SELECT Futsal Premier League – Round 8 Open Men’s Review
SELECT Futsal Premier League round 8 Open Men’s had Enfield Allstars down Campbelltown Quake 4-2, Mountain Majik stun Dural Warriors 5-2, Inner West Magic edge UTS Northside 4-3, and Eastern Suburbs Hakoah overcome Mascot Vipers 5-4.
Mountain’s upset at The Centre draws them alongside Dural at the top of the table (16 points) and guess who’s bearing down on both of them?
After four win-less runs Inner West (13) have won three on the trot to snare a top-three spot, just a couple points ahead of Mascot (11) as the pack shuffles more times than a poker dealer – foxy Enfield (10) and Easts (10) now ahead of luckless Northside (8) and Campbelltown (7).
The golden boot race is just as juicy: Northside’s Mason Ireland (10) has Majik’s Jordan Guerreiro (9) hot on his heels, with Magic’s Daniel Fornito (8) and Allstars’ Luiz Lobo (8) looming large in the rearview mirror!
Campbelltown Quake 2 (Harrison Bagot 2) Enfield Allstars (Luiz Lobo 3, own goal)
Dural Warriors 2 (Nathan Niski, Brandon Vella) Mountain Majik 5 (Jordan Guerreiro 3, Michael Borg, Bradie Smith)
UTS Northside 3 (Mason Ireland, Tristan Prendergast, Grant Lynch) Inner West Magic 4 (Tiln Muha 2, Daniel Fornito 2)
Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 5 Mascot Vipers 4
Allstars break Quake
Enfield Allstars rattled Campbelltown Quake 4-2 at Minto Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday afternoon to move within one-point of a top-four position.
Halloween’s clearly unsettled Campbelltown as they just can’t buy a trick at the moment; Mark Symington injured, Danny Martinez and Marko Filipovic overseas, Ian McAndrew unavailable and Anthony Haddad out with a bout of whooping cough, Quake were undermanned and under-siege from a strong Enfield line-up.
Somehow the home side found a way to keep themselves in the contest at the changeover, level 2-2 and dishing out as good as they copped.
But a more-experienced Allstars outfit began to flex its muscle in the second period and secured an uncomfortable 4-2 win led by a Luiz Lobo triple.
Enfield coach Christian Soares praised his troops for delivering a good result (their first win over Quake since late 2015, but also a third road win in four summer trips) ahead of next week’s crunch game versus a wounded Warriors outfit.
“We started slowly giving a lot of space for our adversary and we were punished with two goals,” he said. “We then adjusted and pressed hard with good ball possession and Lobo again made a difference.”
“He has been having a great season; maybe a surprise for the competition but not for me as I’ve known him for some time.
“If we were more clinical we could’ve won with a larger bank… now we train hard for the Dural team.”
Campbelltown’s fourth straight league loss equals a club low; they’ve only ever gone five matches without a win once in their illustrious history (back in 2015).
Mountain crush Dural
Mountain Majik stunned competition leaders Dural Warriors 5-2 in an electric top-two Saturday-evening clash at The Centre.
The match began but only Mountain cleared the starter’s gate as they raced to a 3-0 halftime lead and added another for good measure straight after the restart to be 4-0 up against a shell-shocked Dural.
Nathan Niski and Brandon Vella strikes gave Warriors a glimmer of light, but Majik slammed the casket lid shut with a breakaway goal near the end – Jordan Guerreiro compiling a hat-trick and Michael Borg and Bradie Smith scoring in a memorable three-goal victory that brought the teams together at the top of the table.
More remarkable, Dural had won the first 10 meetings between the clubs and now Mountain’s won the last two (they’ve also won their last three straight away fixtures this season, a new club-high). Majik assistant Adam Barbera couldn’t hide his elation.
“A great to win in the top-of-the-table clash and I’m proud of all the boys for a gutsy performance with some of our regular men’s players out,” he said.
“It’s a great way to start the second round of the season and we look forward to kicking on from this victory.”
Warriors coach Rob Varela had the complete opposite feelings.
“It was our worst performance of the season against a very sharp Mountain Majik team who are genuine contenders for the title,” he said
“They defended extremely well and were very dangerous on the counter-attack; and our poor execution, failure to finish off moves and poor decisions in attack led to a 0-3 scoreline at halftime.
“Conceding an early goal in the second half through sloppy defending made the task of getting back into the game even harder, and quick goals by Niski and Vella were really academical.
“Hopefully this is our really bad game for the season, but we know we have to improve markedly as we come up against two class teams in the next two rounds [Enfield and Inner West].”
The three-goal margin was a joint-fourth worse defeat for Dural over nine premier league seasons, and can you believe their heaviest five losses have all occurred at The Centre.
Magic throttle UTS
A last-minute Daniel Fornito rocket saw Inner West outlast UTS Northside in an epic Saturday-night showdown at PCYC Dee Why, propelling Magic into third spot on the ladder.
Inner West had inexplicable gone down to South Coast in their midweek Futsal Cup fixture and a big crowd gathered from both sets of supporters to provide an electric atmosphere at the PCYC, Magic ramping up the volume a couple of notches when Tiln Muha struck twice in the opening five minutes.
The match turned on its head when comp-leading scorer Mason Ireland and Tristan Prendergast scored to bring Northside back to level-pegging before the break.
It was kitchen sinks at both ends as both sides traded barbs, Fornito scoring a 43-minute bomb across the keeper to retake the lead before UTS were gifted a lifeline when a clumsy Muha tackle gave away a penalty with just over a minute left.
Gallant Northside captain Grant Lynch stepped up under immense pressure and noise to blast the spot-kick down the middle to steal a supposed draw.
But Fornito had other ideas; receiving the ball from the restart, beating a player and hitting a drive from 15 yards out to send the large contingent of Magic supporters into raptures, including manager Matteo Maiorana.
“Breathless, WOW what a game! Magic and UTS games are starting to cause supporters heart problems,” he said.
“After a slow start we are starting to look like the Magic team of recent seasons. It was a fantastic result and a fantastic performance.
“We thought when Lynchy scored the pen we threw away three points, but Fornito scored an absolute cracker – he has been in sensation form of late.
“[Chris Zeballos] Zebba coming back into fitness and form has also really helped; he’s a leader and Fogs [Daniel Fogarty] was excellent… it was a really good team performance,” said Maiorana.
“[The result also] solidified a good day in terms of club championship: UTS have improved immensely since round one so to win the day makes for a good weekend.”
Northside should probably seek sponsorship from a funeral company with the number of heart-stoppers they keep embroiling themselves in, and Lynch isn’t laughing awkwardly anymore, it’s becoming more maniacal.
“I don’t think I can handle this anymore,” he coughed.
In eight games this season, UTS have drawn twice and lost four by less than two goals, which is gutwrenching by any standard but the general norm for Northside.
A massive 42 of their 64 premier league runs have been decided by two goals or less (a league-high 66%) – 24 of them by a solitary goal with UTS on the losing side 16 agonising times (Mascot shares their pain with a slightly worse 32% success rate in one-goal affairs).
“It was end-to-end with plenty of chances for both teams. We equalized with one minute left only to be outdone by an amazing strike from Daniel Fornito.
“Credit to Inner West. It was disappointing result, but the performance and in particular the composure to comeback from 2-0 down was pleasing.
“We’ll need a big result against Mascot next week.”
Easts overcome Mascot
Eastern Suburbs Hakoah stormed home to beat Mascot Vipers in a fiery encounter at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night.
They share the venue but had little else to offer each other in a brilliant contest as Mascot inched their way to a commanding 4-2 lead inside the final 10 minutes, only to see Easts mow them down with three quick-fire goals.
Hakoah coach Robert Ezekiel was over the moon with the much-needed result and his team’s highest score in a premier league match.
“It was a really good performance from the team. We were low on numbers against a strong Vipers side and still managed to prevail,” he said.
“It was a true show of the quality Futsal we can play, as well as the character to finish a game off and keep us in touch with the finals.”
Next week’s games
SELECT Futsal Premier League round-9 Saturday matches pitches Mountain Majik versus Eastern Suburbs Hakoah at Blacktown Leisure Centre (4.10pm), Inner West Magic against Campbelltown Quake at Valentine Sports Park (6.20pm), Dural Warriors play Enfield Allstars at The Centre (6.50pm), and Mascot Vipers meet UTS Northside at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (8.50pm).
– By Dan de Nardi
