Round 3 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League
The SELECT Futsal Premier League round 3 saw Campbelltown beat Enfield 5-2, Dural blunt UTS 3-0, Inner West edge South Coast 2-1, and Mascot defeat Mountain Majik 6-2.
While the open men’s points spread out a little – Dural (9 points) the only perfect team and Inner West (7) also unbeaten, Campbelltown (6), UTS (6), Enfield (4) and Mascot (3) also bragging winning starts – the competition remains entertainingly tight.
The overall club championship however is simply mesmerizing! The only two current clubs who’ve won the title – Inner West (38) and Mascot (32) – are in the bottom half while a handful of points separate top-three Majik (50), Allstars (48) and Warriors (47). Northside (39) is thereabouts in fifth but trailers Campbelltown (31) and South Coast (31) need to pick up the pace.
South Coast 1 (James Brodnik) Inner West Magic 2 (Daniel Fornito, Michael Cimino)
Dural Warriors 3 (Glen Kelshaw, Carlos De Oliveira, Brandon Vella) UTS Northside 0
Enfield Allstars 2 (Shervin Adeli 2) Campbelltown Quake 5 (Danny Martinez 2, Ed Rinaldi, Mark Symington, Shannon Fielding)
Mascot Vipers 6 Mountain Majik 2 (Jamie Dib, Andrew Luttringer)
Inner West down Coast
It was Halloween fright-night for defending champions Inner West as Magic clung to a scary 2-1 victory over South Coast Taipans at the University of Wollongong Sports Hub on Saturday evening.
There was action at both ends as the home side stuck with Inner West throughout an evenly-fought contest, Magic’s Daniel Fornito canceling a James Brodnik strike for Taipans as the sides retired for halftime locked at 1-1.
Inner West certainly had the opportunities to make it more comfortable for themselves but South Coast’s tenacity in defence and the wicked woodwork made them sweat for a victory only sealed when Michael Cimino finally broke the back of the net for a 2-1 Magic win – their seventh straight against Taipans but by the closest margin between them.
Inner West club manager Matteo Maiorana wondered if some clever carpentry had made life more difficult for a Magic outfit that boasted some of the best finishers in the league.
“Once again I was really happy the way the boys played, especially the amount of chances we created.
“Credit to Taipans, they played well and made it a tight game – it was quite nerve-wracking in the final 90 seconds!”
“Once again the opposition goalkeeper was their best player and made a number of incredible saves. [Daniel] Fogarty had an excellent game [for us] and lead the team well while Fornito is finally showing the potential that could make him one the competition’s best player on a regular basis.”
South Coast coach Bobby Mazevski was just as proud of his chargers’ ghoulish effort. “I think we may have given Inner West Magic a bit of a fright last night!” he said.
“I felt our young side defended well and created several handy chances. We finished the game strong and perhaps on another day we would have got something out of that.
“I thought collectively we played a strong game, but winning is a habit and we just haven’t been able to crack it. In saying that, we are a much improved side this year in my opinion and a string of wins will come if we can replicate this effort each week.”
Dural defeat UTS
Dural showed class and experience in a 3-0 victory versus a gallant UTS Northside at The Centre, Dural, on Saturday night – a result that made Warriors outright competition leaders for the first time since the same round last season.
The visitors were without inspirational caption-coach Grant Lynch for the encounter but stayed well in the contest through some brave defence laced with opportunistic counter-punches, and only Glen Kelshaw’s early goal separated the teams at the interval.
It was a similar second-half pattern as Dural missed a plethora of golden chances until goals from teenagers Carlos De Oliveira and Brandon Vella pushed them to a three-goal win, a seventh straight against the northerners.
A third cleansheet versus UTS also highlights Dural’s ability to block teams from the contest. It was their 17th premier league shutout, more than double next-best Inner West (8) and Campbelltown (6).
Warriors coach Rob Varela was satisfied with the result but wanted a more clinical finish to their territorial and possession dominance.
“It was another good, solid performance against a team that defended very deep and relied on the sporadic counter attack. We created many chances but we have to improve our conversion rate in future games,” he said.
Campbelltown beat Enfield
Campbelltown Quake made it back-to-back road wins with a spirited 5-2 Saturday night rout of Enfield Allstars at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre.
The visitors were brisk from the outset and raced to a 3-0 halftime advantage that extended to four just after the break before Enfield stormed back into the contest behind a constant attacking barrage that halved the deficit – a fifth Campbelltown goal two minutes from the end putting the matter to bed.
Quake ace Danny Martinez netted a pair with team-mates Ed Rinaldi, Mark Symington and Shannon Fielding also penning their name on the scoresheet, while the league’s greatest-ever scorer Shervin Adeli came straight from the airport following a long flight back from Italy to bury two Allstars goals.
