Men’s Futsal Premier League round 12 Review
A 7-1 Boomerangs demolition of Mascot Vipers kept the ACT-based side in fourth spot, a point in front of Allstars, while Rovers head the Warriors and Eagles by a solitary point in a thrilling end to the 2011/12 competition.
The 27 goals netted in round 12 made it the second lowest scoring weekend all season (ahead of round eight?s miserly 25), but kept the average at a healthy 8.2 goals per game. In all, 395 goals have been scored in 48 highly competitive matches that included just two nil scorelines.
Daniel Fulton?s third hat-trick of the season takes the Boomerangs star to a competition-high 23 goals, and 10 players have now reached double figures. Behind Fulton are Dural?s Greg Giovenali (18), City?s Chris Zeballos (17), Enfield trio Joseph Foti (13), Shervin Adeli (12) and Giacomo Di Mento (11), Campbelltown?s Danny Martinez (12), Mascot?s Rodrigo Barbosa (11), plus Warriors Corey Bizco (10) and Allstars Ediz Alpkaya (10). Of the 91 goalscorers in this year?s competition an astounding 34 have scored five or more goals.
Enfield edge Dural
Enfield Rovers stormed to the top of the leaderboard with an epic 5-4 win over Dural Warriors at All Saints Grammar Belmore on Saturday night.
Missing big guns Greg and Rhys Giovenali, Dural scored first but it took just seconds for Enfield?s Lachlan Wright to equalise before team-mate Rob Foti added another for the home side to lead 2-1 inside a frantic opening five minutes.
A quacking Tim Simpson goal minutes before haltime put the Rovers up 3-2 at the changeover and Tim Mascarello extended their lead after the break, only for Dural to halve the deficit moments later.
Joe Foti added a fifth goal for Enfield in the 42nd minute to restore their two-goal cushion but a late Warriors score made for an intense closing five minutes, the Rovers hanging on for a 5-4 win in front of Australian Futsal coach Steve Knight, who was in the stands to watch over the top-of-the-table battle, and handing captain Jacob Di Mento the perfect birthday present.
Dural?s goalscorers were Blake Rosier, Nathan Niski, Isaac Wadik and Toby Seeto.
Enfield?s fourth straight win, their fifth straight victory at home and the third game in a row they?ve won by a goal was underlined by their hitting the back of the net 26 times in the past four outings, putting them in pretty good form ahead of the month-long holiday break.
They?ll return to play Inner West and South Coast in the final two rounds and Rovers coach Ernie Bivona is adamant there?ll be no let-up for either side.
?It was a very good win against a very well coached team,? he said. ?I have to give it to Robbie [Varela] as he does very well with his squad, and they proved just a tough without two of their key players [the Giovenali brothers].?
?But this is the first week we?ve had our full squad and I think all the players wanted to perform well in front of Steve Knight. Our boys are really backing themselves at the moment and trying to take opposition players on, and I think we?ve really used our smaller court to our advantage.?
Bivona agreed being top of the charts was a double-edged sword as it offers the confidence of knowing you?re the best team, but also puts a target on your back.
?Dural will want their revenge, and I was talking to [Rovers player] Isaac Wadik after the game and he already wants another bite at us in the semis? but we?re leading the comp in just our second year in premier league [Enfield finished runners-up last season] and have the chance to give a few players the perfect sending off.?
?We want to win the minor premiership and you can only do that if you?re in front of everyone else,? Bivona said. ?Our women?s team is also doing exceptionally well [five points clear in their comp] and both senior teams have done the club very proud.?
With a full month before the players hit the court again Bivona was a little wary about what the long break would do to his side?s momentum.
?The Christmas/New Year break is always tough,? he said. ?I know the players will have a few celebration drinks and eat plenty of panettone, so I plan to bring them back a couple weeks earlier for training just to make sure they?re ready to finish off the season properly.?
After leading the competition for a good month Dural is now in an awkward position where it can still win the minor premiership but also drop to third and a sudden death playoff. It was the first time this season Warriors had failed to chalk up a win in consecutive weekends.
Dural coach Rob Varela was pleased with the effort of a side depleted of several starters but also paid tribute to his opposite number.
?We did well, but they were also very good on the night and it could have gone either way,? he said. ?We probably failed to adapt to playing on a very small court and they took advantage of it.?
?It is a shame that destiny was taken out of our hands, but all we can control is the next two games [against Mascot and Inner West] and picking up six points. Once you?re in the semis it?s a new competition.
?It?s the old clich? of one game at a time and we just have to focus on going out there to do our best and finishing as high as possible.?
Allstars shake Quake
Inner West Allstars edged out Campbelltown Quake 3-2 in a tight tussle at Minto Indoor Sports Stadium on Saturday night.
Ediz Alpkaya got the ball rolling for the visitors with a fine first half strike only to see the lead cancelled out by Quake teenager Bruno Antelmi before the interval, the 16-year-old?s fourth goal in five senior appearances.
Campbelltown hit the lead minutes into the second term when Danny Martinez pounced on an Inner West error and the home side was building momentum.
But up stepped Marino Musumeci, who pulled Allstars level and then combined well with Alpkaya to put his side in front with eight minutes remaining.
Quake went to a fifth man and pushed forward for an equaliser but the 3-2 scoreline remained unchanged at fulltime, Inner West claiming a crucial three points.
