Round 7 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League
SELECT Futsal Premier League round 7 results saw Inner West beat Dural Warriors 4-2, Enfield Allstars defeat UTS Northside 4-2, South Coast Taipans and Mountain Majik fight out an enthralling 5-5 draw, and Campbelltown Quake down Mascot Vipers 5-2.
The results moved Inner West (16 points) just ahead of Dural (15), Campbelltown (15) and Enfield (13) with a crevice appearing before UTS (9), South Coast (7), Mountaineers (4) and Mascot (3).
And if you’re feeling the pinch it’s because winning ain’t what it used to be – this year’s victory margin is a 2.6 goal average, the closest on record and follows a downward slide since a game-winning margin high 3.4 in 2012/13.
The club championship: Mountain Majik (101), Magic (89), Warriors (85), Allstars (83), Quake (73), Vipers (71), UTS (66), Taipans (53).
The golden boot race is also hot as Allstars’ Shervin Adeli leads the way with nine goals, closely followed by Quake’s Mark Symington (8), Taipans duo Ricky Goodchild (7) and Matt Mazevski (6), Magic’s Daniel Fornito (6) and Quake’s Dean Lockhart (6), five other players within a four-goal striking distance of the top.
Mountain Majik 5-5 South Coast Taipans Blacktown Leisure Centre 4.05pm Saturday 25 November
Mountain Majik 5 (Chris Barbera, Jordan Guerreiro, Andrew Luttringer, Joshua Ross, Jack Wetney) South Coast Taipans 5 (Ricky Goodchild 2, Dion Sterjovski 2, Matt Mazevski)
Dural Warriors 1-4 Inner West Magic The Centre, Dural 6.50pm Saturday 25 November
Dural Warriors 1 (Carlos De Oliveira) Inner West Magic 4 (Daniel Fogarty, Daniel Fornito, Jonathan Barzel, Brett Forward)
Enfield Allstars 4-2 UTS Northside Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre 8.05pm Saturday 25 November
Enfield Allstars 4 (Shervin Adeli 2, Dominic Cox, Charles Abou Serhal) UTS Northside 2 (Alex Apanian, Grant Lynch)
Mascot Vipers 1-5 Campbelltown Quake All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre 8.50pm Saturday 25 November
Mascot Vipers 2 (Alex Euripidou, Joel Flores) Campbelltown Quake 5 (Harrison Bagot, Dean Lockhart 2, Daniel Martinez, Mark Symington)
Mountain level with Coast
Mountain Majik powered home in a grueling 5-5 slugfest with South Coast Taipans at Blacktown Leisure Centre on Saturday afternoon.
The southerners blasted out of the blocks as Ricky Goodchild scored in the first minute of play, but the home side were buoyed by the return of prodigy Mountaineer Jordan Guerreiro from Europe and he equalised before team-mate Chris Barbera added another to give Majik a sixth-minute lead.
Dion Sterjovski returned fire for Coast a minute later and further goals to Matt Mazevski and Goodchild pushed Taipans to a 4-2 advantage, Majik hitting back through Andrew Luttringer before a second Sterjovski strike ended a sizzling first half with the visitors 5-3 ahead.
But that’s as far as they got as the Mountaineers regained the ascendancy and leveled the scores on the half-hour with Josh Ross and Jack Wetney goals, and neither side could find a crucial matchwinner in a riveting run home that saw the points shared.
South Coast’s only win against Mountain was a forfeit in their maiden clash two years ago (the match evenly poised at 2-2 at the time) and Taipans will rue a missed opportunity as Majik again showed great maturity to earn a valuable point that lifts them from the basement.
Mazevski has certainly made his presence felt in the fixture having scored in four straight Mountain meetings, and what a run Goodchild is having after scoring a third straight deuce to already equal the club’s season record (Riku Iwauchi did it last summer and Daniel Ferraro in 2011/12).
Taipans coach Bobby Mazevski felt the draw was deserved and remained upbeat with his team’s progression – the first time Coast have gone three games unbeaten, and they’ve also scored 26 goals this summer (20 in the last three runs) to sight the club’s record 39-goal haul in 2015/16.
“It’s nice to be finally getting some reward (seven points from the last three games) for our determination and positivity,” he said. “We’ve only been behind twice this year at the break and as such we really need to address our second half performances to get more consistency.”
“As for the game, I would have loved another three points however it was probably a fair result if I’m honest.”
Magic power over Warriors
A ridiculous second half ended with Inner West Magic 4-1 on top of Dural Warriors at The Centre, Dural on Saturday evening and with it first place in the competition.
As usual the two sides went blow-for-blow in a scoreless first term but the swap-over also brought a flurry of activity as the second half started with some Chris Zeballos brilliance down the right as he beat a Dural defender and squared the ball to an ongoing Daniel Fogarty who slammed home from close range and open the scoring.
Daniel Fornito then sent the Magic crowd into raptures with a rasping shot across Warriors keeper Nick Starr that almost ripped a hole in the net to make it 2-0 on the half-hour.
Dural were back in it when they capitalised on a wayward Magic pass and Carlos De Oliveira’s scrambled goal halved the deficit with 15 to go but Inner West returned favour with a midcourt Fogarty interception setting up off-season recruit Brett Forward for his second goal in consecutive games, Jonathan Barzel blasting in a last-minute screamer to seal a 4-1 win.
