FNSW PL1 Round 8 Wrap

The first round of the second half of the FNSW Premier League 1 futsal competition for 2016/2017 was played on December 10, with the Boomerangs at home, hosting the Dural Warriors.

The Dural club has been a stalwart club of the highest quality in the FNSW Premier League competition, and in the F-League (men’s and women’s). Their older age groups, in particular, are always competitive and generally at the top of the standings in whatever competition they compete in. This season though several of their younger age groups are having less success than usual and it was expected that a few wins – by the junior teams especially – might be forthcoming for the ever improving Boomers younger teams. In addition, the men’s and women’s teams seem to also match up well against Dural and have had some success in the recent past.

This round was played at Gungahlin College due, once again, to the unavailability of preferred venues the AIS Training Halls and mPowerdome. The day started with a couple of terrific hit-outs for the development squads with the 10/11 boys combining in a one hour match against Dural’s travelling youngsters. The 11/12 girls again showed how well they are developing as a group and growing in confidence each week. Those old enough look like they will fit nicely into the 13’s competitive grade next season.

The competitive matches kicked off at 12.30pm with the 12 boys pushing the Dural team all the way – and indeed the boys were unlucky not to come away with at least a point from the match they narrowly lost 5-6. This team has developed well this season (despite being a bit light on in numbers), and with the regular inclusion of some of the 11 boys will no doubt record some wins in the second half of the season if this effort was anything to go by.

The 13 girls match was almost the highlight of the day with their solid victory over the Warriors. The girls played well and importantly clung on when it mattered in the final minutes of the match.

The Youth Men have been in a position to win all but one match this season and have drawn two, lost three matches by a solitary goal and two by two goals. And whilst they remain on the wrong end of the competition ladder (Warriors sit on top), they have the second best defensive record in the competition – after the Warriors. The lads certainly gave the well-credentialled Warriors a tough hit out.

The Women did the impossible in this Round 8 match – lost a game they were in a position to win for all but the final 60 seconds. Costly errors in the final ninety seconds had them concede two quick goals and the victory, and while we can argue that they may have been the better team on the day, it’s the final score when the whistle blows that counts.

The Men’s match was always going to be a tough one against the ever strong and well-drilled Warriors side (coached by the Futsalroos coach, Rob Varela). Over the past few seasons though, the Boomers men have matched up very well against Dural and have lifted for these tough matches. And this Round 8 match was no different – with the Boomerangs men playing out of their skins and defending like it was a Grand Final. One all at half time was reflective of the match, but a second for the Boomers by Brad Sawyer soon after the interval – and a superb defensive effort – had the Warriors unable to bring the match back to par. They were pushed to use a fifth man powerplay for the final minutes – and as is usually the case, this either works, or it doesn’t, and in this instance, the pressure maintained by the Boomerangs defence forced a number of turnovers from which they clinically finished. 4-1 a tremendous victory for the lads.

Don’t forget to check out the photos of Match Day 8 at the Boomerangs photo site.

A short summary of the day’s results:

12 boys – Boomerangs 5 – 6 Warriors (HT 3 – 4)
13 girls – Boomerangs 3 – 2 Warriors (HT 3 – 1)
14 boys – Boomerangs 1 – 8 Warriors (HT 0 – 4)
15 girls – Boomerangs 0 – 5 Warriors (HT 0 – 3)
16 boys – Boomerangs 0 – 5 Warriors (HT 0 – 2)
17 girls – Boomerangs 0 – 3 Warriors (HT 0 – 0)
Youth men – Boomerangs 1 – 2 Warriors (HT 1 – 2)
Open Women – Boomerangs 2 – 3 Warriors (HT 0 – 1)
Open Men – Boomerangs 4 – 1 Warriors (HT 1 – 1)

Following is the write up of the men’s match by Dan De Nardi of Football NSW.

