The central game of the next round before last of the Championship of Ukraine U-15 between No.25 Sports School from Kyiv and Phoenix from Kharkiv was impatiently anticipated by not only the teams’ fans, but also by representatives of the national football community. Vitaliy Odegov, coach of the national squad U-19, his assistant and goalkeepers coach Alexei Sagaydachenko as well as Vasiliy Simonov, former head of Ukrainian Children and Youth Futsal League (UCYFL), apart from sports officials who traditionally visit such games, were noticed at the stands of the Palace of Sports Lokomotiv. One of the reasons that was self-explanatory was the game status as such and the status of the playing teams, as this was the game of the main contenders struggling to get gold medals as they occupied the first two positions in the tournament table and pulled away from pursuers. The second reason was clear only for the limited number of futsal lovers: two hours earlier in the conference hall of Lokomotiv Phoenix had presented to coaches of the leading teams of the country its own system of analyzing tactical and technical actions of futsal players which had been developed and successfully applied in the club.

Players from Kyiv arrived at the game at unexpectedly early hour, and this fact was evident enough to ascertain significance of this contest for defending champions of Ukraine. Within only two days of the away round in Kharkiv their comfortable advantage of four points in the tournament table reduced to one. And this was far from bolstering confidence of Alexander Krivenda team. They wanted to settle up with Phoenix for their defeat in the first round, but the main goal was to keep the lead. The game itself could easily prove to be a “golden” one for Kyiv players – victory could allow No.25 Sports School to become champions for the second time in a row one round before the end of Championship.

Prior to the start of the round the objective for Phoenix which accomplished one feat after another in the home round was clear – to remain one of top three teams. Still, faults committed by the direct competitors and their own confident game were gradually raising the threshold of dreams for Kharkiv players. However, to make these dreams become realistic, the violets needed to do nothing else but win over the impressive team from Kyiv in the main time for the second occasion in this tournament after three victories on the first two game days. If one could think of a more complicated task – this was the case.

For the second game in a row Phoenix had to patiently stand their ground. Boys had to play on the defensive which they disliked, and yet demonstrated almost impeccable conversion of their moments that were expected to be rare but inevitable to emerge.

No.25 Sports School as the favorite team grasped the advantage and were methodically shattering their opponents’ defense. The only difference from the tactics assumed by the team from Odessa yesterday was that Kyiv team felt confident when playing in four-players squad and did not push ahead with the fifth field players right from the first minutes. Nevertheless, home team felt quite comfortable on the defense both against four and five opposing players, patiently waiting for chance to score. Reliability and self-restraint of Volodymyr Lazeba instilled confidence into field players, as he time and again deflected strikes of the opponents (jumping ahead we should say that Kyiv team took 57 shots on the goal of Phoenix goalkeeper, 20 of which were shots on target). Thus goal scored by Kharkiv team after Kyiv players committed what can be called a slight fault, not even a mistake was even more unexpected. No.25 Sports School captain Alexander Pastukh once again took a high cross to Andrey Grydko, but he was outrun by Danylo Boldyzhev, who readdressed the ball to Phoenix “pivot” Artem Shevchenko, and the latter, after making a grandmaster pause, put the ball on a plate for his partner who took a strike past the opponents goalkeeper from prime position. The stand with the fans who were frantically supporting the home team literally burst into applauses, having deservedly appreciated the dagger-swift counterattack.

Goal that had been scored changed nothing in the tactical arrangement of the team. Phoenix players continued fighting selflessly on the defensive as if they were playing the most important game in their lives. Apparently, Kyiv players proved to be unprepared for this. In the second half of the game the teams were close to changing the score on the board, but both goalkeepers were up to the mark. The nervous game restarted after the break according to scenario that fully repeated the first half. Just like half an hour earlier, players from Kyiv took control of the ball, but they paid the price for the very first mistake. Chervinskiy did not hold the ball after a corner kick, Bezruk intercepted the ball and pushed the attack forward, together with Boldyzhev they beat the entire Kyiv team defense and completed the impressive sprint by striking the ball precisely into the net. Feeling that chances for victory were going down and the chances for champion’s title ahead of schedule were vanishing as well, No.25 Sports School went all-in and let the fifth field player in. Alexander Pastukh, captain of the Kyiv team, who had changed his black T-shirt for orange shirtfront, succeeded in scoring one goal back: after his shot the ball landed deceitfully into the far corner of Volodymyr Lazeba goal. The guests took several free kicks almost from the penalty line, but they did not manage to strike past the defense of Kharkiv team led by Lazeba, Khodatskyi and Dudin.

Desperate to achieve result by “legal” methods, Kyiv players decided to take it out in another way. In the closing minutes of the game Demyd Yevsiukov received a painful deliberate hit into his stomach and left the field with injury; even after the final whistle steel benches also took some beating as well as the glass doors of the changing room in the sports facility which did not endure the emotional outburst of the team that lost. The end of game turned from sports contest into a battle of characters, but even in this battle players from Kharkiv succeeded in standing their ground, did not respond to provocations and held back the victorious result. The final score of 2:1 heralded Phoenix progressing to the top of the tournament table. Thus Kharkiv guys are just one step away from the biggest achievement in their sports career, and for the sake of it they will make every possible effort tomorrow in the decisive battle against Sport School Respect from Manevichy. Although the guys had time to make friends beyond the field and supported each other loudly from the stands, they will have to put aside their friendly relations on the parquet to play properly in the last game of the tournament and bring the Championship of Ukraine stylishly to a close.