SELECT Futsal Premier League – Round 12 Open Women’s Review

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SELECT Futsal Premier League round 12 went a long way to finalising this season’s top-four, as Inner West took a giant stride toward an unprecedented Futsal women’s triple!

Saturday matches saw Campbelltown Quake beat Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 6-2, Dural Warriors defeat UTS Northside 3-0, Inner West Magic defeat Enfield Allstars 8-1, and Mountain Majik beat Mascot Vipers 2-1.

Magic (32) are a point away from securing the second trophy on offer (Inner West play UTS Northside in this Wednesday night’s Futsal Cup final at Valentine Sports Park), with Majik (27) also locking in a top-two finish.

Well behind but still looking good for a playoff place are Quake (20) and UTS (18), with Hakoah (13) and Vipers (12) only hanging onto mathematical chances, while Warriors (8) left Allstars (7) in the cellar.

Majik’s Ashlie Crofts (23) hasn’t scored for two weeks and still leads the golden boot race from Hakoah’s Tamires Souza (13), Magic duo Rhianna Pollicina (12) and Ceyda Cambaz (12), Quake’s Linda Dudek (9) and Viper Natasha Aitken (8).

Campbelltown Quake 6 (Zoeie Redman, Linda Dudek 2, Bethany Gordon, Caitlin Orridge, Melissa Walsh) Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 2 (Lareane Bachega, Sienna Fraser)

Dural Warriors 3 (Bianca Dobson, Sara Comert, ?) UTS Northside 0

Enfield Allstars 1 (Zoe Zazcek) Inner West Magic 8 (Jen Bisset, Lara Bosnich, Lisa Schembri, Pollicina 2, Cambaz 3)

Mascot Vipers 1 () Mountain Majik 2 (Lauren Pruscino, Tara Pender)

 

Quake rattle Hakoah

Campbelltown Quake stormed home to beat Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 6-2 at Minto Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday afternoon and slide into third place on the ladder.

Deadlocked 1-1 midway through a great contest it was all one-way traffic in the second-half as Campbelltown rained down the goals on a sultry afternoon in Sydney’s south-west.

Hakoah took the lead through a Lareane Bachega strike that deflected off Antonia Sharp sending Quake keeper Erin Brennan the opposite direction, and Easts showed definite signs of improvement under the guidance of Stephen Peters, with their formation and rotation making them a lot harder to contain.

Each team had their chances, none better than a penalty for a foul on Campbelltown’s Linda Dudek, the Polish number nine wedging the spot-kick between the post and keeper to keep the eastern crew up 1-0.

The home side finally opened the account through a cracking Zoeie Redman shot that deflected into goal for Quake as the sides headed to the dressing sheds tied at one-apiece.

Campbelltown came out firing in the second half quake and a sly back-post run from Caitlin Orridge resulted in a second goal with her first touch for the game.

Young gun Orridge was making a nuisance of herself with her pace and dedication to simple runs and follow-up play spreading the Hakoah defence and freeing up several purple opportunities to score.

It forced Easts into a radical fifth-man powerplay with 18 minutes to go to try and break Quake’s dominance of the ball, unfortunately for the visitors a well-drilled Campbelltown defence kept Hakoah’s extra-man attack blunted  and even trapped in their own half until a Dudek dispossession on halfway saw her tap the ball into an empty net for a 3-1 advantage.

Easts didn’t disappear and a Sienna Fraser breakaway led to a goal that narrowed the deficit to one, but they awoke the giant and first Mel Walsh pinched the ball, countered and scored a cracking bottom-left corner goal to restore Campbelltown’s two-goal buffer before Orridge tore down the right-side of the court and squared up Dudek for Quake’s fifth, Bethany Gordon finalising the Quake account with a 10-metre spot-kick bomb.

The 6-2 result, coupled with Northside’s shock loss to Dural, pushed the ‘Towners into third spot and within sight of a belated top-two finish – not bad for side that won just one of their opening four rounds (they’ve lost just two of eight games since then).

Incredibly it was Quake’s second win at home all summer and, considering they’ve captured 13 points on the road, they will be a real danger come finals time and coach Mel Keith is licking her lips.

“I’m very impressed with my entire squad today . You have to be disciplined against these Brazilian players, they are quality, but we were very up for the task,” she said.

“We adjusted well to create chances in the second half and with well-worked plays scored some quality goals.

“We have cemented our spot in the top-four – the first time Quake women’s will play finals in four seasons, and a goal we set out to achieve – time to keep improving to challenge the top dogs!”

