Third place in the Ukrainian Cup U15 and second place in the Futsal Fair High League: the result Phoenix is bringing home from its crazy journey. The team could not have missed any of those competitions, the spontaneity of AFU’s decisions, though, with the previously scheduled for March 2021 Ukrainian Cup pushed forward to this October, made the participation in both tournaments challenging and exhausting.
Judge for yourselves – in seven days Phoenix played in twelve (!) matches, only one out which could be barely viewed as the passing one. In as little as one week the violets played with the first, second, fourth, seventh, twelfth, thirteenth, twenty first and twenty fourth teams of AFU’s ranking among children and youth clubs and children and youth sports schools with Sokil of Khmelnytskyi to top it all. A decent company, aren’t they? Out of 12 games Phoenix played, it had lost only two, beating the eventual champions in both competitions. That is why the bronze and the silver of this season to us are no worse than the two gold prizes of the previous one.
Having quite habitually won its group, Phoenix, just like a year ago, got through to the High League. The first win against Sokil of Khmelnytskyi, though, with a slim 1:0 lead, showed that the energy level of the players was close to zero. The match against Sports School No 4 of Rivne, that followed, was exactly what we had apprehended. Having opened the score, the boys made an attempt to play in the same fashion they had done with Sokil, saving energy for the final game. The two conceded goals in the last minute of the first half, though, right out of the blue, turned everything upside down. The fatigue got our players in the second half and was the cause of an uncommon number of mistakes in simple situations. This first prize of the tournament was doomed.
The priority game against the overdog – Sports School Respect of Manevychy – took place an hour later. Second place is, for sure, better than third, still, the coaches asked the guys to put the sports temper first.
All the events of the match would turn against us. The fatigue did not go, of course, coupled with 0:2 after the first half and a number of unrealized chances in the match where we could accept nothing but victory. On top of that, the refereeing was as bad as it could get, for the first time at the Futsal Fair.
12 minutes was enough, though, for Phoenix to get itself to the second tier of the podium. In terms of the energy level - it remained the same. The spirit and the winning aspiration for that last game came to the fore. Phoenix scored three times after brilliant combinations, which were wrapped up in accurate goal kicks by Bodnar, Konkov and Dolhulia. The two remaining minutes of the last half seemed like forever, not least because the referees decided to stop time for dead balls, which happened in none of the previous games of the tournament. Our guys toughed it out, though!
At the end of the day, the bronze of the Ukrainian Cup Phoenix coupled with the silver of the Lutsk Futsal Fair. The team won nine games out of twelve it played over seven days in two tournaments. One match ended in a draw. Phoenix beat Ilichovets of Chernomorsk, FC InBev of Zhytomyr, Children and Youth School No4, Children and Youth School Respect of Manevychy, Sokil of Khmelnytskyi and Lubart.
Our players were signified as best players in both of the tournaments – Demyd Yevsiukov - with the Ukrainian Cup, Maks Dolhulia – with the Futsal Fair. Another individual prize was awarded to Danylo Khodatskyi, as best Phoenix’ player - with the Ukrainian Cup.
The team showed robust play, which, we are certain, the fans enjoyed and which received positive feedback from the professionals and coaches of the teams we played with, and that is the main thing. This means, key victories still await us!
Honestly, isn’t the victory over themselves for Phoenix players in today’s match against Manevychy turns out to be the most significant one?