Round 10 Review – Futsal Premier League Open Men’s

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2019/20 Men’s Futsal Premier League round-10 Saturday saw Mountain Majik shock Inner West Magic 5-3, Enfield Allstars pipped Campbelltown Quake 5-4, Eastern Suburbs Hakoah down Boomerangs FS 4-1, while Mascot Vipers and UTS Northside played out a thrilling 2-2 draw.

Quite incredibly the results made it just a seven-point gap from first-placed Mascot (21) to sixth-placed Enfield (14), with Easts (19), Mountain (19), Inner West (18) and Northside (17) jammed in between in what could well be one of the most even and exciting premier league competitions ever.

Vipers, Hakoah and UTS are all still undefeated away from home this summer – only Dural has ever gone through an entire PL season unbeaten on the road (2015/16 and 2012/13).

Campbelltown Quake 4 (?) Enfield Allstars 5 (?)

Boomerangs FS 1 (Nicholas Van Aalst) Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 4 (Dylan Basger, Yuma Hosoe, Ryuji Kagiya, James Reed)

Mountain Majik 5 (Jordan Guerreiro 3, Alex Vlismas 2) Inner West Magic 3 (Hassan Jalloh, Anthony Haddad, Jonathan Barzel)

Mascot Vipers 2 (?) UTS Northside 2 (Nathan Amore 2)

 

Enfield edge Campbelltown

Enfield Allstars continued Campbelltown Quake’s misery with a 5-4 result at Minto Sports Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The visitors played really well but were never able to get away from Campbelltown.

Enfield scored two quick second-term goals to break a 1-1 halftime deadlock, but Quake reined them back in again, before Allstars again pushed out to a 5-3 advantage.

Campbelltown managed to pull one back but ran out of time to grab an equaliser, youngster Phil Hasiuk the best of a defeated side.

Quake now has four games left to avoid a premier league first – no side has collected a duck in a summer, with Sydney City Eagles back in 2012/13 the closest finishing with two draws.

More immediate, Campbelltown’s 10th straight loss – an agonising seventh by two goals or less this summer – equals league-record runs from Phoenix and Sydney City.

 

Easts defeat Boomerangs

A methodical Eastern Suburbs Hakoah beat Boomerangs FS 4-1 at Q-One Indoor Sports Queanbeyan on Saturday afternoon to move within striking distance of an ambitious premiership stab.

The game started at pace with both sides intent on getting the show on the road, and it was Hakoah’s Dylan Basger who received a perfect James Reed pass to make it 1-0 within the first two minutes.

Both sides kept possession well and tried hard to break each other’s defence, but try as they might no-one was budging to head into the changerooms with the scoreline unchanged at halftime.

The second half had barely started when a cleverly-worked Easts move set up Reed to slot in a second for Hakoah before some helter-skelter confusion at the back from the Boomerangs defence led to Ryuji Kagiya netting a sitter to make it a healthy 3-0 lead.

The Territorians deployed a fifth-man and pressed hoping to rattle the Easts defence and it worked a treat as their ‘rush-goalie’ hit the back of the net, but as everyone settled for another game of futsal chess a long-ball from Hakoah keeper Laith Al-Shdifat found the foot of Yuma Hosoe who punted it home to close out a deserved 4-1 victory.

It really has been a tremendous second top-flight season for Easts who are nestled just two points behind leaders Mascot, who they face on Sunday.

 

Majik stun Magic

Mountain Majik were at their mercurial best in a fiery 5-3 defeat of Inner West Magic at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium on Saturday evening that pushed them just two points off top spot.

Jordan Guerreiro got the home side off to a flyer with two quickfire goals giving Mountain a 2-0 break in just the seventh minute, but Hassan Jalloh pulled one back for Inner West almost immediately to set up an enthralling contest with the scoreline unchanged to halftime.

Goals to Magic’s Anthony Haddad and Jonathan Barzel then gave their side a 3-2 edge just past the half-hour mark but Majik refused to go away and an Alex Vlismas strike evened the ledger with 10 minutes left.

It was a nail-biting finish to the match, and it was to be Mountain’s day as Guerreiro and then Vlismas scored goals to lift Majik to a solid 5-3 victory and scoot them within two points of leaders Mascot – their next opponent!

The win capped off a glorious week for Mountain after they defeated Northside 4-2 in their Wednesday night Futsal Cup semi-final to secure a first-ever men’s grand final berth.

Guerreiro’s hat-trick also moved him to 10 goals for the season to join Campbelltown’s Mark Symington and Mascot’s Bruno Mendes at the top of the scorer’s chart.

Majik coach Jamie Amendolia was very pleased with his troops.

“It’s always a great game [versus Magic] with passion and intensity,” he said. “Tactically, Inner West are the benchmark of the competition so it’s always good to get a win [against them].”

“In the first round they were good enough to take their chances [winning 6-4], and this time around we were fortunate enough to take ours in the vital moments of the game.”

 

Mascot, Northside stalemate

It was edge-of-the-seat stuff as Mascot Vipers and UTS Northside fought out a gritty 2-2 draw at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday night.

Mascot muscled their way to a 2-0 halftime lead before Northside got their act together and showed real teeth to get back into the contest behind a Nathan Amore brace.

UTS official Danny Beauchamp applauded his side’s tenacity to grab a share of the points in the face of adversity.

“Mascot outplayed us in the first half and, after a few tactical changes at halftime, we dominated the second half and could have won it,” he said.

“Credit to the boys who dug deep and showed great resilience to come back from 2-0 down.

“Now we need two good performances against Boomerangs and Majik to stay with the top four.”

Next weekend will be a real test of Mascot’s character as they face the two teams breathing down their necks, Mountain on Saturday and Easts on Sunday.

 

Next games

2019/20 Men’s Futsal Premier League round-11 starts with a Friday night game between Enfield Allstars and Inner West Magic at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (9pm), followed on Saturday by Mountain Majik versus Mascot Vipers at Valentine Sports Park (6.10pm), Eastern Suburbs Hakoah against Campbelltown Quake at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (6.30pm), and UTS Northside face Boomerangs FS at PCYC Dee Why (6.40pm). All clubs then back up on Sunday for round-12 matches.