Round 4 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League

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SELECT Futsal Premier League round-4 results saw Dural Warriors overcome South Coast Taipans 4-1, Campbelltown Quake dispose of UTS Northside 5-1, Mountain Majik shock Enfield Allstars 1-0 and Inner West Magic defeat Mascot Vipers 3-1.

Unbeaten Dural (12 points) and Inner West (10) front Campbelltown (9), UTS (6), Enfield (4), Mascot (3) and the Mountaineers (3) – South Coast yet to win despite a string of promising performances.

This year’s tight start continued with 16 round-four goals the lowest of any completed premier league weekend on record (Ed: 15 were scored in the 2015/16 final round and 17 in the 2016/17 final round but both of these included a no-result scoreline).

It left this summer’s 5.3 game average almost 2.5 goals short of the overall 11-season mark. To put that low figure in perspective Dural average a league-high 4.9 goals a game on their own. The season’s average winning-margin of 2.9 goals is the tightest since 2009/10 when 2.7 goals defined the winning difference.

The club championship is an inferno of possibilities with Mountain Majik (67) and Warriors (66) narrowly leading Magic (60), Allstars (56), Quake (50) and Northside (46), while Vipers (36) and Taipans (34) lurk nearby.

Mountain Majik 1 (Chris Barbera) Enfield Allstars 0

Campbelltown Quake 5 (Mark Symington 3, Ed Rinaldi, Marko Filipovic) UTS Northside 1 (Giorgio Speranza)

Dural Warriors 4 (Greg Giovenali 2, Brandon Vella, Vic Koutsoufis) South Coast Taipans 1 (Ricky Goodchild)

Inner West Magic 3 (Daniel Fornito 2, Jonathan Barzel) Mascot Vipers 1 (Jun Arima)

 

Majik stun Allstars

Mountain Majik fought desperately to hang on to a 1-0 scoreline against Enfield Allstars at Blacktown Leisure Centre on Saturday afternoon and pick up their first win of the season.

Chris Barbera’s solitary goal proved the difference in a tense affair, Majik’s first cleansheet in 60 premier league outings also essential to picking up all three points.

The Mountaineers’ second win over Allstars in nine meetings was in stark contrast to a 6-6 slugfest in their last encounter, while Enfield’s fourth ‘nil’ scoreline sits equal with UTS for most premier league shutouts – still short of Sydney City Eagles (7), Mascot (6) and Phoenix (6).

Majik coach Adam Barbera was thrilled and, although he singled out club leading-scorer Jamie Dib and custodian Mark Brackenrig for special performances, paid tribute to an ultimate Mountain effort.

“It was a very good team performance and a lot of credit needs to go to coach Jamie Amendolia for the work he has done with this team over the past couple of months,” he said.

“We started well and had numerous good chances in the first half to score – a lot of credit needs to go to Enfield’s goalkeeper, he was excellent all match.

“Although the result was tight and Enfield forced a couple of good saves out of Mark, we always looked dangerous and if it wasn’t for some bad finishing we would have extended the lead,” Barbera continued.

“The result gives the boys a bit of a reward for the hard work they’ve been putting in at training, however we need to keep our heads down and continue to work as every game in this competition is tough and none get much tougher than Dural next week.”

Allstars coach Ernie Bivona should be worried with Enfield’s form. A third-straight winless-game sits precariously one short of a club-record four matches without success back in 2013/14, and they travel to a rejuvenated Mascot this weekend to try and stop the rot.

Quake rumble Northside

Campbelltown Quake comfortably accounted for UTS Northside 5-1 at Minto Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night to make it three wins on the trot and stake third place on their premier league return.

The home side controlled the game from minute-one to build a 2-0 halftime lead and, despite a second-term fightback from UTS that was nullified by an inspirational performance from Andrew Haim in goal for Campbelltown, the ‘Purples’ cruised to victory on the back of a Mark Symington hat-trick.

Scintillating Symington is no stranger to delivering a scorer’s masterclass. The premier league’s third-greatest striker behind evergreen Shervin Adeli (103 known goals) and team-mate Danny Martinez (93), ‘Symo’ (81) has compiled 3+ goals on nine occasions (Adeli a staggering 13 times and Martinez equal with Greg Giovenali on six, while Lachlan Wright and Corey Biczo have done it five times). He and Martinez head this season’s chart with four.

Quake club manager Carlos Martinez wasn’t getting too carried away with the result but was impressed with the team’s unity.

“With UTS having NPL experience with a number of Blacktown City players, Quake showed their Futsal know-how and after a couple of early goals never looked back,” he said.

“In the end three second-half goals sealed the three points, which gave Quake a massive 19 club championship points in our quest to remain in the top-flight.

“But as we always say this is early days and we all know how quickly good form turns into bad. This is a very tough competition where anyone can beat anyone if you are down on effort. So far, so good.”

