Futsal, touch football teams eye top spot
AS futsal and touch football take their mid-season summer break, Jewish sides are in a prime position for a tilt at the championship.
DAVID WEINER
AS futsal and touch football take their mid-season summer break, Jewish sides are in a prime position for a tilt at the championship.
The Maccabi-Hakoah futsal open men’s side is on the cusp of snaring a historic minor premiership in the NSW Super League, sitting three points clear with just one match to play when the season resumes on January 22.
The Blues almost made a mess of their match against second-bottom UTS Barcelona FC on December 19, but some breathtaking finishing from Antony Tow and Paul Meltz gave the side a 6-5 win to retain top spot.
Having lost just two matches from 10 starts in the second-highest tier of futsal in NSW, the Blues expected to easily dispatch of UTS.
Maccabi should have made short work of its opponent given the amount of ball it had, but after spurning a glut of chances and conceding some sloppy goals, the Blues’ movement, fitness and class ultimately prevailed.
Simon Keith and Meltz both scored thunderbolts to open the scoring, but they could never quite get clear of their feisty opponent.
Jarred Basger was proving to be a dynamo for the side, while Slav Platkov was menacing with his ability on the ball.
The opposition’s keeper made a number of key saves, and when the side looked for an answer to break the deadlock, Meltz bobbed up with two vital second-half goals.
Tow slipped past a defender down the left, rounded the keeper and finished from the acutest of angles.
The youth side also sits at the top of the table. A 5-3 win, with goals from Nick Fisher, Andy Kanchik, Daniel Toblib and Basger, has the club in the position of claiming an unprecedented double when the season resumes.
In junior futsal, the Maccabi Rooster under-8s won their Matraville grand final 4-2, with Noah Feilich, Adam Jankelowitz, Lee Charles, Ethan Corrick, Ethan Cohen, Ben Kats and Aidan Blecher enjoying a fine season.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Suburbs Touch Football Association the final round of 2009 saw an epic clash between the Moriah Old Boys and Girls (Mobags) and Maccabi Lions in mixed division one.
The Mobags prevailed 5-4, but only after clawing their way back from 4-2 down midway through the second half.
The match on December 21 was played at breakneck speed and featured some superb defending, with the game poised at 2-2 at the interval.
Michael Goldberg and Daniel Kochan scored for the Mobags, and Danny Glattstein and Dan Ezekiel touched down for the Lions.
The Mobags started the second sloppily, and the Lions made them pay. Yotam Hatzvi, Ben and Danny Glattstein and Ezekiel probed and punished the Mobags, which were seemingly out of the contest. A clutch intercept by Meltz squared the deadlock.
With the game on a knife’s edge, Nicky Goldberg, Sara Gentin and Tali Ezekiel made some key touches for the Mobags, before a punishing counterattack off their own line proved the difference, with Kochan opening a gaping hole for Goldberg to put his foot down and charge away for a long-range winner.
The match keeps the Mobags’ undefeated season intact, with the side sitting at the top of the table with seven wins from seven starts at the break, which resumes on January 14.
The Lions sit in eighth, on the rise after a big 12-4 win.
In men’s action, both the Mob and Maccabi sides sit mid-table in division one.