Round 11 and 12 Review – Futsal Premier League Open Men’s
2019/20 Men’s Futsal Premier League round-11 results saw Enfield Allstars and Inner West Magic draw 3-3, Mountain Majik and Mascot Vipers draw 4-4, Eastern Suburbs Hakoah and Campbelltown Quake draw 1-1, while UTS Northside beat Boomerangs FS 6-1.
Round-12 Sunday action had UTS Northside defeat Mountain Majik 8-5, Enfield Allstars better Boomerangs FS 6-2, Inner West Magic calm Campbelltown Quake 4-1, and Mascot Vipers shut out Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 2-0.
The remarkable series of results has placed the points table in a stunning position heading into the final two rounds: Mascot (25 points) hold the slenderest of leads over Northside (23), Inner West (22), Easts (20) and Mountain (20), with Enfield (18) also able to make the finals in what promises to be the closest finish to a premier league competition.
The three round-11 stalemates made it nine for the season, eclipsing the record-eight registered in the 2016/17 season.
Enfield Allstars 3 (Dominic Cox, Ronaldo Miranda, Zac Ribeiro) Inner West Magic 3 (Jonathan Barzel, Chris Zeballos, Andrew Luttringer)
Mountain Majik 4 (Jordan Guerreiro 2, Chris Barbera, Daniel Muzzarelli) Mascot Vipers 4 (Conor Quilligan 2, Ethan De Melo, Thomas Quilligan)
Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 1 (Dylan Basger) Campbelltown Quake 1 ()
UTS Northside 6 (Emilio Manos, Edward Caspers, Reggie Hore-Gibson 2, Mason Ireland, Michael Loupis) Boomerangs FS 1 (Michael Rinaudo)
Mountain Majik 5 (Daniel Muzzarelli 2, Alex Vlismas, Alex Purves, Lachlan Sepping) UTS Northside 8 (Michael Loupis 3, Reginald Hore-Gibson 2, Bryce Harry, Karim Moursi, Lucas Rainbird)
Boomerangs FS 2 (Elie Darwich 2) Enfield Allstars (Luiz Lobo 2, Michael Kouta, Jonathon Lynch, Dominic Cox, ?)
Inner West Magic 4 (Jonathan Barzel, ) Campbelltown Quake 1 (Bradon Clissold)
Mascot Vipers 2 (Conor Quilligan 2) Eastern Subs Hakoah 0
Round-11 games
Inner West, Enfield stalemate
Enfield Allstars and Inner West Magic fought out yet another riveting derby match in a 3-3 firefight at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre on Friday night.
Inner West led 2-1 at drinks but Enfield returned fire in the second half to split the points.
No PL fixture has collected as many draws as this one – a fifth in 20 meetings (25%, the overall league average for drawn matches is 10%), the fourth in their past seven encounters and a second his summer.
Dominic Cox, Ronaldo Miranda and Zac Ribeiro scored for Allstars, while Magic responded through Jonathan Barzel, Chris Zeballos and Andrew Luttringer.
Mascot level with Mountain
The dust settled on a frantic 4-4 draw between top-two Mountain Majik and Mascot Vipers at Valentine Sports Park on Saturday evening.
It was scenes from Rocky as two prize heavyweight fighters sparred back and forth over an exciting contest, comp leaders Mascot taking a 2-1 advantage into the drinks break before a dogged Mountain side lifted themselves to within sight of victory only for a stunning final minute of play eventually saw the spoils shared.
Mascot’s Thomas Quilligan got the ball rolling with a 12th-minute goal before Jordan Guerreiro responded for Mountain four minutes from the break, but a Conor Quilligan strike moments later sent Vipers into the changerooms ahead 2-1.
It was a tense second-half affair as the scoreline remained unchanged despite the comprehensive efforts of both sides, a late Majik revival through Guerreiro, Chris Barbera and Daniel Muzzarelli goals in the final five minutes giving Mountain a seemingly invincible 4-2 lead with 90 seconds left on the clock.
But Mascot refused to let the game slip away and last-minute goals to Conor Quilligan and young gun Ethan De Melo saw the hooter sound on an exhilarating 4-4 scoreline – the same result as their round-five encounter.
Guerreiro has scored eight goals against Mascot in their last four meetings and he now joins Mascot’s Bruno Mendes at the top of this summer’s golden boot chart with 12 for the season.
