Phoenix gains its first victory in the Ukrainian Futsal Championship U15 in actual playing time. With that we receive our first full-fledged 3 points and the 6th position in the standings.
The boys have always been keen on the morning matches. Today a number of close to perfect chances were not capitalized on and that might be blamed on the early rise. Generally, the team did well, though.
Phoenix scored three times, taking its victorious series against Sokil of Khmelnytskyi to three matches. The defeat resulted in the first point loss for the Sokil players; to Phoenix, we dare hope, it gave a chance to get through to the group of teams that are going to fight for the National Premiership prizes.
The first dangerous moment in today’s match occurred at our goalmouth and Lazeba saved the ball. Eventually the violets took over the initiative and materialized it after Mykyta Bodnar’s accurate kick in minute 4.
The goal scored quietened the game down a bit and boosted Phoenix’s confidence. With that, very soon Khodatskyy found Dolhulia at the far post and the latter by miracle failed to score into the empty net.
The game was going rather smoothly for Phoenix. In minute 9 Danylo Boldyzhev and Demyd Yevsiukov implemented the give-and-go perfectly and Demyd in a minute sent his teammate to face the opposition’s keeper one-on-one. Boldyzhev’s kick turned out to be accurate.
2:0 after the first half, as it happened quite often recently, played a cruel trick on us: the players lost their guard. So, as quick as in minute 2 of the second half the Sokil players made use of a mistake by our first four-player squad that plunged into defense headstrong. Artem Shevchenko brought his team’s disadvantage to a minimum.
Nevertheless, Phoenix managed to carry the play. Having missed out on a couple of good chances, the team did score. Maksym Dolhulia turned home Danylo Dudin’s pass at the far post, finalizing the score - 3:1.
The last minutes of the match Sokil spent with 5 outfield players with Vladyslav Zhytnikovskyy, the keeper, being the 5th player. Our guys played good and calm defense, disallowing the opposition to make any significant use of the 5-a-side.
At the very end of the game Artem Shevchenko could have scored the fourth goal, missing the empty net, though.
Phoenix gains a significant victory and gets ready to counter Ilichovets of Chornomorsk – the host team.