Aussie futsal team bows out
DAVID WEINER IN RAMAT GAN
THE Aussie open futsal side pushed Russia, the 2001 and 2005 Maccabiah and 2007 Rome Champions, to extra time in an epic futsal quarter final on Sunday night. The match ended 2-2 at the end of normal time before the Russians ran away with it late in the second half of overtime to win 6-2.
The hero for the green and gold was goalkeeper John Myers. His Herculean display, filled with penalty saves, will go down as one of the best performances by an Australian athlete at these games.
This was a match of the highest quality, played at a breakneck speed and filled with finesse.
Jordan Mundell almost opened the scoring for the side in the ninth minute, but off the back of their keeper’s save, the Russians marched down the other end and seized the chance to score off a counter attack.
Paul Meltz came on and snatched an equaliser minutes later. Mundell charged down the left flank and cut the ball inside, where Meltz did well to sneak the ball past the oncoming keeper.
With more than five minutes still in the half, the Russians induced the Aussies into making 5 fouls -— meaning every foul thereafter was a penalty.
Myers stood tall for two out of three, but a third cannoned off the post before being tucked away on the rebound.
Sam Kettler, Adam Friedman and Doron Pozniak forced saves from the keeper in the first period, but the side had done well to get out with a 2-1 score line.
It was a gripping second half. Myers made a number of fine saves, but the Russians didn’t look like cracking.
With three minutes, 50 seconds on the clock, Doron Pozniak rifled a free kick home. When Tow had a shot smartly saved with the last kick of the match, we were headed into extra time.
The goal that broke the camel’s back came three minutes in, when the Russians finally beat Myers from the penalty spot.
Tow, Friedman and Meltz both came within a whisker, but it all fell apart for the Aussies when the Russians slid the winner home in the final 30 seconds of the first half of overtime.
Friedman was given his marching orders for a second offence, and the game was all over, as Russia clinically closed it out, while benefiting from the extra man and another penalty.
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