Dural down Northside

Dural Warriors cracked UTS Northside for a 3-0 duck at The Centre on Saturday evening to break a nine-game winless streak and climb off the bottom of the ladder.

UTS struggled to get going against a Dural outfit that has, unnaturally, underplayed themselves this season, the Warriors – who managed eight goals in the dozen rounds before this one, racked up a two-goal lead at halftime.

Northside tried everything but a third Dural goal sealed the result that saw them leapfrog Enfield off the bottom.

Warriors coach Tani Rosekelly was over the moon… and relieved.

“Finally a win!” she screamed.

“The girls played with good intensity and executed the counter attack well. We finally started to pull the trigger and shoot from around the area instead of trying to walk it in when creating or given the chances.

“We pressed well at times and the seniors players really stepped up to lead the younger ones.

“Two good performances back-to-back and the girls have a great energy and belief about them going into the final two rounds.”

On the flipside, a five-game losing sequence has seen UTS tumble from second to fourth (where they’ve finished the last three seasons straight); they’ll probably still make the finals but the northerners need to find some momentum should they want to make any post-season impact.

The Warriors really have the wood on UTS having won five of their last seven encounters (with one side held scoreless in five of those meetings), but Northside still have this Wednesday’s Futsal Cup final to look forward to as well as being able to cement their playoff place next weekend.

Magic dust Allstars

Enfield Allstars were no match for frontrunners Inner West Magic as the visitors won handsomely 8-1 at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night and seal this season’s premiership two rounds from the end.

Enfield did very well to stay in the contest trailing 1-2 at oranges, actually taking the lead after an unselfish Fabiana Perfillio squared up Zoe Zazcek to tap home and stun the huge Magic faithful, but they simply couldn’t break through a resolute Inner West wall while the Magic weaponry blazed away at the other end to win by seven goals.

Jen Bisset scored her first goal in an impressive performance by the recent signing and a double to Cambaz made the halftime score 3-1 to Inner West, further scores to youngsters Lara Bosnich, Olivia Schembri, Pollicina (2) and Cambaz (3) sealed the comfy victory.

Enfield would gladly love for Cambaz to skip any future meetings – she’s scored in each of the last five derbies for a total nine goals (almost double Enfield’s nine from the last seven encounters).

This summer really has seen more magic than the Harry Potter franchise, Inner West now unbeaten in 12 rounds and boasting a domineering goal-difference of plus-27.

Considering Magic is the only team not to play a top-four side in the two weekends left they could not turn up and still claim pole-position ahead of the finals.

Perhaps the biggest motivation is for Inner West to chase down a league-high 37 points earned in winning the 2015/16 premiership, although with high-achiever Matteo Maiorana at the helm there’s probably plenty of extra milestones on the horizon.

“[To be fair] Enfield had the better of the game for the first 10 minutes, maybe we were out of sorts a bit after re-introducing dynamic duo Ceyda Cambaz and Rhianna Pollicina after going without the pair for three games,” he said.

“[In the end] It really was a spectacular performance. It took a while for the girls to get into a rhythm, but when they did, WOW! It really was a joy to watch.

“Missing Bianca Galic, Ashleigh Palombi and the always-spectacular Amy Dahdah and to still score eight goals was fantastic.

“The young ones were again outstanding, and a point next week should seal the premiership!”

Majik pip Vipers

Mountain Majik had to fight tooth-and-nail for a dogged 2-1 victory over Mascot Vipers at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night.

Mascot shot out of the blocks and stole a shock 1-0 halftime lead, only for second-half Lauren Pruscino and Tara Pender strikes to steer Mountain to victory – the third straight one-goal margin between the sides.

Majik coach Adam Barbera was happy to take a scrappy win back to the mountains.

“I’m extremely proud of the result. We went into the game missing a few players and with a couple more playing under the weather,” he said.

“It wasn’t a conventional win by our standards, but we proved to ourselves that we can adapt and grind out gutsy performances when needed.

“It’s great to see a few girls picking up form heading into the business end of the season. We’re looking forward to the two big games we have against strong opposition [third and fourth Quake and UTS] to finish off the regular season.”

Next week’s games

SELECT Futsal Premier League round-13 Saturday matches features Campbelltown Quake versus Dural Warriors at Minto Indoor Sports Centre (3.50pm), UTS Northside play Mountain Majik at PCYC Dee Why (5.30pm), Enfield Allstars meet Mascot Vipers at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.05pm), and Eastern Suburbs Hakoah welcome Inner West Magic to All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm).

– By Dan de Nardi