Round 8 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League
The excitement continued in round eight of the 2016/17 Football NSW Select NSW Premier League as Boomerangs beat Dural 4-1, UTS whitewashed Mascot 4-0, Inner West withheld Mountain Majik 6-3 and Enfield downed South Coast 5-1.
With six rounds left it looks likely to be an Inner West (19 competition points) versus Enfield (18) premiership duel with Dural (13) and UTS (13) locked on points and goal-difference, while Boomerangs (9), Mascot (7), South Coast (6) and Majik (6) need to conjure up something to figure in the playoffs.
Rovers stars Shervin Adeli and Michael Kouta lead the goalscoring charts with eight strikes – but there are still 24 players within four goals on the register.
In the club championship Vipers (155) remain four points in front of Magic (151) ahead of this weekend’s crunch meeting on Mascot’s home turf; Majik, Taipans, Warriors, UTS and Rovers pretty much assured of their premier league positions with Boomerangs a distant last.
South Coast Taipans 1 (Matt Mazevski) Enfield Rovers 5 (Michael Kouta 2, Clayton Musumeci, Shervin Adeli, Lachlan Wright)
UTS Northside 4 (Tristan Prendergast, Blake French, Alex Apanian, Nathan Amore) Mascot Vipers 0
Boomerangs FS 4 (Daniel Giovinazzo 2, Brad Sawyer, Michael Rinaudo) Dural Warriors 1 (Vic Koutsoufis)
Inner West Magic 6 (Daniel Fornito 2, Chris Zeballos, Matthew Lecce 3) Mountain Majik 3 (Manuel Duarte, Jordan Guerreiro 2)
Rovers bite Taipans
Enfield Rovers did everything right in a 5-1 defeat of South Coast Taipans at the University of Wollongong Sports Hub.
The visitors built on their 2-0 halftime lead but opened the door to South Coast when Matt Mazevski started and finished off a nice move early in the second term to halve the deficit; however, Michael Kouta finished with a double while Clayton Musumeci, Shervin Adeli and Lachlan Wright added the Enfield extras in a convincing four-goal win.
Rovers have won all six of their Taipans encounters and coach Ernie Bivona was delighted. “We did things right to a point; it was very humid and I thought we looked a bit sluggish, but it was important to get the three points and we did enough to win,” he said.
“They had some chances early in the game and our keeper Ricky Curmi did very well. We transitioned well whenever we lost the ball, but we just needed to capitalise on our many chances a bit more to make sure of it… but [South Coast’s] Matty Mazevski – what a player! Whenever he was on [the court] he gave us a lot of trouble.”
Sports purist Bivona is salivating at this season’s challenge, with every team a different mission to conquer, but laid down a warning to his players to not take any weekend for granted.
“I had a talk with the boys after the game and spoke about how each game was important. I thought Dural had found their feet after their 11-1 win, but Canberra want to get something out of this season and their men’s team is making the most of it; and I really rate [Northside coach, Futsalroo] Grant Lynch and UTS have some real Futsal heads at that club – they’re a dark horse and Dural will never be out of it.”
“Then we talked about how the premiership could come down to the [round 13] Inner West game and, let’s be honest, there are certain games you want to win every season and the derby’s one of them… but planning ahead doesn’t guarantee we win the games we have to. We simply can’t afford to drop any games or Magic will get too far away from us.”
Taipans coach Bobby Mazevski dipped his hat to Enfield but thought his team wasn’t as far off as the scoreline revealed. “I thought we had a similar number of chances, however we weren’t able to capitalise, especially at key moments in the game,” he said. “Credit to Enfield, their experience last night for me was the difference.”
Northside down Mascot
UTS Northside cleaned up Mascot Vipers 4-0 at Sydney Boys High School to move alongside Dural into third spot on the points table.
Mascot were again good value and dictated possession to start the game as a patient UTS sat back and seized on their opportunities – Nathan Amore tapping in a brisk counter-attack at the back post to open the scoring, Tristan Prendergast grabbing the second moments later striking the ball into the bottom corner after pressuring a Vipers defender, while a back-post Blake French finish made it 3-0 at the changeover.
The home team threw everything at Northside in the second half, eventually going to a fifth-man press, but Alex Apanian nailed the final goal on the buzzer as UTS wound up 4-0 winners, following on from a 2-0 round-one shutout of Vipers to make it four wins in six Mascot fixtures.
This was Mascot’s sixth goal-less league outing in over 100 runs, an unenviable joint-record with Phoenix (42 games) and Sydney City Eagles (58).
Northside coach Grant Lynch was doing his best to remain under the radar, but the rising UTS light was making it difficult for the club to stay in the shadows.
“We’re just playing well. The score didn’t really reflect how close the game was; Mascot moved ball around very well and missed quite a few chances. We sat a bit deeper and hit them on the counter,” he said.
“[Being coach] I’d like to think it’s tactical from us but it’s more a case of getting the players to believe in what we’re trying to achieve and work to our strength. We’re getting better at hitting on the counter and being more clinical going forward, and it’s more going out to continue performing and be as difficult as we can against the other teams.”