Easts, Campbelltown deadlock
Campbelltown Quake ended a 10-match losing sequence with a gutsy 1-1 draw with highflyers Eastern Suburbs Hakoah at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday evening.
The visitors arrived with the backs against the wall and their faces staring down a horrible history of league defeats but went into the break leading 1-0 courtesy of one of the best own goals ever seen according to Campbelltown coach Mark Symington, an unfortunate highball clearance from Hakoah beating their own goalkeeper to ruffle their own netting.
Quake were down on senior personnel but more than made up for it in spirit as they dug their heels in against an expected Easts onslaught, an open Dylan Basger levelling the scores from a skillfully-worked Easts set-piece to provide a tense match-end.
But some stoic defence and phenomenal keeping from glovemen Jordan Winckle and Conor Irwin against consistent Easts pressing ensured Campbelltown finally had something to cheer about in an otherwise gloomy summer.
Symington was full of admiration for his team: “We only had four men’s players, the rest were 16’s and youth that sat up – three hadn’t even played men’s before!”
“Aidan Limbrey from our youth side started for a second straight week, and our goalkeepers Jordan Winckle and Conor Irwin were outstanding, as was Lee Thoroughgood.”
“To be fair they had plenty of chances to take the game, but so did we.”
For Easts it’s the first time they’ve played three premier league matches without being beaten, but also the first time they’ve gone two straight home games without victory.
Northside break Boomerangs
UTS Northside continued their remarkable summer with a 6-1 defeat of Boomerangs FS at PCYC Dee Why on Saturday night.
The Territorians stuck it to the home side and only trailed 2-1 at the break, but a Cale Brown red card made matters more difficult as Northside scooted away with a four-goal second half that put them within sight of a possible premiership attack.
Reginald Hore-Gibson bagged a brace for UTS to complement Emilio Manos, Edward Caspers, Mason Ireland and Michael Loupis goals, while Michael Rinaudo struck for Boomerangs.
UTS coach Grant Lynch was missing from the line-up but understandably pleased with the result.
“A good team performance in the second half after a tight first half,” he said.
“There were solid performances across the board with special mentions to Eddie Caspers, Harry Oates and Reggie Hore-Gibson, with Jett Griffiths outstanding in goals as always.
Lynch’s assistant Danny Beauchamp outlined just how superb the club’s young brigade were filling in for some missing seniors.
“After a few weeks without a win the lads we’re clinical and performed very well today,” he said. “It was an even better win as we did it without [Grant] Lynchy who was injured and half our squad under the age of 19.”
Northside moved to 20 points for the season, their highest haul in premier league.
Round-12 games
Northside topple Mountain
A red-hot UTS Northside scorched Mountain Majik 8-5 in a doozy of a match at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Northside bolted out of the blocks to build a commanding 4-0 lead by halftime forcing Mountain to show their hand in the second period with a powerplay that brought both reward and ruin, UTS scoring four more goals to ensure Mountain’s five goals didn’t have an impact on the final result.
Michael Loupis scored a first-half hat-trick and a Reginald Hore-Gibson strike opened up a four-goal gap for UTS midway through the contest.
Mountain man Daniel Muzzarelli responded a minute after play resumed in the second term and Lachlan Sepping pulled back another from the deficit on the half-hour before Lucas Rainbird and Karim Moursi goals restored Northside’s four-goal advantage with eight minutes left, consigning Muzzarelli, Alex Purves and Alex Vlismas strikes to mere Majik consolations.
It’s a third unbeaten game for UTS, matching their previous best run set earlier this season, and (like leaders Mascot) they remain unbeaten on the road this summer – should they win against Inner West next weekend it’ll be the second-most away points accumulated by a team in a single season.
Eight goals is also the highest Northside’s ever reached in a single game, eclipsing a 7-0 defeat of South Coast Taipans in 2015/16 and 7-2 win over Campbelltown the year before.
It took UTS to 41 goals, their biggest output in six top-flight seasons (they reached 39 three times) and 27 goals conceded is 14 less than their current low-mark 41 leaked in 2016/17.
Finally, a 13-goal game tally is the highest UTS has taken part in during their 82 league outings.
Coach Grant Lynch couldn’t hide his delight and hoped to seal a post-season position next weekend.