How things change: after winning just two of their first 16 Dural meetings Inner West have now won three of the last five to signal a real changing of the guard, and the man barking the orders is Fogarty who’s scored six goals in those five encounters.
Magic club manager Matteo Maiorana held high praise for the effort: “It was another brilliant performance by our boys! It’s always a tough, fierce, battle and we knew that coming in and our senior players all stepped up – Fogarty was influential and brilliant, Zeballos had his best game of the season, while Fornito and Barzel have turned into some of the best young players in the country,” he said.
“There is a massive rivalry between the clubs and our boys stepped up and were determined to win. The return of [coach Stephen] Knighty was huge for the team. He’s highly influential and a calming influence on the boys; it’s still early but he boys are travelling well.”
The same can’t be said about once perennial-champions Dural following back-to-back losses… they’ve never gone three games without a win across 133 league outings and face red-hot Campbelltown this weekend.
Enfield down Northside
A methodical 4-2 Enfield Allstars win against UTS Northside at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night built a four-point gap between fourth and fifth place.
Goalscoring machine Shervin Adeli put Allstars on the board in just three minutes only to see Northside equalise through Alex Apanian, but the home side were on their game and restored the advantage a minute later via a Dominic Cox strike before Adeli added another just before the changeover.
Enfield missed some golden chances and UTS captain-coach Grant Lynch gave his side some hope with a goal seven minutes from time that brought it back to 3-2, but Charles Abou Serhal certified the Allstars’ 4-2 victory.
Enfield’s fifth win in seven UTS fixtures also avenged a 3-6 loss to Northside at ‘Morris Iemma’ last summer, and Cox has played a big part scoring in a fourth straight encounter, but it’s the Shervin Adeli Show at the moment – the premier league’s greatest ever striker shooting to the top of the scorers chart with nine for the season (scored in just four games).
A player scoring 5+ braces in a season has only happened a dozen times in 11 premier leagues, Adeli has done it three times already and needs one more this summer to add another to the archives (Coast’s Ricky Goodchild and Campbelltown’s Dean Lockhart have accumulated three doubles this summer).
Lynch, who’s scored in five of the seven Enfield meetings, offered no excuses and knew UTS had to turn history on its head to become a finals contender.
“They were better on the day, for sure. Credit to us that we kept ourselves in the game, but they created a number of opportunities to finish the game off,” he said.
The result left UTS dangling in fifth place but with six of their remaining eight matches on home turf you’d think they’d be primed for a barnstorming second round; however last year the northerners didn’t win any of their last six home fixtures to tumble from third to sixth and miss the post-season dance.
“We’re definitely aiming to set that straight this year and get a good record at home,” Lynch said. “We’re still confident, there’s an entire round to go and we’ve have had players missing in key games – there’s definitely no-one we can’t get a result against. There are strong teams and we have to play well on the day to get a result, but we’re capable of beating everyone.”
Campbelltown beat Mascot
Campbelltown Quake worked hard for a 5-2 defeat of Mascot Vipers at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night, turning a slender 2-1 halftime lead into a three-goal victory that moved them within a point of the top of the leaderboard.
The home fans rose when Alex Euripidou drew first blood for Vipers but Campbelltown steadied and offered two responses that staked a narrow halftime lead.
Quake’s experience then shone through as they took advantage of some tired Mascot legs to pull further away, Dean Lockhart finishing with a double complemented by Harrison Bagot, Daniel Martinez and Mark Symington extras.
It was Campbelltown’s seventh win against Mascot in their last nine encounters, and while Euripidou has banged Vipers goals in the last three meetings Symington has done it six straight times (eight goals).
Despite missing last year’s premier league Quake coach Scott Gilligan isn’t surprised his team hasn’t skipped a beat on their return: “If you look at the three years previous they made the final twice so it’s not a great surprise we’re up there,” he said.
“We played poorly against a good South Coast [6-9 loss], addressed things at training, and playing midweek gives us the chance to use other players; but our youth have progressed well into the senior team and now we have a bit of a dilemma to give everyone a run that deserves it.”
“A core of players have been together for quite some time and that’s also the core to our success. The intensity at training between the men and youth is incredible, they really push each other and that goes a long way to helping them improve and be ready to play each weekend.”
“Mascot individually have some fantastic, technical players; but they haven’t gelled as well as a team just yet, so we played compact to limit their chances and when they got a bit looser in the second half we got the jump on them. We missed some goals we should’ve scored but that wasn’t costly… our game was one of the best we’ve played this year.”
Campbelltown president Carlos Martinez was relieved following the outcome with his eyes scanning the horizon at the long campaign ahead. “It’s a tricky game for Quake … and we were made to work hard to overcome an unpredictable Mascot,” he said.
“Truth be known our battle to remain in the top flight is the more important battle for our club and although yesterday was not a great day, the gap to the relegation zone favours Quake at the moment. Already half the year gone and we expect an even tougher second half. We keep working!”
Next week’s games
SELECT Futsal Premier League round-8 Saturday matches feature Mountain Majik against Inner West Magic at Blacktown Leisure Centre (4.55pm), Dural Warriors host Campbelltown Quake at The Centre, Dural (6.50pm), UTS Northside face Mascot Vipers at PCYC Dee Why (7.30pm), and Enfield Allstars meet South Coast Taipans at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (8.05pm).
-By Dan De Nardi
