Round 10 Wrap Up | 2019 2020 Macron SFL WA

An extraordinary round of futsal, with a mouth-watering 52 goals & the top of the table changing hands for the 7th time in 8 weeks.

South Perth FC 1 – 1 Fremantle FC

What a match to open the round, with 5th placed South Perth taking on 6th placed Fremantle. A highly anticipated encounter with both sides high on confidence & unbeaten since October. And, both sides maintained their unbeaten runs by sharing the spoils. After a cagy opening, with both sides defending well & Brad Kneebone & Frank Del Rosso in fine form, it was proving difficult to score from open play. Filip Rojnica gave South Perth the lead early in the 2nd half from a set play. Whilst Milan Rosic responded for Fremantle late in the match with a thunderbolt from another set play. A fair result that keeps both sides in finals contention.

Spearwood Lions FC 2 – 3 Perth Longobarda FC

Another close encounter with 8th placed Spearwood taking on 7th placed Longobarda. And if ever there was a case of a “tale of two halves” then this way it. Longobarda took a commanding 3-0 lead into half-time, with 2 strikes from Alex Kretowicz & 1 from Bruno Di Gregorio. Spearwood came out firing in the 2nd half, and a double from Jamal Yusof resulted in an exciting finish with both sides looking to go forward & remain on the front foot. The victory kept Longobarda within reach of the Top 6. Indeed, they closed the gap to Fremantle to 2 points. A 2nd consecutive defeat means that The Lions dropped to 10th on the ladder, but still within finals contention, only 6 points out of the Top 6.

Curtin Footbalista FC 1 – 5 Murdoch Warriors FC

An intriguing encounter with Curtin falling to high flying, and now, table-topping, Murdoch. Despite Footbalista’s desperate need to return to winning ways, it was The Warriors who controlled the match & returned to the summit. A 1st half double from Massimo Basolu was followed up by a 2nd half double from Lucas Mello. Mauricio Da Rocha rounded out the scoring for Murdoch, whose old guard took full charge of this match. Hesam Mizan responded for Curtin, but it was too little too late for a side struggling for results. 5 losses in a row have left Footbalista in 12th position, 12 points behind Fremantle in 6th. A confident Warriors side now look over their shoulders next week as they come up against a rejuvenated South Perth.

Cockburn EWA FC 4 – 4 Stirling Braza Ginga FC

The match-of-the-round and early contender for match-of-the-season saw a depleted Cockburn draw with a strong Stirling, with both sides in fine form & high on confidence. Braza flew out of the blocks, looking to stun an EWA side missing most of their superstars into submission, to take a 2-0 lead with goals from AJ Martino & Moh Totonchy. Cockburn responded with strikes from Niko Cvijanovic & Jesse Lazzaro. An end-to-end encounter led to further goals from Connor Crews & David Araya taking us to the half-time break at 3-3. With Jason Quintiliani in exceptional form for Cockburn, they went on to take the lead late in the 2nd half with a strike from Samuel Garces. And as Stirling piled on the pressure, Crews responded with his 2nd goal of the encounter to end the match all even. The result saw Braza drop from 1st to 3rd, with EWA remaining in 4th position.

Rockingham Cambio Cumbre 9 – 2 Joondalup ECU Jets

A relentless Cumbre jumped to 2nd on the table with a comfortable victory over a surprisingly limp ECU side, who were missing several 1st team players. In a heated fixture, featuring 2 red cards & 4 yellows, Rockingham took 6-0 lead into the half-time interval. And whilst The Jets came out firing in the 2nd half & reduced the deficit at one point to 6-2, the sending off of goalkeeper extraordinaire Alex Donev put the comeback on hold. Raul Sanchez took out man-of-the-match honours with a fine hattrick. Doubles from academy products Michael Lino & Kylan Watson showed that the future is bright at Cambio Cumbre. Chandra Nagendran & Faris Noor Rani rounded out the scoring. A straight red card to Noor Rani though may lead to a lengthy suspension, and with the next 3 fixtures against Balga, Stirling & Cockburn, Rockingham may rue missing their star player. Jimmy Fung & Jake Dean responded for Joondalup, but the red to Donev may also hurt them in the coming rounds as they face competitive fixtures.

Canning Ultra Tigers FC 6 – 7 Perth AFC

Canning had been threatening to claim their 1st & much-needed victory of the season for several weeks. And they came very close on Saturday against a full strength AFC side. But, a slow start cost them in the end; Perth AFC came flying out of the blocks with 2 early goals & led 3-1 at half-time. The Ultra Tigers opened the 2nd half with renewed purpose to reduce the deficit. Indeed, they came back to draw on several occasions and made it 6-6. But, with under 2 minutes to go, AFC scored the winner. An end-to-end match with AFC showcasing their mettle on set-plays & Canning displaying their speedy counter-attacking style. Doubles from AFC stalwarts Spiro Nenadic, Nathan Thorp & Andrija Jukic, along with a strike from Martyn Sharp rounded out the scoring for a Perth side who had been lulled into complacency by a dominant 1st half, and had to come back time & again in the 2nd half to finally secure a victory that propelled them up to 8th on the ladder. Bennett Vessey’s meteoric double in the 2nd half nearly made for a fairy-tale ending for The Ultra Tigers. Singles from captain Khalif Omar, Khairi Abdul Sahak, Jerry Yap & Afiq Mutalip at least showed that Canning have firepower all over the court. But the dilemma remains the same: they need to tighten up their defence in order to start turning their season around.

Byford Venom FC 3 – 4 Balga FC

The final match of Round 10 of the Macron State Futsal League featured 2 sides with a great need for a win despite playing some enterprising futsal in recent weeks. And it was Balga who returned to winning ways in a highly entertaining, yet controversial, tussle. Despite missing the inspirational Brodie Stevens, Byford started on the front foot and took an early lead courtesy of Leon Plug. Balga responded immediately with a goal from Gabriel Kieswetter to take a tight match to 1-1 at half-time. Leon Plug restored The Venom’s lead early in the 2nd half, but the rest of the match proved to be the Graham Dixon show; Dixon equalised, only for Brandon VanderRos to restore the lead for Byford. Quickfire goals from Jake Fritchley & Dixon stole the victory for Balga, and put them back into finals contention.