After the opening match of the second away round of the Ukrainian Futsal Championship against Barca, which Phoenix played unconvincingly, even though it won, the fans had the right to expect a different play. And they saw it, limited to the first half, though.

The violets, who realized that the match against Shostka in terms of the organization of the play was a failure, were getting ready to show a different level of play when countering the hosts. The boys did manage to come to their senses after the trip and, again thanks to the round schedule, allowed themselves a morning walk in the city park of Ivano-Frankivsk. The boys even managed to watch the training session of Prykarpattya - local club of the first league of the Ukrainian Football Championship.

Still, the day was not devoid of surprises. The transfer from the hotel to the sports complex arrived with a delay due to traffic jams. For the same reason, the road to the match took longer than the day before. The boys had to change clothes right on the bus.

That did not upset Serhii Hrytsenko and Yurii Vaschenko's players, though. The first whistle off and the violets carried the play immediately. And very soon their advantage became overwhelming. The game was almost entirely dictated by our team: Phoenix showed very good pace, passing game and attitude. Both four-player squads maintained a high tempo and created such a number of chances at the opponent's goal that they would have been enough for yesterday's match too. Mykhailo Soldatenko, who played a very good match, had some excellent scoring chances. Close to success were Artem Shevchenko, whose play was head and shoulders compared to yesterday's, Danylo Dudin, who repeatedly opened the opponent's defense, Danylo Boldyzhev, who looked great today and Ivan Konkov, who looked quite savvy at the sideline.

The team looked great in terms of physique, too. Urahan's players played defense in the manner which was orderly and reliable, but occasionally lost their players due to constant movement supported by both of our four-player squads.

Technical statistics is, perhaps, as clear demonstration as possible of the desire of the violets to make up for yesterday's sluggish game. In the first half alone, the boys made 31 (!) goal attempts at Oleksandr Pochinok's goal, against five goal attempts of the opponent at our goal.

That is why the first goal in this match, which Phoenix conceded, caught the team completely unawares. Andrii Domasov's kick almost from the center of the site did not look dangerous, but Volodymyr Lazeba caught the ball rather unsuccessfully, and it treacherously rolled out of the keeper's hands into the goal.

The conceded ball did not change the game pattern at all. Phoenix still attacked a lot, but the attacks became more accented. Instead of goal attempts from the medium distance, the violets tried to break through closer to the goal area.

So the end of the first half was a success! Within two minutes, Phoenix scored three times. At first, Danylo Dudin gave a great pass to Maksym Dolhulia at the far post, and in half a minute, it was Maksym playing one-two with Danylo Boldyzhev, who sent the team up. No sooner had the Urahan players come to their senses, as Danylo Khodatskyi brought Ivan Konkov one-on-one with Urahan's goalkeeper with a cutting pass, and the score was brought to 3:1 a minute before the break.

And again the second half became a stumbling block. Had all the matches ended after the first half, it would have spared Phoenix' coaches and fans such a great deal of stress!

Phoenix had its territorial advantage, in terms of play, though, especially closer to the middle of the second half, the team began to lose it slowly. The comfortable lulled the team into a false sense of security, and, as it usually happens in such situations, we conceded. The negligence in defense led to the fact that Dmytro Fedik beat two of our defenders, and then Volodymyr Lazeba, and sent the ball into the empty net.

And again we were in for a nervous closure, which was on for an infinitely long time, and then we had to counter five outfield players. But, to the credit of the team, Phoenix survived and earned such important three points.

Tomorrow the team will have a difficult day, during which the boys will have to play two matches. In both matches Phoenix will counter the teams from Odessa - Crystal at 10:10 and Chorne More at 13:40.