Round 9 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League
Round nine of the 2016/17 Football NSW Select NSW Premier League saw Inner West hold off Mascot 2-1, Dural down South Coast 8-1, Boomerangs and UTS Northside drew 4-4, while Enfield and Mountain Majik played out a thrilling 6-6 draw.
As the season breaks for the holiday period Inner West lead the way on 22 competition points with Enfield (19), Dural (16) and UTS (14) making up the top-four ahead of Boomerangs (10), Mascot (7), Majik (7) and South Coast (6).
But where the race for playoff positions gets fascinating is the top-four clubs all have fixtures against each other in the remaining five rounds of the summer, opening the door to a possible late rally from any of the bottom-placed sides.
A seventh draw this season has also become the most ever in premier league, surpassing six 2012/13 stalemates, while a fourth Boomerangs and Mountain Majik deadlock sees them join Inner West (2014/15) with the most number of level games.
A hat-trick to Enfield’s Michael Kouta (11) saw him shoot to the top of the goalscoring charts ahead of Warriors weapon Vic Koutsoufis (9), Majik’s Jordan Guerreiro (8), Rovers pair Shervin Adeli (8) and Clayton Musumeci (7) and Magic duo Daniel Fogarty (7) and Matthew Lecce (7) – 13 other players have scored five or more goals this summer.
Magic (168 points) overtook Vipers (163) to edge ahead in the club championship, Majik, Warriors, Taipans, Rovers and UTS all pretty close together as Boomerangs drifted further away… and Inner West maestro Matteo Maiorana offered this interesting fact: of the nine club championships his club’s won (Sydney Magic claimed the two Futsal Leagues before a premier league was established in 2007/08), they’ve led at the halfway mark just twice.
UTS Northside 4 (Grant Lynch, Tristan Prendergast 3) Boomerangs FS 4 (Michael Rinaudo 2, Nicholas Rathjen, Michael Reeve)
Enfield Rovers 6 (Michael Kouta 3, Clayton Musumeci 2, Laureano Gomez Castro) Mountain Majik 6 (Jordan Guerreiro 3, Manuel Duarte, Samuel Gulisano, Nicolas Ortega)
Dural Warriors 8 (Samuel De Oliveira 2, Vic Koutsoufis 2, Wade Giovenali 2, Glen Kelshaw, Brandon Vella) South Coast Taipans 1 (Matt Mazevski)
Mascot Vipers 1 (Shu Torihara) Inner West Magic 2 (Daniel Fornito, Matthew Lecce)
Northside, Boomerangs draw
UTS Northside came from three goals down and then scored in the closing minutes to snatch a 4-4 draw with Boomerangs FS at Sydney Boys High School.
Boomerangs bounded out of the blocks and sustained defensive pressure led to Michael Rinaudo, Nicholas Rathjen and Michael Reeve goals inside the opening quarter-hour, but they took their foot off the pedal as UTS rattled off three quickfire responses in six minutes – Grant Lynch and Tristan Prendergast (twice) – to lock it up at three-apiece at the changeover.
The visitors regrouped at halftime and a second Rinaudo goal straight after the break restored their slender advantage, but the Territorians couldn’t land a killer blow and hat-trick hero Prendergast seized the day with a great run down the right before turning inside and finishing off into the bottom-corner with four minutes remaining to share the spoils on a 4-4 final scoreline.
The inability to close out another game saw Boomerangs draw level with Mascot Vipers on 11 successive winless road games – adding extra spice to their next away fixture against Mountain Majik (round 13) – and coach Kristian Collins was clearly unhappy.
“We applied pressure up the pitch and limited their ability to maintain possession, and it was our defensive pressure that created the first two goals. But when we went 3-0 up after 15 minutes the players just stopped – it was incredibly frustrating,” he said. “We had chances to finish the game off, we just didn’t take them.”
The result summed up a season of missed opportunities for Boomerangs, who’ve claimed one point against bottom-four opposition while blowing leads against the top sides.
“I was thinking about it on a bloody long drive home [from North Sydney to Canberra]: we led against Warriors and drew, led against Magic and drew, led against Mountain Majik with two minutes to go and drew – we’ve led in five games and dropped points, and that’s the difference between where we are and being a top two team,” Collins said.
“We’ve proved we can compete… we’ve got a good bunch of kids together who just lack the maturity to finish games off. [Can you make the playoffs?] We’ve made it hard for ourselves with five games to go, but the next three are at home, and if we can get 11 more points in the run home then we’ll see where we finish.”
UTS coach Lynch appreciated the point after a gloomy opening. “It was a tough game. We started slow; they ran us around for the first 15 minutes and made it very difficult for us,” he said. “But we worked our way back into the game and started to get more confidence, and in the end it could’ve gone either way.”
“We’re backing ourselves, and as long as we can bring the same sort of intensity after the break there’s no reason we can’t continue getting the results we need.”
Rovers, Majik level
Enfield Rovers and Majik fought out a dramatic 6-6 draw at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre, Mountain Man Jordan Guerreiro nailing a last-second penalty to share the spoils.
It didn’t take long for Enfield to get the ball rolling with a goal inside the opening 30 seconds, and two more strikes in quick succession bumped Rovers to a 3-0 lead after just five minutes.
Nicolas Ortega had his goal for Majik cancelled out by another Rovers strike midway through the term, but in the blink of an eye the visitors were right back in it with Guerreiro and Manuel Duarte both scoring to trail Enfield 4-3 at halftime.
Rovers were having none of it and after oranges Michael Kouta completed his hat-trick while Clayton Musumeci scored his second to take the home side back out to 6-3 with 10 minutes left to play.
But the stubborn Mountaineers rode their luck well and first Guerreiro and then Samuel Gulisano scored to pull the deficit back to 6-5, and as the seconds ticked down a high-ball hope saw a penalty given when a Majik player was pushed in the back inside the D, Guerreiro stepping up to coolly slot home the spot-kick and steal a point for the visitors.
Enfield coach Ernie Bivona loves stats but he won’t like that, of the 19 occasions teams have scored at least a half-dozen goals without winning, Rovers have fallen short the most times – six (Vipers 4, Majik 2, Quake 2, Western Raiders 2, Warriors, Boomerangs, Taipans once each).
Enfield and Mascot drew 7-7 in 2013/14, Mascot fell 7-8 to Phoenix in 2014/15, while Enfield lost 7-11 to Dural in the highest-scoring premier league game in 2013/14. Rovers also drew 6-6 with Warriors last summer, and they probably haven’t forgotten a gutwrenching 6-7 semi-final loss to Campbelltown back in 2011/12 (Enfield also lost 6-8 to Dural the summer before).
Bivona is usually never short of words but he deliberately censored himself following a [challenging] match. “I’m shattered – they got us good last night. [Majik keeper] Mark Brackenrig made some crucial saves. [Some controversy] changed the game… in saying that we should have closed out the game ourselves,” he said.
“The Christmas break has come at a good time as some of my players really need the break. I hope to get back and hit the ground running. In the past the break was our downfall, but I think we need it and it’s my job to make sure we come back with commitment and intensity. There’s some really big games to look forward to in the new year… it gives us time to get over last night.”
Majik coach Babak Mentai said his side’s good fortune brought December 31 forward. “When Jordan scores the penalty in the last second it was like we shoot off fireworks for the new year!” he said.
“It was an incredible game – very ‘bang-bang’; they pressed us a lot and did whatever they wanted with us in the first half and my keeper [Mark Brackenrig] saved a lot of shots.
“[At halftime] I talk to the players and worked on their motivation, and I could see in their eyes that they could do something. Most had already played the Youth game and were backing up but we started pressing in the second half and we make something unbelievable happen.”
“My team is very young, the average age is around 20, but if they want they have a future if they focus on Futsal. [This result] is good for their mental health as they can take this as a motivation and come back next year and fight for a better position on the table,” Mentai said.
