SELECT Futsal Premier League – Round 3 Open Men’s Review
2018-19 SELECT Futsal Premier League Open Men had Dural Warriors palm Inner West Magic 3-2, UTS Northside muscle Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 4-2, Mountain Majik down Enfield Allstars 5-2, and Mascot Vipers beat Campbelltown Quake 3-1.
Yet another tight round of results sees an extraordinary points table where a mere two points separates the highest Mountain from seventh.
In fact, the current top-five features Majik who’ve never been to the finals before, last year’s wooden-spooners Mascot in second, while new premier league club Easts and UTS (who’ve also never been to finals) are joint-third!
Inner West Magic 2-3 Dural Warriors Valentine Sports Park
UTS Northside 4-2 Eastern Subs Hakoah PCYC Dee Why
Enfield Allstars 2-5 Mountain Majik Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre
Mascot Vipers 3-1 Campbelltown Quake All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre
Dural Warriors Inner West Magic
Another Dural v Inner West game, another classic as Warriors held off a determined Magic 3-2 at Valentine Sports Park on Saturday evening.
Some viewers might say Dural rode their luck, scoring against the run of play after Fogarty had rattled the woodwork and with Inner West controlling possession and tempo, but this is why Warriors are so good.
Without several key players Dural held firm and Vic Koutsoufis finished well from a tight angle on the quarter-hour to dig in a dagger while Magic were desperately unlucky not to score on several occasions, the visitors taking their advantage to the interval.
It was twice that soon after oranges as Samuel De Oliveira pounced on a loose past to give Warriors a 2-0 break and force Magic into a fifth-man powerplay with more than a quarter-hour still to play, Wade Giovenali compounding inner West’s misery with a first-touch full-court sweep from near his own D into an empty net to make it a three-goal canter eight minutes from the end.
But you can’t deny the Magic intent and they still believed they’d get something from the match and first Jonathan Barzel struck and then Camilo Silva snuck in another one to make in a frantic final few minutes, but Warriors held on for a gritty win (their first of a tough start to the season).
There’s an aura about this fixture as virtually nothing has separated the two sides for a decade, and to underline the respect and unbound ferocity, the last nine meetings has seen the home side win just twice (graciously only eight of the last 25 encounters have been won by the host).
Warriors coach Rob Varela would be handy on the Florida coastline as, minus four Futsalroos, he guided his chargers through yet another storm.
“It was a good team performance; Our defence against their power play was excellent and despite two late goals we held on for a gritty win,” he said.
“Once again the younger guys stepped up and produced a great effort. We now need to back it up against an excellent Mascot Vipers side who are shaping up as real title contenders.”
Inner West official Matteo Maiorana said poor individual mistakes cost them the game. However, plenty of kudos has flowed Magic’s way after the commentated match was streamed live online through their website in a big step forward for premier league and Futsal promotion.
“Anytime we lose to Dural it’s disappointing. It’s the standout fixture in the entire country,” he said. “When we let ourselves down with mistakes it’s an even a tougher pill to swallow. The boys fought hard but in the end it wasn’t to be.”
Northside down Easts
UTS Northside showed up in a 4-2 Saturday-night tussle with Eastern Suburbs Hakoah at PCYC Dee Why on Saturday night, a win that kept the northerners in check with everyone else.
Following an arm-wrestle opener Joey Gibbs bobbed up for the only first-half goal to give UTS a 1-0 halftime advantage, but the game was back on even terms when Joshua Shubitz equalised for Hakoah almost straight after the restart.
A Brad Paikin strike then put Easts 2-1 ahead seven minutes from time, but Gibbs was having none of it scoring twice in a minute to restore Northside’s lead and they managed to hold on, the game soured by the late dismissals of Easts players Rob Ezekiel and Massimo Saro.
Majik defeat Allstars
Mountain Majik overcame Enfield Allstars 5-2 at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre to stake first place on the premier league open men’s ladder for the first time ever.
Enfield had plenty of first-half possession but it was the visitors who struck first and despite an Allstars barrage stayed 1-0 in front at the changeover.
The Mountaineers built on their platform, staying compact and disciplined without the ball while crafting dangerous attacks that led to two scores and a 3-0 lead before a fired-up Enfield fought back with two goals of their own to make for an exciting finish, but Majik got the job done with a couple more goals to end the game 5-2 up, Jordan Guerreiro bagging a brace.
Assistant coach Adam Barbera will never run out of praise for his fearless young brigade.
“It’s very pleasing to bounce back from last week’s defeat with a decent performance and a good result,” he said. “Our young squad never lost belief, they stayed composed and were able to get a couple of goals to seal the game.”
Vipers cage Quake
Mascot Vipers nestled into second place following a methodical 3-1 win over Campbelltown Quake at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night.
The home side led 1-0 at the break and were able to keep their old premier league foes at bay in a lively second term, Leonardo Pinto, Jacov Radas and Shane Watson scoring goals in Mascot’s third win against Campbelltown in 21 fixtures.
Next week’s games
SELECT Futsal Premier League round-4 Saturday matches features Mountain Majik versus Inner West Magic at Blacktown Leisure Centre (4.10pm), Campbelltown Quake host UTS Northside at Minto Indoor Sports Centre (4.50pm), Dural Warriors welcome Mascot Vipers to The Centre (6.50pm), and Eastern Suburbs Hakoah face Enfield Allstars at All Sorts Indoor Sports centre (8.50pm).
-By Dan De Nardi
