The Futsal Spy : Solomon Islands vs Sydney Magic
Sydney Magic, the reigning N.S.W. Premier League champions featuring 3 full internationals in their ranks backed up by numerous State players, and the young Solomon Islands All Age team served up another feast of exciting, attacking Futsal for a delighted crowd of over 200 people last night at the Dural S & L C.
In a game of fluctuating fortunes and end to end play, the young Islanders completed their round of practice matches with their first defeat of the tour, but they can hold their heads high as they pushed the Magicians to the limit.
The first 5 minutes belonged to the boys from Honiara as they extracted some brilliant saves from Peter Spathis who kept the score at 0-0 with some great acrobatics. As Rob Varela introduced new players into the game the Solo boys began to hand over the initiative to the locals who capitalised with 2 quick goals. The visitors came back into the game strongly in the last few minutes of the half, only to see themselves thwarted time and time again by an inspired Spathis.
The 2-0 halftime score line could have been different but the second half held a promise of more enthralling play.
The second stanza began in similar fashion to the first with the smiling young men from the South Pacific dominating the play forcing Peter “Spider” Spathis to reach deep into his bag of tricks to keep them at bay. Against the run of play Sydney Magic extended their lead and this seemed to affect the blue-and-whites (wearing the away strip) momentarily, and this allowed the PCYC lads to control the tempo of the game. Not to be denied, after a “timely” time out the S.I. boys seemed to regather themselves and threw everything at the P/L champs closing down the score line to 3-2. An exchange of goals in the next few minutes gave us the final result of 4-3 in favour of the more experienced Sydney Magic outfit. As the Solo kids continued to attack Roberto M, in goals, backed up Spiders performance by denying them the equaliser.
Speaking to Rob Varela after the game he commented that the boys were progressing nicely, and after the next 2 training sessions he will have a better idea of how well placed the young lads will be for their tilt at an improbable place in the World Cup later in the year.
Personally, just to think that a group of boys that do not even have a strong weekly competition to play in, can push some of the best futsal players in NSW is testimony to their natural ability and enthusiasm for the game.
These 3 games should prove to all the doubters what a wonderful sport, and spectacle, Futsal is. All that is needed now is for the administrators to back up the players efforts by promoting and developing the sport, fiercely and consistently, outside the usual Futsal circles.
THE FUTSAL SPY
Related posts:- NSW Futsal Presentation Night – Sydney Magic Report (NSW)
- Sydney Magic Game Highlights and DVDs (NSW)
- Sydney Magic Top 10 Goals for the season (NSW)
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