difference for us.”
Bivona went off-record about his Shakespearean exasperations in a final two-minute flurry to end the epic encounter, but echoed many observers’ sentiments about seeking a greater audience.
“Mascot went to fifth-man and we were weathering the storm, and I kept looking at the clock thinking there’s so much pressure on the ladder and how important these three points were and, I can’t tell you what was coming out of my mouth, but with 53 seconds to go they scored and I was really losing it because I really thought we deserved the points as much as we were going tit-for-tat,” he said.
“Then we kicked off with 30 seconds to go and Andreas [Gomez Castro] cut inside their defence and ripped out this pearler… the elation on the bench was incredible! I just really wish we could televise this, I really do.”
“The games I’ve been involved in, to see the clock ticking away and to see the game go both ways inside the last minute – I hope we find someone with some dollars so we could showcase this sport. I imagine we’d have plenty of people watching.”
“But the league’s looking good! There’s still every team in it and that makes every team desperate for points… but I’ll tell you what, I don’t think Mascot are a team that should be on seven points; I feel sorry for some of their results because they should be on more.”
Vipers veteran Zvi Ben David admitted that there was a defining gap in their men’s position. “Our defence is letting us down big time; we need more understanding from the players,” he said.
“The massive difference with Dural and Inner West and Enfield is that their teams have been together a long time. For all the lack of experience in our side, we are only losing by one goal.”
“The good thing about it all is next week we play UTS and if we beat them are in the top-four; and if we keep improving and make the top-four then anything can happen.”
This week’s games
The Football NSW Select Futsal Premier League round eight Saturday action features South Coast Taipans against Enfield Rovers at the University of Wollongong Sports Hub (5.40pm), UTS Northside tackle Mascot Vipers at Sydney Boys High School (6.40pm), Boomerangs FS host Dural Warriors at the AIS Training Halls (7.20pm), while Inner West Magic meet Mountain Majik at Valentine Sports Park (7.40pm). Visit the Football NSW website (Futsal tab) for full details.
-By Dan De Nardi
