Courtesy: NZ Football Association


Auckland lead ASB National Futsal League after opening round

Auckland Football’s AFF-East City Futsal sit atop the standings for the ASB National Futsal League after dominating the opening weekend in Dunedin with a perfect four wins from four matches.

December 5, 2011

AUCKLAND - Auckland Football’s AFF-East City Futsal sit atop the standings for the ASB National Futsal League after dominating the opening weekend in Dunedin with a perfect four wins from four matches.

Lead by Futsal Whites captain and influential pivot Marvin Eakins, AFF-East City defeated Northern Futsal Massey and Central Futsal Hawke’s Bay with respective 8-2 and 12-1 hammerings on Saturday before edging Capital Futsal 2-1 and Mainland Futsal 3-0 on Sunday to lead the standings on goal difference from Mainland with a game in hand.

Mainland, whose loss to AFF-East City was the only blot on their copybook after five games, were the surprise package of the league’s opening weekend and announced their intentions with a shock 4-3 win over last year’s runners up Capital Futsal in the series opener at the Edgar Centre.

The teams traded goals but Sam Mitchell’s strike with seven and a half minutes left proved the decider and set Mainland on their way to further wins over NFF Futsal Massey, Futsal South and Central Futsal Hawke’s Bay.

Mainland player-coach Jakub Sinkora also leads the golden boot race with five goals ahead of Auckland pair Eakins and Bakr Al-Saudi, Manawatu’s Greg O’Connor and Hawke’s Bay’s Nat Wright who each netted four times.

Capital Futsal, who lost last year’s season’s final to Australian guests Maccabi Hakoah, began the season as one of the favourites but a disappointing weekend sees them lie in fifth behind a Futsal South team that picked up three wins on their home court and a Central Futsal Manawatu outfit that may yet be a dark horse over the remaining two series in Auckland in February and Wellington in March after showing early promise.

-> View standings and results




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com