Round 1 Review – Futsal Premier League Open Men’s

The 2019/20 Futsal Premier League Open Men’s season kicked off with a string of amazing results, UTS Northside stunned champions Enfield Allstars 5-2, Mascot Vipers shocked Inner West Magic 6-3, Boomerangs bumped Campbelltown Quake 4-1, and Eastern Suburbs Hakoah downed Mountain Majik 2-0.

Inner West Magic 3 (Guiseppe Minoia, Jonathan Barzel, Rhys Buick) Mascot Vipers 6 (Jun Arima, Joel Flores, Leonardo Pinto, Luke Clifford, Oskar Beck, Thomas Quilligan)

Boomerangs 4 (Benjamin Basser-Silk 2, Elie Darwich, Nicholas Rathjen) Campbelltown Quake 1 (Shaun Irwin)

Mountain Majik 0 Eastern Subs Hakoah 2 (Robert Ezekiel, Thomas McGowan)

Enfield Allstars 2 (Luiz Lobo, Michael Kouta) UTS Northside 5 (Grant Lynch 2, Mason Ireland, Lucas Rainbird, Michael Loupis)

Mascot shock Inner West

Mascot Vipers stunned arch rivals Inner West Magic in a Saturday-night dust-up at Valentine Sports Park.

Vipers hadn’t beaten Magic for seven years before last summer’s thrilling final-round 3-2 upset that propelled Mascot into the finals, and now they’ve done it twice on the trot with a convincing three-goal result.

The visitors blasted out of the blocks and compiled a three-goal advantage by halftime, and although Inner West fought hard to pull it back to 3-2 down, they couldn’t stop the Mascot onslaught – a last-minute Magic goal only reducing the damage slightly.

Vipers voice Zvi Ben David believes in Futsal poetry and he would read the men’s team like a Shakespeare fire-up.

“The players believe in themselves, they are still carefree in the way they play, but they also click… like actors [on a stage],” he eloquently said.

“The build-up hasn’t been the best because of players still with outdoor commitments, but Emmanuel Tzanakes & Tommy Quilligan were exceptional tonight… and people should come and pay tickets to watch [new Brazilian signing] Bruno play, he was magnificent for us and set the game on fire!”

Inner West chief Matteo Maiorana didn’t think the scoreline was a fair reflection on the match.

“The result was disappointing however the performance deserved more,” he said.

“I thought in patches the team played very well. There were long parts of the game which we dominated but didn’t finish our numerous chances, yet the Vipers would transition and be clinical.

“Credit must be given to Vipers though… they played well and will be a force this season.”

Boomerangs break Quake

Boomerangs busted back into the premier league saloon with a smoking 4-1 win over Campbelltown Quake at the AIS Training Halls on Sunday evening.

The early exchanges were quite even as the game flowed from one end to the other before Ben Basser-Silk bagged one late in the half to put Boomerangs on the board.

The home side should’ve increased their advantage right on halftime but had a penalty saved by Quake keeper Jordan Winckle to keep it at 1-0 at halftime.

Elie Darwich did double the Boomerangs lead with a goal five minutes after the restart, but Campbelltown stayed in touch with a response from Shaun Irwin before pushing up to chase an equaliser.

This opened up the court for the Territorians who finished with fine goals from Basser-Silk and Nicholas Rathjen to claim a solid first-up victory.

Boomerangs coach Kristian Collins was over the moon with the thrilling result.

“As expected Quake came out and dominated the ball early but, once we got into the game, we had periods where we controlled the ball and the game,” he said.

“The boys were immense defensively and limited Quake to only a few genuine scoring chances… a shout-out to Ben Basser-Silk who had a brilliant game scoring two goals.”

Campbelltown coach Mark Symington said there wasn’t too much between the sides skill-wise but admitted Boomerangs had more vibrancy.

“As we pushed to get back in the game we were exposed to the counter-attack and [Boomerangs] took their chances,” he said. “We were probably out-enthused as a whole and that’s where we fell down.”

“[Keeper] Jordan Winckle was great first half in goals, and Harry Bagot and Bradon Clissold were solid as well.”

The ‘Towners don’t have great trips down the Hume Highway and haven’t beaten Boomerangs at the Training Halls in four attempts.

Hakoah dazzle Majik

Eastern Suburbs Hakoah stunned Mountain Majik with a 2-0 Saturday-evening shutout at Blacktown Leisure Centre, both goals coming in an exhilarating second half.

Easts were outstanding and didn’t afford an inch to a Mountain team that had their best-ever season last summer, taking a 0-0 scoreline into the changeover.

It was a slog between two evenly-matched outfits until Hakoah’s Thomas McGowan broke the deadlock on the half-hour, followed up four minutes later by a decisive strike from captain Robert Ezekiel as Easts held on for a terrific win.

Mountain assistant Adam Barbera wasn’t fussed by a round-one loss, he was more focused on Majik’s performance possibilities.

“We can take many lessons from this game,” he said.

“Although we felt we dominated possession and territory for the whole match, Hakoah are a side that are extremely well coached and drilled, and they made it very hard for us to get good attempts at goal and when it mattered they were able to come up with two clinical finishes to seal the game.”

“It’s not the result we wanted to start the season off, but there’s still plenty of rounds to play and we know with a few tweaks we can fix tonight’s issues and turn these performances into wins.”

Northside defeat Enfield

UTS Northside caused an absolute boilover when the defeated reigning champions Enfield Allstars 5-2 at the Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night.

The visitors started strong and never relinquished their stranglehold on the scoreboard as captain Grant Lynch, Mason Ireland and Michael Loupis strikes overpowered Enfield’s Luiz Lobo late goal for a 3-1 scoreline at the break.

Nothing much separated the sides to start the second and when Michael Kouta scored for Allstars on the half-hour it set up a humdinger finale that was finally settled by Lynch and Lucas Rainbird goals in the last 10 minutes to compliment an amazing 5-2 victory for UTS.

Northside were very effective on the counter throughout a tight match and well supported by a fantastic game between the sticks from young glovesman Jett Griffiths and starring efforts from Reggie Hore-Gibson and Emilio Manos.

It was also Ireland’s seventh goal versus Enfield in the past four meetings.

UTS coach Lynch was ecstatic. “It was a great result,” he said.

“A great defensive performance from our team combined with a number of excellent saves from 17-year-old goalkeeper Jett Griffiths.

“We were able to take our chances on the break and obviously a great result against a strong team.”

Next games

2019/20 Futsal Premier League round two Saturday action features Campbelltown Quake against Mountain Magic at Minto Indoor Sports Centre (4.50pm), Boomerangs host Inner West Magic at the AIS Training Halls (5.50pm), Eastern Suburbs Hakoah play UTS Northside at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (6.30pm), and Mascot Vipers meet Enfield Allstars at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm).