SELECT Futsal Premier League – Round 7 Open Men’s Review
SELECT Futsal Premier League round-7 results saw Mountain Majik break Campbelltown Quake 6-2, Dural Warriors whitewash Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 3-0, UTS Northside beat Enfield Allstars 5-1, and Inner West Magic down Mascot Vipers 7-3.
Dural (16 points) lead Mountain (13), Mascot (11) and Inner West (10), with UTS Northside (8), Easts (7), Enfield (7) and Campbelltown (7) all well and truly in the playoff race.
And a beautiful top-two battle between Dural and Mountain next weekend also adds layered context to the trophy chase!
On an individual note, Warriors weapon Wade Giovenali is one goal shy from joining a very elite club of players known to have scored 50 times in arguably Australia’s toughest Futsal league.
Over a dozen years, more than 400 players have scored a premier league goal for 18 different clubs.
Futsal royalty Shervin Adeli, Danny Martinez and Mark Symington are proven centenarians as Wade’s older brother Greg closes in on the hundred-mark, while Daniel Fogarty, Dean Lockhart, Lachlan Wright and Chris Zeballos have all passed 50.
[Several other players quite probably reached a half-century, including Toby Seeto, Marino Musumeci, Harley Da Silva, Vic Koutsoufis, Isaac Wadik, Daine Merin, Rob Foti and Shayne Ardle]
Campbelltown Quake 2 (Shannon Fielding 2) Mountain Majik 6 (Jordan Guerreiro 2, Bradie Smith 2, Jack Wetney, own goal)
Dural Warriors 3 (Wade Giovenali, Sam de Oliveira, Bruno Pivato) Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 0
Enfield Allstars 1 (Shervin Adeli) UTS Northside 5 (Mason Ireland 3, Tristan Prendergast, Nathan Amore)
Mascot Vipers 3 (Jakov Radas 2, Jun Arima) Inner West Magic 7 (Domenic Badolato, Jonathan Barzel 2, Daniel Fornito 3, Andrew Luttringer)
Majik silence Quake
Mountain Majik ran riot around an inexperienced Campbelltown Quake winning 6-2 at Minto Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday afternoon to steal second spot on the ladder.
Quake were already missing key players Daniel Martinez, Dean Lockhart, Anthony Haddad, Marko Filopovic and Nathan Clissold, and then had their last remaining star Mark Symington go down badly with an injured ankle during the game.
It made for a near-impossible Mountain to climb as Jordan Guerreiro and Bradie Smith scored pairs for Majik, who can join Dural at the competition summit with a favourable result from next week’s clash at The Centre.
Majik’s second win in a row at Minto delighted club-man Adam Barbera.
“We’re very pleased with the whole team performance. It was great to bounce back from a couple average performances and get a result,” he said.
“It’s been a decent start to the year and we’re happy with where we are on the table. We feel we have a lot more development in us and look forward to kicking on for the rest of the season and cement a spot at the top of the table.”
Probably a stat Majik won’t want to look at: a second yellow card to Jamie Dib became the 13th red shown to a Mountaineer over the past six seasons – the most of any club (Magic and Vipers have 12 each, Warriors 10).
Dural down Easts
Dural Warriors continued their hot streak with a determined 3-0 win over Eastern Suburbs Hakoah at The Centre on Saturday evening.
The table-toppers dominated possession for over 15 minutes before Wade Giovenali’s tap-in finished off a well-constructed team move, and it was followed shortly after by a fantastic tight-angle far-post top-corner strike from Sam de Oliveira.
The second half brought more of the same and midway through Bruno Pivato had the pleasure of completing a string of quick Warriors passes with a simple far-post tap-in to round out an impressive three-goal shutout.
Champions Dural just always seem to find a way. Win-less after the opening two weekends, a fifth-straight Warriors win is only bettered by six sides in 11 years of premier league – all but one of them a Dural team (Enfield won six straight in 2011/12); a record 14 in a row from 2014-2016 mind-blowing for a top-flight competition.
Wade Giovenali’s goal took his Warriors tally to 49, second-most to older brother Greg (97), while Nathan Niski (46) and Pivato (43) are also nearing club half-centuries.
It was a good victory but Dural coach Rob Varela believed his chargers are still short of their best.
“It was another solid performance by the team: very pleased with our defending against a skilful and fast side, the high-defensive pressure disrupted their build-up and restricted them to long-range shots which were very well handled by an in-form Nick Starr in goals,” he said.
“On the downside we missed many scoring chances through poor decision making and some excellent [Hakoah] goalkeeping and good scrambling defence [from Easts] prevented the score from growing.”
“A good performance, but we need to continue to improve and become more consistent and clinical.”
UTS outshine Allstars
UTS Northside jumped three places on the ladder with a convincing 5-1 win against Enfield Allstars at the Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night.
A cautious first term opened up into a second-half Northside blitz as they stormed home on the back of a Mason Ireland triple – his fifth goal from the last two Enfield outings.
UTS coach Grant Lynch called it a game of two halves: “It was a tight first half with limited chances, and a 10-minute period in the second half, where we caught them on the counter, saw out the game,” he said.
“Mason Ireland was clinical, and some crucial saves from Alex Pepper in goals were the highlights.”
Magic defeat Vipers
Inner West Magic didn’t have it all their own way but were ultimately a notch above Mascot Vipers in a 7-3 Saturday night victory at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre.
Despite key players Daniel Fogarty and glovesman Roberto Maiorana missing it was virtually one-way traffic in the first half as Inner West built a sturdy 4-1 halftime break, Dominic Badolato stepping up brilliantly between the sticks.
But Mascot refused to topple and a Jakov Radas double breathed life into their possibility as Daniel Fornito claimed a Magic hat-trick and Jonathan Barzel a brace to finally seal the deal, the last goal coming from a full-length Badolato lob over fifth-man Vipers keeper.
Fornito’s six goals versus Mascot have all come in the last four meetings.
A week ago Inner West languished at the foot of the table, but successive wins has placed them fourth, six points off frontrunners Dural, and with a chance to land second spot with some favourable results next weekend.
“I’m so proud of the boys; they have been under some pressure but have put in two brilliant performances back-to-back,” said club-man Matteo Maiorana.
“Last night we were phenomenal against a very, very tough Vipers team. Fornito and Barzel are two players the club relies upon and they were outstanding scoring five between them. Three of them goal-of-the-season candidates!”
“Zebba [Chris Zeballos] was back to his best and played his best game of the season, and Badolato in goals was sensational – brilliant in fact.
“To win by such a wide margin without two of our most influential players was a brilliant result,” said Maiorana.
“Vipers are a great side and we had to be at our best, but things are definitely looking much brighter than they were two weeks ago.”
Next week’s games
SELECT Futsal Premier League round-8 Saturday matches features Campbelltown Quake versus Enfield Allstars at Minto Indoor Sports Centre (4.50pm), Dural Warriors host Mountain Majik at The Centre (6.50pm), UTS Northside face Inner West Magic at PCYC Dee Why (7.20pm), and Eastern Suburbs Hakoah meet Mascot Vipers at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (8.50pm).
– By Dan de Nardi
