November 19 had the Boomerangs club travel to away matches in Sydney – for the third weekend in a row (and the fourth in the first five rounds of this season). The drive up Highway 31 and the M5 ended at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre in Alexandria to take on the reigning Premier League 1 Club Champions, Mascot Vipers.
It was known that this would be a tough round of away matches, but as is usually the case, all teams, and all players put in a terrific effort in order to challenge for positive results. The Vipers club though were dominant across most age groups and showed the Boomerangs players – especially those new to the club – the level to which you need to play in this competition to remain competitive.
And whilst the results certainly didn’t go the travelling Boomerangs way, there were again some positive signs across all twelve matches played. The efforts of the 15 and 17 girls have been terrific over recent weeks and the Youth Men always test the opposition to their limit – wins are not far away. The Open Women are hugely competitive but have had little luck in getting positive results despite consistently playing very strongly – they pushed the undefeated Vipers women all the way in their Round 5 match. The Open Men remain in strong contention for a top four finish and semi-finals but need to make more of their chances at the offensive end.
Dont forget to check out the photos of Match Day 5 at the Boomerangs photo site.
There is no doubt that results in the second half of the season will be much improved over the first half and that more goals and wins will be forthcoming. A short summary of the weekend’s results:
12 boys – Boomerangs 1 – Vipers 16 (HT 0-6)
13 girls – Boomerangs 1 – Vipers 6 (HT 0-3)
14 boys – Boomerangs 1 – Vipers 8 (HT 1-4)
15 girls – Boomerangs 2 – Vipers 5 (HT 0-3)
16 boys – Boomerangs 0 – Vipers 9 (HT 0-5)
17 girls – Boomerangs 1 – Vipers 3 (HT 0-0)
Youth men – Boomerangs 1 – Vipers 3 (HT 1-2)
Open Women – Boomerangs 4 – Vipers 6 (HT 2-2)
Open Men – Boomerangs 2 – Vipers 3 (HT 2-0)
Following is the write up of the men’s match by Dan De Nardi of Football NSW.
Round five of the 2016/17 Football NSW Select NSW Premier League might prove pivotal as Inner West demolished Dural 7-2, Northside beat Enfield 6-3, Mascot edged Boomerangs 3-2 and Mountain Majik saw off South Coast 7-4.
The results allowed Magic (13) to skip four points clear of Rovers (9) at the top of the table with UTS, Vipers and Warriors locked on seven points closely followed by Majik (5) and Taipans (3).
Here’s where it gets really interesting: Northside’s only two losses have been by one goal (to Boomerangs and Warriors) and they’re yet to play a game at home; Mascot’s gone unbeaten in three fixtures leading into this weekend’s crunch match against Dural; and although last, South Coast beat Dural 2-0 (the only time Warriors have been held scoreless).
The fact this is Dural’s worse premier league start since their inaugural 2009/10 season – where they suffered three losses in the first five rounds and didn’t make the finals for the only time in their club’s history – and the defending champs could be in real trouble.
A club definitely feeling the pinch is Boomerangs after Taipans racked up 16 points to improve their club championship standing and leave the recently-promoted Canberrans out in the cold, a massive 41 points behind the Coasters at the bottom of the table.
South Coast Taipans 4 (Val Merxhushi, Riku Iwauchi 2, Matt Mazevski) Mountain Majik 7 (Samuel Gulisano 3, Marco Turpeinen, Chris Barbera, Manuel Duarte, own goal)
Enfield Rovers 3 (Michael Kouta, Dominic Cox, Giovanni Leuzzi) UTS Northside 6 (Joey Gibbs 2, Agneesh Lahiri, Nathan Amore, Jun Arima, Grant Lynch)
Dural Warriors 2 (Brandon Vella, Samuel de Oliveira) Inner West Magic 7 (Daniel Fogarty 3, Daniel Vellonio 2, Jonathan Barzel, own goal)
Mascot Vipers 3 (Conor Quilligan, Konstantinos Tsournakakis, Shu Torihara) Boomerangs FS 2 (Jonathan Ciminelli, Daniel Giovinazzo)
Mascot beat Boomerangs
Mascot Vipers made it three games without defeat following a tight come-from-behind 3-2 win against a difficult Boomerangs FS at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre.
The ACT travelers started a bit slow as Mascot pressed but found their groove with Jonathan Ciminelli putting them in front midway through the half before a series of neat one-twos freed Daniel Giovinazzo at the top of the D who nudged in to double the advantage by halftime.
Boomerangs continued to pressure in the second term but couldn’t put Vipers to the sword and this allowed Mascot to creep back into the game with Conor Quilligan and Konstantinos Tsournakakis leveling up proceedings 10 minutes from the end.
It was left to the last play of the game to decide the thrilling encounter with Boomerangs pressing forward for the win but turning the ball over and with four seconds left Shu Torihara let fly from 10m out with his shot flying under the Boomerangs keeper for the winning goal.
Incredibly it’s Mascot’s second win against Boomerangs in seven encounters and follows an 8-0 drubbing in Canberra in their last meeting in early 2014; the result lifting Vipers equal with UTS and Dural in third position on the ladder.
Tsournakakis also became the 55th player to score in Mascot colours over their premier league years, the highest number of any club by a long way. Inner West have had 44 different scorers, Campbelltown Quake 40, Enfield 33 and (somewhat astonishing due to their short stint in the top-flight) Mountain Majik is next with 31 different scorers, two more than stalwarts Dural having played half the number of games as Warriors.
Boomerangs have now gone on 10 premier league road trips without a win (Mascot holds the record with 11 fruitless runs over 2013/14-2014/15) and coach Kristian Collins is looking to the skies for divine intervention to save his club’s premier league seat.
“We completely dominated first half; it was a bit more even in the second half, but I’m exceptionally disappointed with the result,” he said. “Once we settled into the pace of the game we carved them up like a hot knife through butter but the ability to not finalise our chances wasn’t good enough.”
“We need a miracle [to stay in premier league]. We should be better in the second half of the season with six [of last nine] rounds at home… but we probably need to clean-sweep South Coast [when the clubs meet in a fortnight’s time] to have any chance.”
Next week’s games
The Football NSW Select Futsal Premier League round six Saturday action features South Coast Taipans against UTS Northside at the University of Wollongong Sports Hub (4.50pm), Boomerangs FS host Mountain Majik at the AIS Training Halls (7.20pm), Enfield Rovers play Inner West Magic at the Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm), and Dural Warriors face Mascot Vipers at The Centre, Dural (7.55pm). Visit the Football NSW website (Futsal tab) for full details.
-By Dan De Nardi