SELECT Futsal Premier League – Round 4 Open Women’s Review
The 2018-19 SELECT Futsal Premier League round-four saw a 2-2 draw between top-two Mountain Majik and Inner West Magic, UTS Northside overcome Campbelltown Quake 3-1, Dural Warriors finish 1-1 with Mascot Vipers, and Eastern Suburbs Hakoah outgun Enfield Allstars 5-3.
Magic and Majik remain joint-first on 10 competition points as UTS (9) crept closer and fourth-placed Easts (6) bridged a gap to bottom-four Campbelltown (4), Dural (4), Mascot (2) and Enfield (0).
Mountain Majik 2 (Ashlie Crofts, Tanya Borazio) Inner West Magic 2 (Rhianna Pollicina, Ceyda Cambaz)
Campbelltown Quake 1 (Zoeie Redman) UTS Northside 4 (Alexia Guerinoni, Grace Arnold, Ariella Cabezas, Genevieve Tucker)
Dural Warriors 1 (Tess Olsen) Mascot Vipers 1 (Krysta Gregory)
Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 5 (Madeleine Kowalenko, Tamires Souza 4) Enfield Allstars 3 (Fabiana Perfilio, Savannah Seixas, Zoe Zaczek)
Majik-Magic draw
Mountain Majik and Inner West Magic didn’t disappoint the fans as they battled out a ferocious 2-2 draw at Blacktown Leisure Centre on Saturday afternoon.
Majik’s Ashlie Crofts opened the scoring the second-minute of a fiery contest (her ninth goal this summer) only to see a quickfire double-strike from Rhianna Pollicina and Ceyda Cambaz lift Magic 2-1 in front after just 10 minutes of play.
When Tanya Borazio leveled the score for Mountain it looked like a real goal-fest but 2-2 is how it stayed due to some solid defence and scrappy offence at both ends of the court.
Mountain official Adam Barbera congratulated both sides on a rip-snorting contest and said the Majik women would glean plenty from the high-stakes occasion.
“We went into this game wanting to make a statement and create a gap at the top of the table. We knew the strengths Inner West have but we believed if we stuck to what we’ve been doing for the first three games of the season we’d win,” he said.
“Although we believed we performed well against strong opposition, we’re disappointed at the result. We were probably too cautious throughout the match and didn’t punish Inner West when we had the chances.
“They slowed the game down to their pace and we couldn’t play the quick-paced aggressive Futsal that has seen us be successful so far,” Barbera said.
“It’s still a great learning opportunity for us as it’s probably the first time our girls had played a top-of-the-table clash and played under the pressures associated with it.
“We’ve got a lot of Futsal left to play this season and we believe we still have a lot of growth in us.”
Without a number of key players at his disposal, Magic coach Matteo Maiorana was okay with sharing the spoils.
“It was a pleasing result considering we only had four regular senior players,” he said. “If there was a positive, the majority of the squad was made up of 14-16 year olds, which allows them to get more experience.”
“The competition is the closest it’s been for a quite a while, so we are happy with how we’re going considering the circumstances.”
UTS quell Quake
UTS Northside stole a 4-1 win against Campbelltown Quake at Minto Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday afternoon to move within one point of top spot.
It was 1-1 at oranges before the visitors ran away with it in the second term, Alexia Guerinoni, Grace Arnold, Ariella Cabezas and Genevieve Tucker goals canceling a first-half strike from Quake’s Zoeie Redman’s.
UTS coach Danny Beauchamp said one of the few differences between the sides in a quality match was Northside’s accuracy in front of goal.
“I thought we set the intensity in the first 10 minutes and really were unlucky to only be 1-0 up,” he said.
“Quake worked their way into the game and were unfortunate not to not go ahead due to some great saves from our goalkeeper.
“Luckily we were clinical in front of goal in the second half and showed maturity to see the game out. We need to improve once again for Dural next week.”
Dural, Mascot draw
Dural Warriors and Mascot Vipers fought out a 1-1 stalemate at The Centre on Saturday evening that doesn’t exactly inspire either side’s fortunes.
Warriors led 1-0 at the break courtesy of a Tess Olsen strike, they but couldn’t hold on as Mascot’s Krysta Gregory scored an equaliser that kept both sides in the bottom half of the table.
Easts Hakoah too classy fro Allstars
Eastern Suburbs Hakoah were too good for Enfield Allstars in a 5-3 win at All Sorts Indoor Sports centre on Saturday night.
Tamires Souza was in scorching form for Easts and grabbed a deuce in both halves to finish with a second four-goal haul of the summer and 10th goal of the season to lead the scoring charts, as Hakoah jumped into fourth spot.
Next week’s games
SELECT Futsal Premier League round-5 Saturday matches sees Mountain Majik host Mascot Vipers at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium (3.10pm), Inner West Magic play Enfield Allstars in a top-v-bottom clash at Valentine Sports Park (5.20pm), UTS Northside face Dural Warriors at PCYC Dee Why (6.20pm), and Eastern Suburbs Hakoah meet Campbelltown Quake at All Sorts Indoor Sports centre (7.50pm).
-By Dan De Nardi