“[Keeper] Sam Benton played up from youth [Alex Pepper suspended following last week’s substation debacle] and made a few very good quality saves and kept us in the game during the opening changes. The young boys have been fantastic stepping us for us, especially Mitchell Whalley and Emilio Manos,” Lynch said.
“We hope we’re getting the right mix. In our first year in premier league we had a very young team and we’re starting to get more experience. It’s definitely not a lone job, there’s a whole heap of boys who are quality players, and our strength comes from a core team culture.
“I think a few of the younger boys coming through could come knocking on the national team in the future, and we want to push through as many as we can. Premier League is the perfect platform for the younger ones to get more experience and exposure.”
Boomerangs stun Dural
Boomerangs FS shocked defending champions Dural Warriors with a 5-1 demolition at the AIS Training Halls.
Dural took the lead midway through the first half via a Vic Koutsoufis goal only to see Boomerangs player Daniel Giovinazzo level on the stroke of halftime to make it one-apiece at the break.
The home team started the second half much better and stuck their noses in front when Brad Sawyer scored eight minutes after the restart, and some resilient defence in front of a superb Ashley Collins in the Boomerangs goal kept Warriors at bay.
Dural went for broke with a fifth-man press eight minutes from time but were stopped every time, Michael Rinaudo and Jake Wilsener seizing on the Warriors desperation with well-taken goals into an empty net to finish 4-1 victors.
While Dural boast a better overall head-to-head record of six wins in nine contests, the Territorians can claim two wins and a 3-3 draw in their past five meetings, and throw in a tight one-goal loss late last year and Boomerangs have become a real dent in the Warriors shield of late.
FS coach Kristian Collins was pretty darn chuffed. “The game was a good one and pretty even throughout. Ashley [Collins] in goals had a belter, and the boys took their chances well and were resolute in defence,” he said. “Everyone contributed, which was good… [and] a massive confidence-booster after three disappointing results too.
Warriors coach Rob Varela last week warned of a banana skin match in Canberra, and the club’s young brigade could only do so much in a valiant effort.
“An already difficult game was made even harder with the availability of only three senior court players, which meant a large number of youth players had to double up after a very intense game in their own age group,” he said.
“Despite that we started off quite well and went up one after creating, and wasting, many chances. We gave up the lead after a very good transition goal by Boomerang but we felt we were on top throughout the first half against a team that defended very well and looked to take their chances on the counter.”
“As the second half progressed the young guys became quite fatigued and we went down 1-2 goals; [So] we went onto the power play and despite creating numerous chances, which were repelled by an absolutely outstanding goalkeeping display, we conceded two late goals to drop three points we could ill afford to lose,” Varela said.
“All credit to Boomerangs who executed their game plan to near-perfection, but we are very disappointed that we wasted so many opportunities. We are still looking for the consistency that was our hallmark in previous seasons where we always managed to find a way to win games even when we were not performing at our best.”
Magic dispel Majik
Inner West Magic held off a determined Mountain Majik to win 6-3 at Valentine Sports Park, a club-record seventh straight unbeaten home fixture and their seventh success in eight club encounters with the Mountaineers.
A quickfire Daniel Fornito double got Inner West off to a flyer inside the opening 10 minutes, and when Chris Zeballos and Matthew Lecce added two more Magic seemed in cruise control 4-0 up on the quarter-hour mark.
But Manuel Duarte grabbed one back for the Mountaineers a minute later, with Jordan Guerreiro scoring twice just after the break to bring Majik within a goal of their opponents, and it was game on again.
It was to be Inner West’s day though, Lecce completing his hat-trick with 37th and 47th-minute goals as Mountain searched for a way back, Magic rounding out 6-3 winners.
Inner West manager Matteo Maiorana was content with the outcome. "It was a good performance which we probably made harder than what it should’ve been,” he said. “We were excellent in the first half – the ball movement was first class, defensive pressure excellent and we were clinical.”
“Credit to Mountain though. To get absolutely hammered in the first half and go 4-0 down, to work their way back to 4-3 was credit to their coach and team. We knew they were going to go fifth-man and prepared accordingly, and they never really got in any rhythm.”
“We were down on troops, but the senior boys played big minutes to secure the win. [Daniel] Fogarty was outstanding, [Daniel] Fornito was excellent and [Chris] Zeballos is starting to find his groove, [while] Matthew Lecce has been an absolute revelation this season – only a youth player, he has become an integral member of our men’s team and he bagged another three goals.
“It was also a good day for the club, picking up 19 club champions points, and it sure leads to a massive but exciting day next week versus [club leaders] Vipers."
Next week’s games
Football NSW Select Futsal Premier League round nine Saturday action features UTS Northside against Boomerangs FS at Sydney Boys High School (6.40pm), Enfield Rovers meet Mountain Majik at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm), Dural Warriors welcome South Coast Taipans to The Centre (7.55pm), while Mascot Vipers play Inner West Magic at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (8.50pm). Visit the Football NSW website (Futsal tab) for full details.
-By Dan De Nardi