With crunch games against top-two sides Enfield and Dural to close out the season, the victory wasn?t lost on Allstars coach Carmine Bortone.
?We needed to win it to pretty much to stay alive in the competition as we play the hardest two teams in the last two rounds,? he said.
?We missed plenty of chances to seal it when they tried playing fifth man, but the win definitely helps us as a loss last night would have been it for us. Robbie [Maiorana] had a really great game in goals and gave us the chance we needed.?
Ahead of two tough games Bortone said he wouldn?t be changing much: ?We?ll keep working on what we?ve been doing well all season and make sure our defence is right. We?re still very much in it.?
Despite a loss that puts them four points behind fourth-placed Boomerangs, Campbelltown are still well in the finals race but will see this week?s match-up with a much-improved South Coast as a must-win fixture.
If they do beat Taipans, Quake?s chances could come down to a final round last-ditch effort against Boomerangs, who face their own tough ask away at Sydney City this weekend.
Campbelltown club secretary Carlos Martinez was disappointed to let a vital three points slip away but couldn?t fault his young side?s on-court intent.
?We played well enough to win but missed a lot of opportunities early on,? he said. ?That?s what [player/coach] Simon Keith also said to them after the game, that he was proud of their efforts but that they couldn?t afford to miss so many opportunities at this level and expect to win the game.?
?At halftime we felt we were on top and I thought we?d take the game when we took the lead in the second half, but as has happened so many times this year we gave up a soft goal and at 2-2 whoever put away their next chance was going to win ? and it was them and not us.
?We know we?ve got two games [against Taipans and Boomerangs] and have to win both of them. If we do and results go as they should, we?re still in with a good chance. It will come down to the last round.?
Martinez held special praise for his young brigade showing the Quake will rumble for years to come.
?We?re on a bit of a plan for the next two years; we?re grooming so many youngsters and they?ve really responded,? he said. ?We fielded two 16-year-olds against Allstars [Antelmi and Shannon Fielding] and they are two stars of tomorrow. We also played a few youth players as well, so it?s a bit of a work in progress and a changing of the guard.?
Eagles snare Taipans
Sydney City Eagles battled their way to a thrilling 3-2 victory over South Coast Taipans at the Illawarra Hockey Centre on Saturday night.
The home side went up early through Daniel Ferraro and missed two golden chances to surge further ahead before the Eagles found their rhythm and equalised just before halftime.
A second goal to Ferraro restored South Coast?s lead after the break but City leveled five minutes later to set up an epic final quarter.
With chances going begging at both ends it was the Eagles who prevailed with the match winner in the last five minutes of the game ? Miles Downie, Chris Zeballos and Chris Hanly all putting their names on the scoresheet for the victors.
Statistics show Sydney City have gone off the boil of late, scoring just eight goals in their last three contests (they scored 23 goals in the corresponding first round matches), and they will need to lift in their final two games against finals contenders Boomerangs and Mascot if they want to defend their title.
South Coast continued their good run despite the loss, especially at the defensive end with 16 goals conceded in the last five games (they conceded 39 in their first five matches), and a 3-2 loss was a vast improvement from the 8-2 drubbing the Eagles dished out to them in the first round.
Tapains coach April Van Woerkom said the game was a big battle and was again pleased with the fight from her team.
?It was a good game, actually,? she said. ?I?m much happier now we are more competitive in the second round and our defence has definitely improved. I think it was a bit of a misunderstanding from the players about what is needed in premier league, that we have to defend as a team, and that?s now showing on the court.?
?Although we can?t make the finals, we?ll go out and try to disrupt Quake and Enfield to finish off the season on a high note.?
Boomerangs thump Mascot
Boomerangs turned up the heat in a 7-1 walloping of Mascot Vipers at the AIS Training Halls on Saturday night.
In a brilliant display of Futsal, Boomerangs could have scored 15 goals with plenty of strikes hitting the post and in the end Daniel Fulton netted a hat-trick, Glenn Smith grabbed a double, Robbie Cattanach scored one and goalkeeper Angelo Konstantinou fired in a rocket (his fourth of the season).
Jonathan Kontalis scored a consolation goal for the Vipers after the home side led 4-0 at halftime.
With a vital shootout against Sydney City this week ahead of a final round showdown with finals hopefuls Campbelltown, Boomerangs co-coach Kristian Collins was delighted to put a good game on the board.
?It was about time we put a couple of wins together back-to-back [only the second time this season]; we had to win yesterday to keep our finals hopes alive,? he said. ?Looking at the table we?re sitting pretty well, and we plan to wrap up a finals place the first game back [against Eagles] and not have such a pressure match against Quake in the last round.?
?If we can finish fourth, finals football is a completely different ball game altogether. I think we?ve done very well so far to put us in this position.?
Mascot have now gone 10 games without a win and failed to pick up a point away from home this season. To make matters worst, they play top-three sides Dural and Sydney City in the final two rounds.
Next week?s games
Round 13 (Saturday, January 21) sees Sydney City Eagles host Boomerangs at Bankstown Basketball Stadium, Dural Warriors tackle Mascot Vipers at the Sports & Leisure Centre, Inner West Allstars play Enfield Rovers at Morris Iemma Sports Centre, while Campbelltown Quake play South Coast Taipans at Minto Indoor Sports Stadium.
By: Dan de Nardi