Round 8 Review – SELECT Futsal Premier League

The excitement continued in round eight of the 2016/17 Football NSW Select NSW Premier League as Boomerangs beat Dural 4-1, UTS whitewashed Mascot 4-0, Inner West withheld Mountain Majik 6-3 and Enfield downed South Coast 5-1.With six rounds left it looks likely to be an Inner West (19 competition points) versus Enfield (18) premiership duel with Dural (13) and UTS (13) locked on points and goal-difference, while Boomerangs (9), Mascot (7), South Coast (6) and Majik (6) need to conjure up something to figure in the playoffs.

Rovers stars Shervin Adeli and Michael Kouta lead the goalscoring charts with eight strikes – but there are still 24 players within four goals on the register.

In the club championship Vipers (155) remain four points in front of Magic (151) ahead of this weekend’s crunch meeting on Mascot’s home turf; Majik, Taipans, Warriors, UTS and Rovers pretty much assured of their premier league positions with Boomerangs a distant last.

South Coast Taipans 1 (Matt Mazevski) Enfield Rovers 5 (Michael Kouta 2, Clayton Musumeci, Shervin Adeli, Lachlan Wright)

UTS Northside 4 (Tristan Prendergast, Blake French, Alex Apanian, Nathan Amore) Mascot Vipers 0

Boomerangs FS 4 (Daniel Giovinazzo 2, Brad Sawyer, Michael Rinaudo) Dural Warriors 1 (Vic Koutsoufis)

Inner West Magic 6 (Daniel Fornito 2, Chris Zeballos, Matthew Lecce 3) Mountain Majik 3 (Manuel Duarte, Jordan Guerreiro 2)

Boomerangs stun Dural

Boomerangs FS shocked defending champions Dural Warriors with a 5 4-1 demolition at the AIS Training Halls.

Dural took the lead midway through the first half via a Vic Koutsoufis goal only to see Boomerangs player Daniel Giovinazzo level on the stroke of halftime to make it one-apiece at the break.

The home team started the second half much better and stuck their noses in front when Brad Sawyer scored eight minutes after the restart, and some resilient defence in front of a superb Ashley Collins in the Boomerangs goal kept Warriors at bay.

Dural went for broke with a fifth-man press eight minutes from time but were stopped every time, Michael Rinaudo and Jake Wilsener seizing on the Warriors desperation with well-taken goals into an empty net to finish 4-1 victors.

While Dural boast a better overall head-to-head record of six wins in nine contests, the Territorians can claim two wins and a 3-3 draw in their past five meetings, and throw in a tight one-goal loss late last year and Boomerangs have become a real dent in the Warriors shield of late.

FS coach Kristian Collins was pretty darn chuffed. “The game was a good one and pretty even throughout. Ashley [Collins] in goals had a belter, and the boys took their chances well and were resolute in defence,” he said. “Everyone contributed, which was good… [and] a massive confidence-booster after three disappointing results too.

Warriors coach Rob Varela last week warned of a banana skin match in Canberra, and the club’s young brigade could only do so much in a valiant effort.

“An already difficult game was made even harder with the availability of only three senior court players, which meant a large number of youth players had to double up after a very intense game in their own age group,” he said.

“Despite that we started off quite well and went up one after creating, and wasting, many chances. We gave up the lead after a very good transition goal by Boomerang but we felt we were on top throughout the first half against a team that defended very well and looked to take their chances on the counter.”

“As the second half progressed the young guys became quite fatigued and we went down 1-2 goals; [So] we went onto the power play and despite creating numerous chances, which were repelled by an absolutely outstanding goalkeeping display, we conceded two late goals to drop three points we could ill afford to lose,” Varela said.

“All credit to Boomerangs who executed their game plan to near-perfection, but we are very disappointed that we wasted so many opportunities. We are still looking for the consistency that was our hallmark in previous seasons where we always managed to find a way to win games even when we were not performing at our best.”

Next week’s games

Football NSW Select Futsal Premier League round nine Saturday action features UTS Northside against Boomerangs FS at Sydney Boys High School (6.40pm), Enfield Rovers meet Mountain Majik at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.50pm), Dural Warriors welcome South Coast Taipans to The Centre (7.55pm), while Mascot Vipers play Inner West Magic at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre (8.50pm). Visit the Football NSW website (Futsal tab) for full details.

-By Dan De Nardi