Round 3 Review – Futsal Premier League Open Men’s
2019/20 Men’s Futsal Premier League round-three ended with Mascot Vipers ahead of UTS Northside to stake sole first place, Inner West Magic beat Mountain Majik, Eastern Suburbs Hakoah held off Boomerangs FS, and Enfield Allstars downed Campbelltown Quake.
The results place unbeaten Mascot at the head of the table with Easts, Northside and Inner West locked up three points behind them.
And while the women’s comp is at its highest recorded scoring point it’s the opposite for the men’s with a tight 5.6 goal per game average the lowest of any premier league season – certainly a drop from the 8.4 high-mark set in 2011/12, while last summer’s 6.1 is the previous low-point.
UTS Northside 1 (Mason Ireland) Mascot Vipers 3 (Guilherme Dos Santos, Bruno Mendes, Conor Quilligan)
Inner West Magic 6 (Daniel Fogarty 2, Daniel Fornito, Matt Mazevski, Chris Zeballos, Jonathan Barzel) Mountain Majik 4 (Jamie Dib, Jordan Guerreiro 2, Jack Whetney)
Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 3 (Dylan Basger, Cesar Perego, Gilad Swartz) Boomerangs 1 (Ben Basser-Silk)
Enfield Allstars 6 () Campbelltown Quake 2 (Harrison Bagot, Dean Lockhart)
Mascot jump Northside
Mascot Vipers came off best in the tabletop derby against UTS Northside at PCYC Dee Why on Saturday evening to remain unbeaten after three rounds.
Little separated the sides early until Mascot scored twice in three minutes to jump to an early 2-0 that they held to halftime.
It was an epic second-half battle as Northside’s Mason Ireland cut the gap in half shortly after the restart, but they couldn’t find another in a great duel, Vipers scoring in the last minute to wrap up the win thanks to goals from Guilherme Dos Santos, Bruno Mendes and Conor Quilligan.
Mascot’s third straight win to start the summer equals their premier-league best run, and they’re one shy of a club-record four-game unbeaten stretch set way back in 2009/10 when the likes of Yavus Ekinci, Robbie Issa, Mitchell Stamatellis and co ran the Vipers show.
Vipers chief Zvi Ben David was singing the poetic verses once again.
“Well, well, well, who would have thought three from three,” he said. “The spirits are high, the confidence is high, the young and the old are bonding. Overall it is great to see.”
“The game was a very close encounter with plenty of chances both ways. Best for Vipers were Conor Quilligan, Timothy Scott and ‘The Entertainer’ BRUNO [Mendes].”
Magic dazzle Majik
Inner West Magic stormed home to overtake Mountain Majik 6-4 in a Saturday-evening goal-fest at Valentine Sports Park.
There was fire in the air from the get-go as Daniel Fogarty struck early for Inner West but Jordan Guerreiro equalised within a minute for Mountain to set an early tone for the match.
Fogarty struck again on the quarter-hour but again Guerreiro was at hand to level the affair just before halftime in a personal duel between the two great club stars.
Majik then stole the lead a minute into the second term when Jamie Dib fired one in, and doubled their advantage following Jack Whetney’s strike on the half-hour.
With 15 minutes remaining Inner West coach Steve Knight flicked the switch to go fifth-man with Jonathan Barzel the travelling player, and Daniel Fornito gave them a chance with an incredible curling goal cutting in from the right that almost ripped a hole in the net.
A minute later Matt Mazevski scored his first goal for the club by nutmegging experienced Mountain keeper Mark Brackenrig from close range to equalise.
The introduction of Andrew Luttringer with four minutes to go for his first game time proved to be a second Knight masterstroke as he played a superb pass to wily Chris Zeballos who kneed the ball into goal to give Magic a last-minute lead that Luttringer consolidated 30 seconds later by slotting home a Fogarty rebound to seal victory.
Magic club manager Matteo Maiorana applauded the competitive contest and pointed to the Magic-Majik fixture as something like their long-time duel with Dural.
“I’m so proud of the boys, they really played well,” he said.
“Mountain Majik have really come along way these past 2-3 seasons. There is a real rivalry between the two clubs and the boys lifted and played well.”
“Our new boys are really starting to fit in; Anthony Haddad and Matty [Mazevski] have now scored three goals in the past two games and are looking more settled in each passing game.
“The leadership of Fogs and Zebba is first class and the emergence of Fornito as a leading player in the competition is very evident.
“I’m really happy with the progress of the team but now we must focus on the ‘derby of all derbies’ versus Enfield. That round always provides free fireworks and free entertainment, not just in the men’s but the entire club!”
Hakoah beat Boomerangs
Eastern Suburbs Hakoah did very well against a determined Boomerangs FS side to win 3-1 at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday evening.
A solid first half set Easts up with a 2-1 halftime advantage, but the challenge intensified following the break as Boomerangs hit back with a Ben Basser-Silk goal that just wasn’t quite enough to change the final outcome,
Dylan Basger, Cesar Perego and Gilad Swartz goals for Hakoah pushed them to second position on the ladder, ahead of UTS and Inner West on goal-difference.
The defeat also pulled Boomerangs to 15 league games without a win outside the ACT, with their next away run against defending champions Enfield.
Boomerangs coach Kristian Collins said his side paid the price for a cagey opening period, mainly due to a fired-up Easts defence.
“Hakoah were very good first half; we struggled to beat their press and their ball movement caused us problems,” he said.
“Two set pieces for their goals in the first half was disappointing because we pride ourselves on a rock solid defence, [but the] second half saw us bring the heat and Hakoah struggled to handle us.”
“Despite dominating on and off the ball for large parts of the half we just couldn’t find the equaliser we wanted.
“Going to a powerplay for the final five minutes cost us a third goal but it was a risk worth taking to get the points – unfortunately it didn’t come off for us this time and we’ll have to wait another fortnight to try and break our [away game] drought!”
Enfield defeat Campbelltown
Defending champions Enfield Allstars finally broke through for a season-first win following their 6-2 Saturday-night rout of Campbelltown Quake at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre.
Enfield clicked from the start and made it difficult for a young Campbelltown line-up, especially when Quake lost captain-coach Mark Symington who was seemingly pushed from behind into a high elbow and had to leave the game with blurry vision.
But just like Rocky in every edition, Symo rose from the canvas to at least drop a few words into this reporter’s mailbox overnight.
“Enfield were too clinical pouncing on our mistakes… but I’d like to give a shout-out to our youth boys who backed up, with Joel Bertolissio and Jayden stepping up really well for us,” he said.
Next games
2019/20 Men’s Futsal Premier League round four Saturday action features Campbelltown Quake against Eastern Suburbs Hakoah at Minto Sports Stadium (4.50pm), Boomerangs welcome UTS Northside to the AIS Training Halls (5.50pm), Inner West Magic play Enfield Allstars at Valentine Sports Park (6.20pm), and Mascot Vipers tackle Mountain Majik at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm).
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