“Finally, I would like to say a merry Christmas and happy new year to all the Futsal community.”
Warriors trample Taipans
Dural Warriors wore down a depleted South Coast to win 8-1 at The Centre and avenge their early-season defeat to Taipans.
It was a game of cat-and-mouse early as South Coast gave as good as they got against a patient Dural, the home side finally breaking through on the cusp of halftime to take a 2-0 lead at the break.
The margin doubled straight after the restart before an impressive Matt Mazevski strike gave Taipans some hope, but their weary legs faded as Warriors scored four more goals in the 8-1 demolition – Samuel De Oliveira, Vic Koutsoufis and Wade Giovenali finishing with doubles.
Dural coach Rob Varela said he played on South Coast’s limited bench depth. “The plan was to make them work hard in defence because I knew the difference was in playing numbers… so we kept breaking their line, kept their defenders moving, and by halftime we were fairly comfortable,” he said.
“We certainly didn’t want to lose to them twice and the players were very focused. I also played 16 year old Carlos de Oliveira [first senior match] and he had a brilliant game – he didn’t look out of place, and this puts pressure on the older guys to do their job.”
Taipans coach Bobby Mazevski was still full of praise for his young brigade. “Most of my players were unavailable this week and we had just four regular men’s players plus three Youthies – two subs [overall],” he said.
“We held Dural scoreless for 20 minutes and weren’t without our chances, however, two quick goals before halftime proved to be a bit of a catalyst as we simply ran out of legs in the second half. I can’t fault the commitment of the players available – they gave everything.”
Magic edge Vipers
Inner West held off Mascot Vipers 2-1 in an exciting encounter at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre that stretched Magic’s table-topping position to three points over Enfield.
After a tight struggle for 20 minutes Inner West opened the scoring with Daniel Fornito twisting and turning away from three Mascot players to hammer a shot home from the top of the D, and when Matthew Lecce finished from a tight angle minutes into the second half the visitors looked comfortable ahead 2-0.
But Vipers came storming back into the contest and Shu Torihara scored an absolute bomb of a freekick to narrow the gap on the half-hour mark, and things got even tighter as both clubs ventured onto five fouls with 12 minutes to go – Magic holding on for a big win.
And while Inner West have beaten Mascot nine times in their past 11 premier league encounters, the biggest victory has been just three goals with four of the wins by the slimmest of margins (plus two 3-3 draws) – and Magic man Matteo Maiorana applauded yet anther brilliant spectacle.
“It was a game which kept everyone on the edge of their seats,” he said. "That Vipers team is going to be one hell of a side in a few years. They are only a young team but, gee, they work hard for their club.”
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy; we always seem to struggle against Vipers and their unorthodox style, but we battled hard and got the deserved victory.
“It ended up being a crucial win, especially with Enfield dropping points – Enfield’s defensive guru Robert Foti must’ve missed a training session this week,” Mairoana said with his tongue almost poking out from his cheek.
“It was a massive day for the club in terms of club championship securing a good haul, but I’ve been around long enough to know there will be many twists and turns before this season is over.
“I want to commend Zvi and the Vipers club as well as ours. With so much at stake [the fixture] was played with good intentions and no bad blood in any games.”
In the league’s 10-year history only Campbelltown (30) have been involved in more one-goal results than Mascot (29) – add draws and Vipers (41) overtake Quake (39) as the competition’s close-call kings. Unfortunately, Mascot boasts the second-lowest success rate winning on just 27% of occasions (Sydney Benfica lost all five one-goal games they played).
Next games
Football NSW Select Futsal Premier League round 10 continues on Saturday January 14 when South Coast Taipans host Mascot Vipers at the University of Wollongong Sports Hub (4.50pm), UTS Northside welcome Mountain Majik to Sydney Boys High School (6.40pm), Boomerangs face Inner West Magic at the AIS Training Halls (7.20pm), and Dural Warriors meet Enfield Rovers at The Centre in a new-year blockbuster. Visit the Football NSW website (Futsal tab) for full details.
