SELECT Futsal Premier League 2 – Round 12 Open Men’s Review
The streak is broken! Sydney City Eagles suffered their first defeat of the season in an intense Saturday night of action, where South Coast Taipans kept their finals hopes alive, Phoenix Futsal Club locked down third position and there was an eight-goal thriller down in the nation’s capital. Let’s get onto the review.
Match of the Round: Raiders FC 2 defeated by South Coast Taipans 4
The dream lives on for South Coast Taipans. The visitors produced a second half comeback to defeat Raiders FC 4-2 on a bruising evening at Thomas Hassell Anglican College on Saturday.
A pair of strikes in either half from Jovan Miladinovc had Raiders FC purring but their Achilles heel reared its head again this season, missed chances and slack defending cost them their position in the top four and now, they face an uphill battle to get themselves back into it.
For South Coast Taipans, they continue to believe. Saturday night was their third straight success masterminded by a wonderful brace from Matthew Mazevski and goals from Dion Sterjovski and Cody Waller puts them only two points out of the top four picture and making their run late for the final spot.
Buoyed by their recent form, the Taipans started off brightly. Firstly, Matthew Mazevski broke clear but was denied by a sprawling Bojan Radmilo for Raiders FC. Next, Kei Mitani was denied from a clever free-kick routine.
It was a tense first half, the chances were a premium. Slaven Ljuboja arrowed wide for Raiders FC as they warmed up whilst Taipans somehow conspired to hit the post twice through Mazevski and Dion Sterjovski within 30 seconds of each other.
Football can be cruel, from those missed chances Raiders FC surged downfield quickly. The ball fell to Jovan Miladinovic, the attacker slammed the ball home, made it 1-nil to the home side after 11 minutes of game time.
Frustration continued as Mazevski was denied on the volley in the 14th before Sterjovski looked certain to equalise as his effort soared to the top corner but Raiders FC keeper, Radmilo pulled off a spectacular save to hold the 1-nil lead.
Taipans weren’t to be denied again, on 29 minutes they equalised. Mazevski and Sterjovski combined again to tic-tac-toe downfield before sharpshooter, Mazevski fired home his 13th of the season, for a 1-1 scoreline.
Moments later, Cody Waller popped up to fire home. Suddenly, it was 2-1 South Coast Taipans. They continued to be in the mood, as Sterjovski, after his assist on the second goal broke clear and slammed home a goal for himself, 3-1 Taipans to complete the turnaround.
Raiders FC responded immediately. Adam Savetta saw an effort trickle agonisingly wide of the post before Miladinovic completed his brace, in a smooth combination with Goran Ljuboja, that saw the former nail home for 3-2.
Lawrence Hanna had the chance to square the contest again. He broke free from the defence, rattled a shot that pinged off both posts as Raiders FC tried to find a comeback. Next, Hassan Jalloh crashed one off the post as the home side surged.
Radmilo in the late stages of the contest, produced a pair of fantastic saves to keep Raiders FC in the contest. The first was a low save against Tyson Black then he fell backwards but still managed to claw out a shot from the Taipans to keep it at 3-2.
Taipans did find a late insurance score to confirm their third straight victory. Mazevski stood over a free-kick which rocketed into the hand of Raiders FC Jalloh. The referee pointed to the spot as Mazevski hammered the penalty home for a 4-2 final.
Speaking afterwards, a delighted Bobby Mazevski hailed his South Coast Taipans side as it seems the south coast side’s form has turned around at the right time of the season, if they can get there.
“We’ve shown spirit throughout the year. It has been defensive lapses which has cost us goals and games. I have full faith in this young squad. We’re starting to find form in the second half of the year which is surprising,” he said.
“We might have left our run too late, needing results to go our way. Whilst there is a sniff though, we’re not going to die wondering. I think we’re a top four side, so we will fight until the end to try and become that.” finished Mazevski.
