The League Cup is a new tournament. It is starting from the previous season only that AFU introduced it to the competition calendar, and many teams have not yet been able to find a place for it in their schedules. There was a feeling that the organizers wanted to see a good part of the High League clubs in Beloziria, the Championship took away so much strength from them, though, that those were only Phoenix and Lviv KIVS Energia that decided to come.
To go or not to go - the coaching staff of the purples suggested that the boys should decide by themselves. On the one hand, if there was a team exhausted by the National Championship - physically, and, most importantly, morally - it was, first of all, Phoenix, who spent even more energy on the final breakthrough to the podium than the team had in store. Phoenix played the subsequent matches of the City Championship on autopilot - squeezed like a lemon, the boys had learned to spend just as much physical strength to achieve the result as the game required. Not to mention the complete loss of interest in the local battles of the city championship.
On the other hand, there was no desire to end the season with an aftertaste of understatement and underplay. Two unexpected failures twice left the team without titles, which the guys had been waiting for and, let's face it, deserved fully judging by the level of their play. Those were the Ukrainian Cup semi-final lost to the Black Sea Olimpik, and a nightmare match with the team from Manevychi, which left Phoenix without the 'gold' of the National Championship.
Psychologists would call this an incomplete gestalt. It was exactly the factor that was decisive: the team said - we are going!
The status of the Vice-Champions of Ukraine most probably influenced the fact that the match between Phoenix and Zorya-Akademia, the hosts, was the opening match of the League Cup. It turned into some sort of test of strength for our team. The team did come through thick and thin doing the national competitions for three seasons in a row, this time those were the pitfalls of fame that Phoenix had to face. The violets started the tournament as a top dog, at least, it was formally so. At the same time the format of the League Cup envisages a chance for the teams representing different divisions to fight for a dreamt-of trophy, pulling their assets together for certain matches. That meant ‘dropping guard’ for a slightest moment could cost a tournament prize even to Ukraine’s Vice-Champion. The astounding motivation of each of the participant teams having to counter two High League clubs could not be doubted.
Zorya-Akademia, the hosts, had a slight advantage of the ‘home field’. The teams had no previous before, so, early in the game they were rather checking each other out for strengths. The hosts were a bit weaker at tactics, compensating that with a great willingness to fight at every section of the sportsground. The healthy sports aggression yielded a first goal by Maksym Kravchenko, who managed to unlock the goals of the violets in minute five of the first half.
To the honour of the away team, the Kharkivites seemed unaffected and restored the status-quo momentarily: it was Danylo Khodatskyi who completed a set piece successfully. Several minutes later Mykhailo Soldatenko opened his scoring list, having made a good use of acceleration and kicking a technically great volley to beat the opposition’s goalie.
The second half was full of counterattacks, the goalkeepers doing their best to keep the tally low. A great deal of flaws and mistakes in simple situations kept the team from showing their regular potential. The coaches made an attempt to analyse the key mistakes over the break, giving the team a shake, the second half, though, started with an unexpected turn – Zorya-Akademia evened the score, having made use of Phoenix’ mistake in a positional attack.
And again, just like it was in the first half, the Kharkivites needed as little as one minute to respond to the conceded ball with an accurate kick: Mykyta Bodnar’s attack was taken over by Danylo Boldyzhev and turned home by Maksym Dolhulia. Having quickly restored the status quo, the violets, as if by tradition, slowed down the game. At that point the match could follow any scenario, Phoenix’ defense, though, together with Eldar Bratchuk as a goalkeeper, managed to save several dangerous counterattacks. Two minutes later the same old Bodnar and Boldyzhev organized another scoring chance and this time it was meant for Demyd Yevsiukov. That was done with such an ease that one could assume Phoenix had somehow adopted the Brazilian tactics, voiced by the great Pele: 'You will score as much as you can, and we will score as much as we want'.
The hosts' situation was aggravated by an amusing goal from the center field by the ubiquitous Nykyta Bodnar. Nykyta gave a pass to Artem Shevchenko, who was at Vladyslav Shevchenko's goal. Both the goalkeeper and the defender of the home team jumped out to meet the pass, failing to understand each other in the end. As a result, Bodnar's pass smoothly entered the status of an assist strike.
In the last minute, the teams exchanged pleasantries: Eldar Bratchuk once again showed that he has something to strive for in kicking, and Danylo Khodatskyi scored a brace with another set piece.
The final score 3:6 in favor of Phoenix, not quite consistent with the statistics, the hosts having outplayed the opposition both in the number of attempts and in the number of corner kicks, did accurately reflect the balance of power in the field. The Kharkiv team managed to win without making every effort. Such a tactic, given the shortened bench and a number of injured players, has a right to exist. Tomorrow Phoenix will have a much more serious test, though. In the morning the team will face a its 'sworn friend' from Valki, who had managed to win in the First League of the Championship of Ukraine this season, and in the afternoon - another match against a 'dark horse' of the tournament, a local team from Talny, who surprised everyone today with a powerful and mature game against Lviv Energia.
We hope our team will have enough energy and concentration for those two challenging battles.