SELECT Futsal Premier League – Round 6 Open Men’s Preview
SELECT Futsal Premier League Open Men’s round 6 Saturday matches features Mountain Majik versus UTS Northside at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium (4.10pm), Inner West Magic face Eastern Suburbs Hakoah at Valentine Sports Park (6.20pm), Dural Warriors meet Campbelltown Quake at The Centre Dural (6.50pm), and Mascot Vipers host Enfield Allstars at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (8.50pm).
It’s certainly tight across the board and one glaring stat is an average goal-difference between the winners and losers so far this season of just 1.5; it’s roughly half most competitions (2012/13 had the biggest margin between sides at 3.1 per game) and betters the next closest season by a long way (2.5 in 2016/17).
And despite Magic’s seniors’ stuttering start to summer Inner West (72 points) have skipped clear in the club championship, Mascot (59), Easts (59) and Mountain (53) not too far behind, while UTS (44), Campbelltown (40) and Enfield (36) have left Dural (33) – who top the open men’s – languishing in the cellar.
Mountain Majik vs UTS Northside
Mountain Majik versus UTS Northside at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium on Saturday afternoon promises to be a good match.
The Mountaineers gave up first place with a 3-5 loss to Mascot last week and will be looking to steady the ship against a UTS side that’s bottom of the ladder and desperate to start building toward a possible top-four finish.
It really can’t get much tighter between the sides historically, three wins apiece and two draws underpinned by Northside scoring 20 goals in the fixture to Majik’s 19, plus half their games have been decided by a solitary goal (a 4-1 UTS win last season as big as it’s ever been and an epic 4-4 draw the last time they ran onto court together).
Northside set a new club low of four straight road defeats last week and will equal a club run of five win-less away games if they don’t win this weekend (this run has only happened nine times in premier league, Boomerangs the most with 14 and even Mountain features in the list with eight road trips without a win from 2014 to 2016).
UTS will want Alex Apananian to continue his hot streak against Majik, the young gun grabbing a brace in each of the last three encounters, and young Mason Ireland still leads the scorers’ chart with five (even though he hasn’t scored in three weeks); while in the ‘green’ corner Jamie Dib (33 goals) and Jordan Guerreiro (32) continue their joust as Majik’s highest men’s scorers.
Inner West Magic vs Eastern Suburbs
Inner West face Eastern Suburbs at Valentine Sports Park on Saturday evening – the first time they’ve met for official business (Magic spent the last 11 years in PL and Hakoah have been in PL2).
What makes the occasion grand is the dire straits Inner West find themselves in – one win from the opening five weekends, two defeats in a row at Valentine, equal last on the ladder, frantic for victory.
Interestingly Magic have dominated premier league opponents in the FA Cup… in fact they literally are the top-flight gluttons; in only five meetings between PL clubs in the first two editions of the knockout competition Inner West have four of them, most recently beating Enfield 6-3 at Valentine on October 16 (Dural beat Easts 4-2 in last week’s round-of-16 clash).
Easts are fresh from a 3-0 shutout of Campbelltown and have already shown they can match it with the big guns. This one’s shaken and stirred!
Dural Warriors vs Campbelltown Quake
It’s not quite Christmas but Campbelltown Quake almost need a miracle to defeat Dural Warriors at The Centre Dural on Saturday night.
Dural’s just reclaimed their usual top spot on the ladder, their youngsters are on fire, they’ve beaten Campbelltown the last nine times straight, and not just beaten – 6-0, 8-3, 5-1 and 10-1 scorelines in the last six meetings.
Sure Quake’s got the firepower, they’ve only been held scoreless four times in 165 PL games, and guess who’s whitewashed them every time… Dural.
And February 2014 must seem so long ago for Quake. That’s the last time they beat Warriors, a terrific 5-3 win at The Centre, but they’ve managed to score just 12 goals in the nine meetings since.
Warriors veteran Greg Giovenali has the most goals in the fixture with 13 (Danny Martinez eight for Quake), but can you believe D-machine Mark Symington has scored over 100 premier league goals in a glittering decade-long career but has managed just one goal against Dural, and that was more than four years ago.
Mascot Vipers vs Enfield Allstars
It’s Saturday night fever as Mascot Vipers host Enfield Allstars at All Sorts Indoor Sports centre as both sides have found their dancing feet and can consolidate a top-three spot with victory.
Enfield hold a commanding edge over Mascot winning 11 of 14 contests (one draw), but Vipers are chugging along nicely to be unbeaten at home the last three runs – their biggest stretch four matches without defeat in 2015/16.
Allstars can tie a club away-record if they win a third straight road game.
-By Dan De Nardi
