SELECT Futsal Premier League – Round 13 Open Men’s Preview
SELECT Futsal Premier League round-13 is set to sizzle this Saturday!
Matches include 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 face Mascot Vipers at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.05pm), and Eastern Suburbs Hakoah host Inner West Magic to All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm).
Mountain (25 points) are in a commanding premiership position despite a slim lead over Dural (23) and Inner West (20), who now have Enfield (19) and Mascot (17) lurking just outside the top-four.
Northside (14) has a statistician’s chance of making the playoffs or getting the wooden spoon, while Easts (10) and Campbelltown (10) are both capable of being great spoilers.
Inner West (168 points) are likely to wrap up yet another club championship title, their seventh in premier league (two more if you want to count Sydney Magic’s connection, and two more if you count the Futsal League competitions that led to the inaugural 2007/08 Premier League).
Mascot (145), Mountain (138), Easts (118) and Campbelltown (114) have assured their top-flight booking for next season, while UTS (101) has a little more work to do, but not as much as relegation-threatened Enfield (94) and Dural (87).
Campbelltown Quake vs Dural Warriors
Dural Warriors will feel confident heading into their clash with Campbelltown Quake at Minto Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday afternoon.
The Warriors have won their last 10 encounters with Quake, including the last two bouts 4-0 and 6-0 knockout blows.
In fact, Campbelltown’s managed just 12 goals in the last 10 runs between the clubs and can no longer avoid setting their lowest-ever premier league points-total (10 points nine shy of their 2012/13 season).
A minus-19 goal-difference will also be the first time Quake’s rolled into a summer negative, and 27 goals scored is currently half their previous low-mark set in 2012/13.
Uncannily, Dural too are enduring one of their most difficult summers.
On 23 points they won’t catch their previous low-mark of 30 (2011/12 and 2017/18), 10 points is the lowest regular-season amount a Warriors side has ever collected at The Centre, they’re 15 goals short of their lowest tally (56 last summer), and at plus-13 need to win their last two matches by a total six goals to avoid setting a new club-low in the goal-difference category.
It’s a strange game.
UTS Northside play Mountain Majik
UTS Northside versus Mountain Majik is sure to be a crowd-pleaser at PCYC Dee Why on Saturday afternoon.
Don’t be surprised to see a few kitchen sinks scattered around the arena as Northside attempt to throw everything at the ladder-leaders and force their way into an unlikely playoff spot.
But try shifting a Mountain side that only needs to win both their last two games by a goal to lift the premiership trophy – yet still have all the flair of a team playing confidently together.
Considering UTS currently boast the club’s best ever stats in goal-difference (-2), goals conceded (37), and is four goals off setting a new high-mark there as well, you really have to ask what they’re doing five points outside the top-four. Answer: Inconsistency.
Majik have won five of their last six games to also set some new records: most points total (previously 21 in 2013/14), most away points (12, one more than 2016/17), goal-difference (+8, almost 20 better than their previous high) and goals conceded (32 a whopping 26 less than the 58 they leaked last summer).
And it doesn’t get much tighter historically between the sides with three wins apiece (four of them one-goal thrillers) and three epic draws underlining some serious rivalry.
Enfield Allstars meet Mascot Vipers
The Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre is set to explode on Saturday evening when Enfield Allstars meet Mascot Vipers.
The home side rocketed into playoff contention courtesy of four wins in their last five runs to snatch fourth place and have Inner West in their sights a point above them.
But they snatched that fourth place from Mascot who’d love to return serve this weekend.
Freestyle Enfield have been a lot more disciplined this summer and if they only leak six goals over the next two weekends they’ll set a club-best mark (43 conceded last summer), but a 35-goal output is way short of their usual bravado (55 last year their lowest).
It’s Mascot’s joint second-best season on record, 17 points on par with their 2012/13 season and short of the 25 they gathered in 2015/16.
Overall Allstars hold an 11-3 lead in the head-to-head count, but the last six straight have been two-goal affairs and both sides are in pretty good form to suggest this could go either way.
Red-hot Shervin Adeli averages a goal a game in this fixture.
Eastern Suburbs Hakoah vs Inner West Magic
Inner West Magic won’t pack lightly as they head to All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre for a Saturday-night clash with Eastern Suburbs Hakoah.
Inner West’s loss to Enfield last week put a spanner in their premiership plans and also threw them in the firing line as any further slip-ups could see them relinquish a playoff spot altogether.
Easts are in danger of collecting the wooden spoon in their maiden premier league foray, and a sloppy 4-0 loss to Magic in round six doesn’t exactly inspire the prospects.
– By Dan de Nardi
