Round 2 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League
The Football NSW SELECT Futsal Premier League round 2 saw Enfield Allstars draw 1-1 with Inner West Magic, Campbelltown Quake beat Mountain Majik 6-1, UTS Northside down South Coast Taipans 4-1 and Dural Warriors edge Mascot Vipers 3-2.
To underline what promises to be an enthralling season just 19 goals were scored over a tight weekend – the equal-third lowest accumulation (alongside 2016/17 round-12 and 2013/14 opening round), keeping in mind the two lowest-scoring weekends only had three games played (15 goals in the 2015/16 final round and 17 in the 2016/17 final round).
Currently the 5.9 goals a game average is well short of last summer’s league-low 6.7 (2009/10 also averaged 6.7 goals per game).
Mountain Majik 1 (Mohammad Dubdub) Campbelltown Quake 6 (Brad Wright 2, Danny Martinez 2, Marco Filipovic, own goal)
Dural Warriors 3 (Carlos De Oliveira, Samuel De Oliveira, Brandon Vella) Mascot Vipers 2 (Hezio Silva Neto, Shu Torihara)
UTS Northside 4 (Joey Gibbs 2, Tristan Prendergast, Grant Lynch) South Coast Taipans 1 (Matt Mazevski)
Enfield Allstars 1 (Michael Kouta) Inner West Magic 1 (own goal)
Dural edge Mascot
Warriors fought tooth and nail to hold off a stubborn Mascot 3-2 at The Centre, Dural on Saturday evening – a 15th straight win versus Vipers.
In a hotly-contested first half only 16-year-old Carlos De Oliveira’s goal separated the two sides as Dural led 1-0 at the changeover.
The teams went neck-and-neck in a lively second term that saw Warriors collect four yellow cards but also hold on for a 3-2 victory – Samuel De Oliveira and Brandon Vella goals canceling Hezio Silva Neto and Shu Torihara strikes for Mascot.
Warriors mastermind Rob Varela was at his brilliant best in playing a straight bat after a tense match.
“[It was a] hard fought win against a team that defended very strongly,” he said. “We dominated possession and scored some good goals only to allow them back into the game through some lapses in concentration.”
“I’m quite happy to start the season with two wins but we know we have a lot of work to do to be where we want to be.”
Some interesting Warriors stats pop up following another hard-fought win. Their seventh straight success at The Centre, Dural is one short of an epic hometown shutout. They already own the two best premier league runs on home turf (11 straight over 2014/15-2015/16 and 10 over 2012/13-2013/14), and can draw alongside Boomerangs (eight from 2013/14-2016/17) with victory against UTS this week.
Incredibly, Warriors have won 48 times in 61 Dural fixtures (six draws), a 79% success rate that towers over next-best Boomerangs (64%), Quake (63%) and Magic (60%).
They’re also the kings of close affairs – Dural’s won 17 of its 22 one-goal premier league results (77%); next best is Enfield (68%).
Unfortunately it was yet more heartbreak for a valiant Mascot – they’ve won just 11 of its league-high 31 close-games (35%) and haven’t beaten Warriors since late 2009, and it was a second straight 2-3 scoreline following their opening-round loss to UTS.
Northside down Coast
A methodical UTS Northside overcame South Coast Taipans 4-1 at Valentine Sports Park on Saturday night to stay joint-first with Dural on the points-ladder.
Joey Gibbs led the charge with a double as the ‘home’ side sped to a 3-1 halftime lead and added a second-half sealer to make it two-from-two to start the new season, Tristan Prendergast and captain-coach Grant Lynch both scoring for the second week running.
Grant agreed that a perfect start was the perfect way to forget last season’s late capitulation. “I like to think we all developed over the course of what happened but, to be fair, a few things hampered us at the end of last year… it became a very hard job keeping everyone together.”
“I don’t know if we’re a better side than last year but we’re probably a more complete side. We’ve brought in a few new faces and a few Youth players have progressed into men’s so they’re not playing two games a week anymore, and everyone is really able to contribute.”
“But there’s not a weak side in the men’s level of this competition and if you underestimate anybody it can be a tough result for you. For us the problem has always been consistency. I feel we can compete with the top-four teams, but we need to perform well every week.”
Northside tipped the books in their favour with a third win in five South Coast meetings.
Enfield, Inner West deadlocked
Enfield and Inner West drew 1-1 in a typically fiery derby at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night, a last-second Lachlan Wright deflection granting Magic a late equaliser after Michael Kouta scored for Allstars 10 minutes earlier.
Nostalgia filled the air and the Allstars vs Magic derby was back on! And the anticipated match-up didn’t disappoint with plenty of action at both ends and fireworks exploding across every inch of the court.
Both keepers Enfield’s Stephen Spirou and Inner West’s Domenic Badolato were absolute standouts with Spirou arguably turning in a man of the match performance making numerous world-class saves to maintain Enfield’s slight advantage until 15 seconds to go when a Daniel Fogarty shot ricocheted off Wright to perhaps deservedly share the spoils in a thrilling cross-town contest.
To underline the derby’s credentials, in 15 encounters Inner West edge Enfield seven wins to six (plus two draws), and only one of the last 11 meetings has been decided by more than two goals.
Magic club manager Matteo Maiorana applauded both sides for upholding derby traditions.
“It was a brilliant game for the spectators in attendance; end-to-end with both teams having played their part in an exciting game. Enfield were good but we were brilliant! I think it was our best game in three seasons, only matched when we beat Dural 5-1 at Dural!” he said.
“Spirou was unbelievable in the Enfield goals and saved 9-10 shots that on any other day we would’ve scored. Badolato in goals for us also made a number of brilliant stops.
“Our disappointment was not with the performance but not getting the points our performance deserved; credit to Enfield, they also played well and it makes for an exciting rematch!”
Fogarty has certainly made his presence felt in derby games. His shot led to Inner West’s dramatic leveler and he’s also scored in the previous four meetings – all but one resulting in a Magic win.
Kouta too is showing a liking for the pressure-cooker, adding to last season’s brace against Inner West.
Campbelltown defeat Mountaineers
Campbelltown Quake scored three goals in each half to comfortably beat Mountain Majik 6-1 at Blacktown Leisure Centre on Saturday afternoon.
It was 3-0 at the interval and Quake finished off the job with Danny Martinez and Brad Wright bagging pairs apiece to hand Campbelltown a sixth straight success against Majik – they’ve also compiled 42 goals in seven Mountain meetings, Martinez contributing seven of them.
Next week’s games
SELECT Futsal Premier League round 3 Saturday matches feature South Coast against Inner West Magic at the University of Wollongong Sports Hub (5.40pm), Dural Warriors host UTS Northside at The Centre, Dural (6.50pm), Enfield Allstars meet Campbelltown Quake at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (8.05pm), and Mascot Vipers play Mountain Majik at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (8.50pm).
-By Dan De Nardi