Both sides already boast many great rivalries and this is another set in stone: since Enfield entered the 2010/11 premier league level Quake narrowly tip the scales with eight successes to Allstars’ seven.
A couple of canny ‘Towners in particular seem to revel in the circumstance. Symington’s strike was his 16th against Enfield (remarkably more than 20% of his overall premier league tally), while Martinez has scored in 10 of the 15 meetings (15 goals in total) – together they’ve bagged almost half of Quake’s 68 goals over the years against Allstars / Rovers.
Enfield have their own enforcer in Adeli, who’s scored an incredible 18 goals in the fixture (twice he’s grabbed four-goal hauls versus Campbelltown), and a second successive brace means Adeli has netted multiple goals on 30 premier league occasions (five times against Quake) – a figure that stands over next-best Martinez (24) and Dural’s Greg Giovenali (20).
Campbelltown club manager Carlos Martinez was thrilled with a warm start to the summer. “It was a good win and we played probably our best game in quite a while… and against quality opposition” he said.
“Our intensity was super in defence, and the speed from our starting youngsters helped us get out to a four-goal lead. When Enfield came back to 4-2 with five minutes to go we kept our cool and defended very well – Andrew Haim was super in goals and made some crucial saves before we scored our fifth and it was game over.
“And their keeper, Stephen Spirou… amazing, amazing. If it wasn’t for him we could’ve shot to an even bigger lead.”
Quake’s second straight win on the road keeps them on a steady course following an opening round Dural dust-up, last season’s runaway premier league two winners first defeat in quite some time.
“No-one needs a loss but we hadn’t lost a game since the grand final loss to Dural [March 2016]. Including all competitions we had gone a lot of games without losing, I think almost 40, and Dural gave us another lesson so, yeah, it was a wake-up call on our attitude, including mine,” Martinez said.
“Look, every point is important for us as we need to make sure we stay in the club championship as that’s where we believe we belong, but as a [senior] team we think we’re one of the strongest in the competition on paper and now we’ve got to prove it.
“We’ve got an awesome coach in Scott Gilligan who is very, very smart, we’re training very, very hard, and we haven’t won anything [in open men’s] since 2010 so it’s been a long time between drinks.
“The competition has got a lot closer and any team can beat you on the weekend, so we need to aim for consistency. If we can beat the strong sides we also need to beat the rest,” he said.
“But the first goal is survival. It is just so close between every club that every result makes a difference.”
In eight premier league summers this is the first time Enfield haven’t won in three-straight home fixtures (following two draws). Coach Ernie Bivona was frustrated with the outcome but held little concern his side is still building toward a good season.
“Full credit to Scott [Campbelltown coach Gilligan] and the Quake lads,” he said. “They played a very smart game; they were disciplined and deserved the three points.”
“I was disappointed with the result especially after a good training session during the week. The effort was definitely there but I think I lost myself and put my team off.”
“I’m sure we’ll bounce back, and if I was to take some positives out of the loss it would be the young lads stepping up – I know I can trust them. They play their game in the youth division and then come up and do a very good job [for the senior team].”
Mascot rock Mountain
Vipers proved too good for Mountain Majik following an emphatic 6-2 win on Saturday night – Mascot’s first home win in five runs at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre.
Following a tense first half where the home side led 3-2 at the changeover, Mascot had all the second-half questions and answers with three unanswered second-half goals sealing a much-needed victory.
What a showtime rivalry Vipers v Majik has become as the recent result squared it all up at four wins apiece (one draw) – at a whopping 94 goals to boot (an average of 10.4 a game)!
Mountain coach Adam Barbera knows full well the mission before him. After the loss of star player Jordan Guerreiro he needs his young side to gain the necessary experience to be an open men’s force.
“We started well but just couldn’t find any consistency or rhythm [against Mascot]; we lost the individual battles and made quite a few mistakes and got punished for that,” he said.
“With Jordan going we lost a leader on the park, he was a lynchpin that other players would play off. But we were never a one-man team and the young squad all up is just a little underdone and lacking a bit of Futsal knowledge… and with the competition being so strong we’re getting found out.”
“But the club overall is in a very healthy state and the vision has always been 5-6 years down the track to have a highly competitive senior men’s and women’s side.
“The young players coming through are good, the quality’s there, we just need another 1-2 more experienced players in the senior side and the more games these youngsters play will get them there.
“We’re not far off getting the full games we need to compete at this level.”
Next week’s games
SELECT Futsal Premier League round 4 Saturday matches feature Mountain Majik against Enfield Allstars at Blacktown Leisure Centre (4.55pm), Campbelltown Quake host UTS Northside at Minto Indoor Sports Centre (6.10pm), Dural Warriors face South Coast at The Centre, Dural (6.50pm), Inner West Magic play Mascot Vipers at Valentine Sports Park (7.40pm).