“It was an excellent first-half performance to go in 4-0 up,” he said. “Majik played fifth-man the entire second half and the boys put in an outstanding defensive performance to keep the gap at three until the final whistle. Onto a huge game against Inner West.”
Enfield beat Boomerangs
Boomerangs FS gave it their all but couldn’t prevent Enfield Allstars from running away with a 6-2 win at Q-One Indoor Sports Queanbeyan on Sunday afternoon.
It was tight at the break locked at 1-1 but Enfield, playing their 150th top-flight senior men’s match, shifted up a gear in the second term to register a cozy four-goal win on the back of a Luiz Lobo double.
Dominic Cox and Michael Kouta also scored for Allstars, as did Jonathon Lynch who became Enfield’s 14th different scorer of the season, the most they’ve ever fielded in a single summer and one short of the record number set by Campbelltown and Mascot back in 2011/12.
Elie Darwich scored a goal in each half for Boomerangs, who will now endure their worst men’s top-flight season – six competition points well short of their previous low 17 set in 2016/17.
Enfield are just a couple of points off top-four pace but play top-three sides Easts and Mountain in the run home, which gives them a great opportunity to steal a belated playoff spot.
Inner West defeat Campbelltown
A methodical Inner West Magic comfortably beat Campbelltown Quake 4-1 at Valentine Sports Park on Sunday evening.
It was almost all one-way traffic in the first half as Campbelltown faced a barrage of Inner West chances, but it took until six minutes before halftime for Magic to finally find a breakthrough as Daniel Fornito teed up Jonathan Barzel for the opening score.
The lead was doubled within a minute as Daniel Fogarty pilfered the ball and drove in a pass that Suleyman Bangura finished off in front of goal to hand Inner West a 2-0 lead at the break.
Bradon Clissold pulled one back for Quake straight after the restart but Magic restored their buffer almost immediately when some neat Fornito footwork led to Hassan Jalloh tapping in for a 3-1 advantage.
The result was sealed with a quarter-hour to play when Fogarty smashed in a direct freekick – his 16th goal against Campbelltown – to round out a 4-1 scoreline.
Inner West assistant coach Mohammad Dubdub acknowledged the result’s importance.
“We needed the win as we were fifth and, with the top four teams playing each other, if a result or two go our way we could still finish first,” he said.
“Our main objective is to make finals, and even though we were overworked from the double-header, the technical coaching from [Steve] Knight proved superior.”
“A bit of a let-down was a lack of finishing in front of goals, but it was a positive that we had a full bench and were able to rotate the players. [Daniel] Fornito was back in form and it was another dominant performance from [Daniel] Fogarty.”
Campbelltown Quake coach Mark Symington also paid tribute to a superb Inner West.
“Our boys played well but were just outclassed,” he said. “Inner West are a good side with a deep bench. [Coach Steve] Knighty has them playing well and being undermanned you can’t afford to give anything up cheaply.”
Mascot shut out Easts
Mascot Vipers cleaned up Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 2-0 at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre on Sunday night to resurrect their premiership claim.
The highly anticipated eastern suburbs derby lived up to all the hype and expectation fitting for such an event as both sides came out firing.
The physicality of the players was always going to be a factor as tempers rose with the pace of the game, the officials getting involved to cool things down a little.
The relentless attacking and defending was absorbing and it took a slight defensive error from Easts to allow Mascot’s Conor Quilligan to pull the trigger and score the only first-half goal.
Nobody left anything on the court and midway through the second term Quilligan got another sniff at goal and beat the normally cool-handed Hakoah keeper Laith Al-Shdifat to make it 2-0.
Try as they might, Easts just couldn’t get their aim right despite having many shots on target, particularly with a rush-goalie for the final five minutes.
Easts have tough asks against playoff rivals Enfield and Inner West coming up, while Mascot – who equaled their highest points tally of 25 from 2015/16 – can sew up the premiership with games versus bottom-sides Campbelltown and Boomerangs.
Next games
2019/20 Men’s Futsal Premier League round-13 Saturday action sees Campbelltown Quake tackle Mascot Vipers at Minto Sports Stadium (4.50pm), Boomerangs FS host Mountain Majik at Q-One Indoor Sports Queanbeyan (5.50pm), Inner West Magic face UTS Northside at Valentine Sports Park (6.20pm), and Enfield Allstars play Eastern Suburbs Hakoah at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm).
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