SELECT Futsal Premier League 2 – Round 9 Open Men’s Review
Sydney City Eagles remain the top of the tree but the SELECT Futsal Premier League 2 is moving towards the business end of the season, so all the matches are important as shown in the three wonderful games of Futsal across the weekend as teams claw for their position in the top four.
Let’s get onto the review!
Match of the Round: Phoenix Futsal Club 3 defeated Raiders Futsal Club 2
Phoenix Futsal Club moved into a point of second place, after a feisty 3-2 success against Raiders Futsal Club on Saturday night at PCYC Hornsby.
A brace from Joshua Mathie in either half including the winner helped Phoenix Futsal Club to their three points, but they needed to be strong as they had Tom Louw sent off late in the contest with Angus Chance contributed the other goal. It was a superb bounce back performance from the home side after their downbeat performance last week.
For Raiders Futsal Club, it was the story of their season. They dominated the chances in the first half, despite this, Anthony Tomelic was the lone goal scorer in the period. A gorgeous run and finish from Kodai Hayashi gave them a second half lead but they wilted late in the contest and now, they face an uphill battle to play finals football this season.
Much of the first ten minutes was dominated by Raiders Futsal. A crisp combination from Adam Savetta and Damien Smith sent the latter in for the first shot of the contest. Jovan Miladinovic and Slaven Ljuboja followed up with efforts that flew wide as the score remained deadlocked.
For their early possession, it was Phoenix Futsal Club that opened the scoring. Joshua Mathie weaved past a pair of defenders, smashed it low into the net, made it 1-nil for the home side, against the run of play.
Damien Smith almost responded immediately, he poked the ball off a Phoenix Futsal defender then he couldn’t finish the movement, as he angled an effort wide of the post.
Phoenix followed up with a pair of chances, Angus Chance angled himself well to force a shot but he couldn’t find a finish then Mathie burst onto the ball in the 15th minute rattling the post as he looked to double the lead.
Raiders Futsal found their equaliser in the 16th minute, Adam Savetta, a consistent performer for the visitors, struck a curling effort that snuck it’s way into the net, suddenly it was 1-1.
The goal brought another wave of attack from Raiders Futsal to end the half. Both chances fell to captain Slaven Ljuboja, he struck two efforts well enough, but was denied twice by Phoenix keeper, James Brunacci.
After the break, Raiders Futsal turned their dominance into their first lead of the contest. Kodai Hayashi nutmegged a defender before he provided a roofed finish that made it 2-1 to Raiders Futsal, the perfect start to the half.
Hayashi was in the action again as he set first half goal scorer, Tomelic, through after an exchange but again, the chance slashed wide as Raiders Futsal sought an insurance goal.
Phoenix Futsal showed their resilience, they took some heavy blows from Raiders and responded with a set piece for their equaliser. Chance stepped up and rattled the free-kick into the net from the right side, making it 2-2 and a tense finish.
In the 36th minute, Phoenix had established their lead once again. A ball from Brunacci opened the space for Mathie, the man in form combined with Chance as they crisscrossed down the court before Mathie finished well for 3-2.
That sparked an onslaught from Raiders Futsal as they searched for the equaliser for the second time in the contest. Savetta danced through the defense well but his strong effort was saved by Brunacci as frustration mounted.
Raiders did get a lifeline as Tom Louw was shown a second yellow in the 41st minute after a foul. It gave them the man advantage for a brief period but they continued to be unable to find a way past Brunacci in the net.
They went for the extra man to try and prise open the Phoenix defence, Bojan Radmillo helped them keep hold of the ball and the keeper even had a chance in the final minute, he popped up on the right to flash an effort across goal as Raiders left the contest defeated.
A delighted Elliot Jurd was proud of the effort of his Phoenix Futsal Club as they responded from their defeat last week as they hold onto third position in a competitive competition.