Warriors strangle Taipans

Three unanswered second-half goals helped Dural Warriors past South Coast Taipans 4-1 at home on Saturday night to maintain a 100 per cent start to the season – their 50th registered open men’s win at The Centre.

Taipans (who shocked the five-time champions 2-0 in last year’s corresponding fixture) led 1-0 before a 1-1 halftime stalemate loomed ominous for Warriors before the ‘Reds’ hit the second-half afterburners and raced to a three-goal win, club stalwart Greg Giovenali bagging a late brace (his three-goal tally already more than last season’s total of two).

While far from convincing Dural are in familiar territory as competition pace-setters and perhaps the only minor concern for coach Rob Varela would be a four-round tally of eight bookings being almost half their overall total of 18 last summer.

‘It was a very entertaining game against a determined team who defended strongly and played quite well in attack,” he said. “After conceding a goal on transition we came back strongly and equalised through a great finish by Brandon Vella, who is no longer a star of the future but a dominant player right now.”

“We took control in the second half creating many chances with Vic Koutsoufis breaking the deadlock and Greg Giovenali securing the win with a couple  of good strikes – a good three points but we are looking to improve our overall play for the next coming games.

“Taipans really tested us and it won’t be long before they start climbing the ladder. They are very well drilled and have some very good players in their squad; it was great to see [Coast keeper and Futsal legend] Gavin O’Brien in action again.”

Ricky Goodchild became South Coast’s 35th scorer in just four top-flight seasons (and from a total of just 113 goals) – a mighty effort in arguably Australia’s toughest Futsal competition.

Foundation clubs Mascot (61) and Inner West (48) boast the highest number of scorers (both over 11 seasons) followed by Campbelltown (40) and Enfield (38). Incredibly even Mountain Majik’s (33) posted as many as highest-scorers Dural (33 players booting a combined 566 goals).

Taipans coach Bobby Mazevski was once again happy with his side’s effort against quality opposition and backed Coast to remain pivotal in this year’s finals race.

“1-1 at half time we were right in the game having taken the lead, and just like last week they got the go-ahead goal midway through second half,” he said. “We had some chances in the second period which we couldn’t take and pressed for a result late, however we were caught out a couple more times such is Dural’s efficiency.”

“I personally don’t think the score was an accurate reflection of the game. I feel for my team as I don’t think we deserve to be 0-4 at the moment – I still harbour hopes for a top-four finish but we have to start capitalising on our good periods if we’re going to do that.”

“[Regarding the number of scorers] I’m not surprised. We’ve had many players through our men’s program. This year we have a young squad that has a Futsal background. I think the future looks bright for this team if they can stick together.”

Magic cast out Vipers

Inner West Magic outclassed a spirited Mascot Vipers 3-1 at Valentine Sports Park on Saturday night to stay unbeaten hot on Dural’s heels.

A Daniel Fornito four-minute double close to halftime got Magic off to a great start and they were looking firm when Jonathan Barzel added a third just after the break, but Vipers refused to withdraw and pulled one back through Jun Arima before finally succumbing 3-1.

Unsurprisingly it was yet another close encounter between the only clubs to have met in every premier league season. Inner West may hold a superior 10 wins and two draws in 12 meetings since Mascot last won the fixture (9-5 in September 2011), but no Magic margin has been by more than three goals since a 7-2 win in January 2009.

Having said that, when it comes to two-goal margins no-one does it better than Inner West. They aren’t high-scorers like Dural (4.9 goals a game), Enfield (4.7) or Campbelltown (4.2), but Magic (3.5) – incredibly yet to reach double-figures in any of its 160 premier league matches – have won a convincing 26 of its 30 two-goal-differences (87%).

A sixth-straight game without loss is also Inner West’s second best run following a 12-match unbeaten sequence in 2014/15 (still half Dural’s incredible 25-match effort over three seasons from late 2014 to early 2017).

Magic club manager Matteo Maiorana applauded Mascot’s tenacity and was also at his acrobatic best in planting targets elsewhere in the competition.

“Whenever we play Vipers it is always one of our hardest games of the season. Every season Zvi seems to find these individually talented players who are very hard to defend against, but I can’t be any prouder of our boys. We were missing a number of players (Maiorana, Fogarty, Konstantinou) and were without [coach Stephen] Knighty yet we still came up with a very important three points – it shows the growth of our team over the past three years,” he said.

“We are playing really, really well and deserve to be where we are on the table but we know that Quake and Dural are still the teams to beat. As long as we continue to improve each week we will try our best to stay with them.”

Next week’s games

SELECT Futsal Premier League round-5 Saturday matches feature Mountain Majik against Dural Warriors at Blacktown Leisure Centre (4.55pm), Campbelltown Quake host South Coast Taipans at Minto Indoor Sports Centre (6.10pm), Inner West Magic play UTS Northside at Valentine Sports Park (7.40pm), and Mascot Vipers face Enfield Allstars at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (8.50pm).

-By Dan De Nardi