Round 7 Review – Futsal Premier League 2 Open Men’s
Round 7 was another exciting chapter in the Futsal Premier League 2 Open Mens story as the full slate of matches included an exciting Match of the Round between the top two and three other exciting contests to round off the weekend. Let’s get onto the review.
Match of the Round: Dural Warriors 4 defeated Sydney City Eagles 1
Competition leaders Dural Warriors fitted back into action with a comfortable 4-1 result against Sydney City Eagles on Saturday afternoon in this week’s Match of the Round.
Returning to action, Dural looked their slick selves with three first half goals to put the contest to bed. They added a fourth in the second half to lock up the result. Ahmad Sweedan led the way with a brace with Wade Giovenali’s close range effort and a Brandon Vella strike kept them at the summit of the competition.
The Eagles might have been down on troops but they remained high in spirit and kept fighting until the final buzzer. Peter Pelekanos found a late consolation as the visitors look forward to having another chance at the leaders later in the season.
The opening two minutes looked like a training run for Dural as they held the ball for the entire 120 seconds before a kick-in was smartly turned home by Ahmed Sweedan for 1-nil.
Eagles responded with a Michael Cimino chance that snuck wide of the post then Peter Pelekanos had an effort swept away by the Dural keeper who remained reactive to keep out the follow-up and maintain the advantage.
Dural doubled their advantage in the 10th minute when Brandon Vella was on-hand to mop up after a fierce strike was fumbled by the Eagles keeper. Vella swept home to make it 2-nil and stamp their dominance.
Quickly it was three through the Giovenali brothers. Greg stepped in to steal the ball from an Eagles defender before he stroked it to Wade Giovenali to make it 3-nil.
Dural kept their foot on the throat with Vella striking the post in the 16th minute then Wade Giovenali did the same in the 19th as the home side looked like they hadn’t missed a beat despite no games in almost a month.
Eagles tried to work their way into the contest either side of the break – Sam Perre clipped wide in the first half then after the restart both Aaron Cimitile and Lachlan Rose struck powerfully at goal but weren’t able to make it count.
Paul Ragonese curled wide in the 34th minute as the search continued then Cimitile worked an opening with Perre before it was thrashed wide. Eagles battling hard but unable to find the back of the net against the leaders.
Dural were efficient in their work in the second half, Wade Giovenali weaved through the Eagles defense before he laid it off to Sweedan to complete his brace, making it 4-nil to the Warriors and banking the three points.
Eagles found some late consolation through Pelekanos after some solid build up play from the Eagles opened up the chance for him, making it 4-1 and something to take out of the top of the table contest.
Warriors coach Rob Varela was happy to bank three points to start what is going to be a hectic November period for his side against second place on the ladder:
“We have four games in a short space of time so this was a good way to start that. I was happy with the performance with the boys and the result with having to use some of the younger lads in the squad tonight.” said Varela.
For Eagles coach Roy Perre he was upbeat despite the defeat and positive about his side’s chances if the two teams meet again later this season:
“Dural are the benchmark this year. I am confident that come second round we’ll be better. We have some reinforcements for depth coming in and I am looking forward to the second round against Dural later this year.” said Perre.
Match Stats
Saturday 2 November 2019
The Centre – Dural
Referee: Kyle Hockings
2nd Referee: Nathan Pitt
3rd Referee: Rowan Fisher
Dural Warriors 4 (Sweedan 2, W. Giovenali, Vella)
Sydney City Eagles 1 (Pelekanos)
Dural Warriors: 1. STARR Nicholas, 7. GIOVENALI Wade, 9. DE OLIVEIRA Samuel, 14. HOYER Brendan, 17. BRUCE Alastair, 21. BRENNAN Brayden, 22. DE OLIVEIRA Carlos, 23. VELLA Brandon, 32. GIOVENALI Gregory, 33. ZAHRA Tallon, 60. WICKHAM-HILL Brayson, 63. SWEEDAN Ahmed
Yellow cards: Wickham-Hill, Sweedan
Red cards: nil
Sydney City Eagles: 3. MORABITO John, 4. PELEKANOS Peter, 5. ROSE Lachlan, 7. PERRE Sam, 8. CIMINO Michael, 9. RAGONESE Paul, 10. CIMITILE Aaron, 11. BRECKENRIDGE Vincent, 21. BALDI Ryan
Yellow cards: Pelekanos, Cimitile
Red cards: nil
West City Crusaders 4 defeated South Coast Taipans 1
A second half rush has helped West City Crusaders defeat South Coast Taipans 4-1 in a shock result at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium on Saturday night.
Both sides traded goals in the first half with Jaime Boutros finding the back of the net for South Coast Taipans and Benjamin Lam the man for West City Crusaders as the teams went into the break level at 1-1.
In the second half, Kwadwo Boamah Addai helped the Crusaders with his goal alongside a pair of other strikes from his Crusaders team mates to make it five points in the last fortnight for the team and move them within a win of the top four.
Taipans coach Bobby Mazevski offered no excuses for the defeated side and admitted his team “weren’t at the races tonight.” The Taipans lost their defensive discipline in the second half and paid for that against a strong Crusaders side.
Raiders Futsal Club 9 defeated Phoenix Futsal Club 2
Raiders Futsal Club were emphatic victors in their 9-2 contests against Phoenix Futsal Club on Saturday night at Thomas Hassell Anglican College.
It was another dominant performance at home from Raiders Futsal Club following on from their huge win against Sydney Futsal Club a fortnight ago. Raiders shot out to a 5-nil lead before the break then piled on an extra four in the second to move into second spot.
Adam Voloder led the way for Raiders Futsal Club with four goals to take his season tally to nine goals thus far. Sharpshooter Adolph Kaudakpo was the other person to score a brace alongside strikes from Jovan Miladinovic, Goran Ljuboja and Jacob Lattuga.
For Phoenix Futsal Club, they switched off after a tight start which saw them concede five in the first half. From there, Phoenix went expansive and got a pair of goals from Angus Chance but Todd Nelson admitted afterwards the side weren’t up to scratch tonight against a fluid Raiders Futsal Club.
Sydney Futsal Club 4 defeated by SD Raiders Futsal 5
SD Raiders Futsal blew away Sydney Futsal Club in the first half to record a 5-4 success away at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre last night.
The result moved SD Raiders Futsal into fifth spot. Nick Carle opened the scoring in the first minute quickly followed by Joshua Da Silva, an own goal and Sergio Malfara netting made it 4-nil at the break to the visitors.
Coming out of the break, Sydney Futsal Club showed their heart with Dario Espejel scoring in the 28th quickly followed by Andrew Mousallam to make it 4-2. SD Raiders Futsal restored their three-goal cushion when Jack Koutrodimos scored then a pair of late Nathan Spinola strikes brought it back to 5-4.
SD Raiders Futsal held on through the late push to make it three straight victories which gives them a good platform to challenge the top four in the second half of the season. For Sydney, it was another gallant effort without the reward.
By Justin Davies (@JustDavies90)