“I think we could’ve been a goal or two ahead in the first half. We played some good stuff, the movement was better and we worked on not letting the opposition disrupt our style,”
“I am proud of the boys, we tired in the second half, we have some tired legs still but even with the red card we remained resolute and kept the three points.” finished Jurd.
A visibly frustrated Slaven Ljuboja was speechless in how his Raiders Futsal Club side will find themselves out of their current situation and possibly, into the finals.
“We just can’t score. In the second half, we were all over them but couldn’t finish. I think we had the better of the game but could not get the result.”
“Our problem this season has been finishing chances. It just hasn’t clicked this season, it has been a difficult season thus far, but now, we have to play every week like it’s a Grand Final and see how it goes.” finished Ljuboja.
Match Stats
Saturday 24 November 2018
PCYC Hornsby, Waitara
Referee: P. Liavos
2nd Referee: M. Limnios
3rd Referee: L. Hockings
Phoenix Futsal Club 3 (Mathie 2, Chance)
Raiders Futsal Club 2 (Tomelic, Hayashi)
Phoenix Futsal Club: 1. BRUNACCI James, 3. CHANCE Angus, 4. LOUW Tom, 5. MATHIE Joshua, 6. NELSON Todd, 7. WYLIE Isaac, 9. SWEEDAN Ibrahim, 11. BATTESTIN Tayller, 20. SLATER Connor, 21. FOSS Blake, 24. PAVLOVIC Kosta
Yellow cards: Brunacci ‘42, Louw ‘41
Red cards: Louw ‘44
Raiders Futsal Club: 1. IBRAHIM Daniel, 2. SMITH Damien, 3. HAYASHI Kodai, 4. SAVETTA Adam, 7. MILADINOVIC Jovan, 8. LJUBOJA Goran, 10. LJUBOJA Slaven, 11. DOUZIAN Garen, 15. TOMELIC Anthony, 71. RADMILLO Bojan, 72. CHUNG Troy
Yellow cards: Savetta ‘42, Miladinovic ‘43
Red cards: nil
Rest of Round 9 Results
We start last weekend, as South Coast Taipans and Boomerangs FS had a double header of contests down at Illawarra Hockey Centre. Boomerangs FS boasted their finals chances with a 5-3 win on Sunday afternoon. It was a tight first half as the two sides found the net once each, going into the break 1-1. The second half saw a scoring explosion, Benjamin Basser-Silk collected a brace alongside Nicholas Rathjen’s double with Nicholas Dahl scoring their other. For Taipans, scoresheet fixture made it ten for the season with consistent performer Mitchell Ferraro and Tyson Black also in the scorer column.
Onto this weekend’s matters, Sydney City Eagles, made it nine straight in preparation for their Futsal Cup semi-final, thrashing Sydney Futsal Club, 6-1 at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence on Saturday evening. Matthew Trotter starred once again for the flowing Eagles, he nailed a hat-trick in the comfortable win as Robert Perre and Peter Pelekanos both found the net. As Sydney chased the contest it gave the Eagles stoic keeper John Dimitrakas got himself on the scoresheet while a late consolation for Nelson Louang-Amath, making it three straight games with a goal, got Sydney Futsal Club off the nil score line.
Finishing off the round-up, we have a ten-goal thriller at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium! West City Crusaders and SD Raiders played out a 5-5 draw on Saturday night which helped SD Raiders hold onto second spot. It was a slow burner of a contest, it was 2-2 after the first half but neither side had sparked their attack. The second half though, had six goals and showed neither side will be a pushover for the rest of the season. Benjamin Lam led the way for Crusaders with a wonderful hat-trick alongside last week’s two goal scorers, Ryan Faulkner and Kwadwo Boamah-Addai both found the net. For SD Raiders, they shared around their scoring. John Fahmi picked up two goals, whilst Patrick Antelmi, Matias Da Silva and Nick Carle helped make Saturday night a wonderful evening of futsal for all concerned.
-By Justin Davies
