Courtesy: Solomon Star


SI futsal duo helps club win NSW title

By PRIESTLEY HABRU

TWO local young players on futsal exchange programme to Australia helped their club Dural Warriors win the Under 16 title in the New South Wales Futsal Premier League last month.
The duo Elliot Ragomo and Jack Wetney played a key role in overcoming Inner West Allstars 4-3 in a thrilling grand final.
Ragomo scored one of the goals to send the Warriors into celebration with a capacity crowd of around 600 watching at the Dural Sport and Leisure Centre (DSLC) in Sydney.
Reports reaching Star Sport said the lead changed hands four times to keep the crowd guessing who would be on top come the final whistle.
These two teams met previously in the major semi final where the Allstars took the Warriors apart 4-1.
The grand final meeting however saw the Warriors prevail with a winning goal in the final minute of play.
This was the Warriors second title in this age group in two years.
Apart from Ragomo, Warriors’ other goal scorers were Rhys Giovenali (brother of the Lazio’s talent Greg Giovenali) who netted two and Andrew Jenkins scored one.
Scoring for Inner West Allstars were Dario Espejel, John Paul Foti and Patrick Pace.
Ragomo told Star Sport that the final was pretty exciting and entertaining.
“We went through the season undefeated and then came up against Inner West Allstars which was our rival in the tournament.
“We had to play them in our minor semis where they smashed us 4-1. We tried but they were just too good for that day.
“Actually we played our other deciding semis against a pretty strong team which came really hard on us but then we won the game to go on through the final.
“And then here comes the payback time where we had that same team which beat us in our previous game in the final.
“We had prepared and trained hard under the hands of coach Tony Chan for the final
“We took the the lead in the first half 2-1, they came back in the second half and got two back and had the lead.
“We came back with another goal to make it even and with 13 seconds to go, Rhy Giovenali blasted home the winning goal to end the day for the Allstars.
“Rhys’ brother is currently playing professional futsal in Italy which we would be seeing if we make it to Italy,” said Ragomo.
The duo will be able to travel to Italy and Spain in June 2006 on an inaugural tour of Europe for elite futsal players aged 15/16, organised by DSLC, where they are based.
Ragomo and Wetney began a long-term futsal exchange programme to Australia since August 2005.
The two local talented players were selected by their coaches and peers to participate in the inaugural 10-month long programme.
As part of the programme, the two boys participated in local futsal competition at DSLC, as well as competing for DSLC’s representative futsal teams in the Soccer NSW Futsal Premier League competition
DSLC Futsal club coach, Rob Varela had earlier expressed that the boys would bring an exciting brand of skillful futsal to their teams that will present a challenge to their regular representative players to raise their own abilities.
“We hope that the regular training will provide the Solomon boys with the opportunity to learn about the discipline required to succeed in futsal at the highest level.”
Ragomo and Wetney are also studying at William Clarke College, an Anglican school based at Kellyville.
The two boys participated in school life as regular, everyday students, and completed last year enrolled in Year 8.
William Clarke College has generously committed to fully support the boys’ education needs, including tuition fees, uniforms, and excursions.



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