28.02.2016
The Futsal Premier League 2 trophy day delivered on its expected fill of high drama and excitement with nine terrific grand finals at Valentine Sports Park resulting in four different clubs holding a championship cup aloft.
Youth Men – Boomerangs break Eagles
Boomerangs FS sprang a surprise on Youth Men premiers Sydney City Eagles with a terrific 3-2 grand final win at Valentine Sports Park.
It was end-to-end action from the get-go with City's Giuseppe Camera going closest with a strike that Boomerangs keeper Kai Thornton had to stop and from the ensuing corner Adrian Hadjisocratous let fly with a screamer from outside the D that only stopped when it crashed into the onion bag for Sydney's opening goal on four minutes.
Eagles player Eoin Montford showed off his aerial prowess moments later with an audacious header on the fly from outside the D that went over the bar, while Boomerangs were slowly building some momentum halfway through the first period but unable to land a killer blow on the Sydney goal.
Jonathan Ciminelli had perhaps the closest Boomerangs attempt when his neat dribble to the left of goal freed up enough space to launch a strike that went narrowly wide, and five minutes from the interval the ACT club finally broke through when Nic Dahl and Chris Kazolis played a crisp one-two from the sideline, Dahl receiving the ball back and rounding a defender to tee up his successful drive on goal and peg the scores level at the changeover.
Boomerangs were unlucky not to score from the kickoff with a sprinting Michael Rinaudo unable to keep his strike on target, but it didn't take long for the interstaters to grab a second when Grant Barlow pilfered the ball from the City defence, turned to find just second-half Eagles keeper Domenic Breckenridge to beat which he did clinically to push the Territorians 2-1 ahead.
It might've been a third a moment later had Breckenridge not parried away an excellent Rinaudo chance on the left as Boomerangs looked to get right on top of their opponents, but some gilt-edged misses proved costly when Nick Van Aalst (now in goals for Boomerangs) spilled a Mohamed Al-Taay strike and vocal Rob Perre was on hand to sneak in the equaliser with 10 minutes remaining.
The Boomerangs response went begging when a handball inside the D lined up Barlow for the spot-kick but Breckenridge produced an outstanding diving save to keep the score unchanged, Van Aalst proving just as inspired for the Territorians when he instinctively snatched a Perre one-on-one shot in front of goal.
Both sides went close when Rinaudo and Eagles player Mohamed Al-Taay ruffled the side-netting at either end and the match seemed destined for extra time until Nick Rathjen kept his cool with the seconds ticking down, dummied his shot from in front and laid off to Ahmed Ugool who stepped twice inside to get a better angle and had his shot deflect off a defender's leg, lobbing over Breckenridge for the match-winning goal.