For Raiders FC coach, Goran Ljuboja, it seems to be Groundhog Day for his side. They get themselves in the right positions but can’t seem to finish off contests.
“Every week we get off to a good start, dominate teams. In the first half, we dominated them and I don’t think they created many chances. In the second half, we cop a goal and it falls apart from there,”
“We can’t carry the momentum across the game. So now, we have two massive games which will be tough including Sydney City, but we only have ourselves to blame for being in this position.” finished Ljuboja.
Match Stats
Saturday 8 December 2018
Thomas Hassell Anglican College
Referee: J Ewin
2nd Referee: J Adabjou
3rd Referee: A Valiente
Raiders FC 2 (Miladinovic 2)
South Coast Taipans 4 (Mazevski 2, Sterjovski, Waller)
Raiders FC: 3. HAYASHI Kodai, 4. SAVETTA Adam, 5. LETTA James, 7. MILADINOVIC Jovan, 8. LJUBOJA Goran, 9. JALLOH Hassan, 10. LJUBOJA Slaven, 11. DOUZIAN Garen, 20. NICHOLAS Simon, 42. HANNA Lawrence, 43. WRIGHT Cameron, 71. RADMILO Bojan, 72. CHEUNG Troy
Yellow cards: S. Ljuboja ‘24, Hanna ‘35, Radmilo ‘25
Red cards: Radmilo ‘50
South Coast Taipans: 1. PERYMAN Bradley, 2. TAYLOR Charles, 5. MAZEVSKI Matthew, 7. DEL Kyle, 8. STERJOVSKI Dion, 9. Waller Cody, 14. FERRARO Mitchell, 16. TERAMOTO Takao, 27. BLACK Tyson, 33. MITANI Kei
Yellow cards: Waller ‘43
Red cards: nil
Rest of Round 12 Results
It is over! The Sydney City Eagles undefeated streak has been snapped in a 4-1 success by Phoenix Futsal Club on Saturday night at PCYC Hornsby. The visitors were missing a few key pieces to their side but Phoenix brought their A-game to move into equal second with SD Raiders. Joshua Mathie gave the hosts the perfect start with his opener, as they dominated proceedings but Eagles responded well through Aaron Cimitile right on the stroke of half-time for 1-1. The ‘nix got their reward for their dominance in the second stanza, Tom Louw finished off a well-worked corner routine followed by Mathie completing his brace for the third as Todd Nelson rounded off the display with the fourth. Phoenix coach Elliot Jurd was happy with how his side performed but admitted the Eagles will be tougher come finals time and just take the three points overall.
Down in the capital, there were goals galore as SD Raiders and Boomerangs FS shared the points in a wild 4-4 draw at the AIS Training Halls in Canberra on Saturday night. The result sees Boomerangs FS lose their chance to leap into the top four. The ‘Rangs got off to a hot start, Benjamin Basser-Silk and Michael Rinaudo before who else, Patrick Antelmi pulled one back for SD Raiders for a 2-1 half-time score.
In the second half, there was an avalanche of scoring – Antelmi fired home twice more for a hat-trick to move to 17 goals for the season while John Fahmi added the fourth for SD Raiders. For the home side, Daniel Giovinazzo netted his fifth of the season, while Rinaudo completed a brace in the eight-goal thriller which also saw Jake Wilsener given his marching orders for a second yellow. SD Raiders are now equal second with Phoenix whilst Boomerangs lead the chasing pack outside the top four.
Lastly, we have a new fourth placed team! West City Crusaders triumphed 3-2 against Sydney Futsal Club in another tense affair that played out at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium on Saturday night. Gregory Kondek led the Crusaders success with a brace alongside Simon Zahra’s opener which was his third of the season. For Sydney, Seyfullah Eser scored in the first half for 1-1 whilst Nathan Spinola continued his magnificent run of goalscoring in the second as Steven Sohn saw red as well for the visitors.
-By Justin Davies
