The swift-paced format of the Super Cup of Ukraine leaves almost no room for mistakes for the teams, making each game a decisive one. The defeat from Rivne Sport School No.4 yesterday left theoretical chances for Phoenix to occupy the first place, which had already vanished, however, in the first devastating period of today’s game between Rivne players and the home team, Club of the Team Sports (KIVS) Futsal from Lviv.
The only team that possessed the chance to compete for the main trophy of the tournament remained Chorne More from Odessa. Odessa players needed not to lose to our team in the full time to still keep those chances after the second round. Phoenix had its own motivation, though, after the painful blow at its ambitions and self-esteem yesterday. That motivation was not of golden tint, but no less important. The team had to prove both to its fans and to itself that yesterday’s play shown in the game against Sports School No.4 is nothing more but an unfortunate incident. The boys talked a lot about it yesterday while discussing their starting game of the tournament.
The beginning of the game shown by Phoenix was pretty much unlike yesterday. Starting from the very first minutes the team looked very coordinated and organized. But, most importantly – disciplined. The boys succeeded in taking the lead as early as in the third minute: from the second attempt the shot from Danylo Khodatskyi went right into the far corner of Ivan Belimov’s net, goalkeeper of Odessa players.
The next noticeable episode in the game was of non-play nature: having slipped on slippery parquet, Phoenix captain Danylo Boldyzhev got a painful bruise and was forced to leave the field for some time.
A relative calm had engulfed “Bosco-Arena” and was disrupted by acute actions by Danylo Khodatskyi. First a shot from the Phoenix playmaker hit the post, and then an attempt to lob the ball over the opponents’ goalkeeper was unsuccessful. The highly competitive spirit of Kharkiv players coupled with selfless play in the defense as well as uncompromising stand of the opponents periodically led to harsh play with large number of fouls. Players from Odessa were distinguished by their technique abilities, but they definitely trailed behind by physical training. So when the spectators were getting ready to accept that the teams would go for the break with the minimal score margin, it was Danylo Boldyzhev who took the lead after returning to the field. Phoenix captain used his opponent’s fault when throwing from the touchline, had a blistering run along the left flank and gave a perfect pass to Demyd Yevsiukov who hit the near corner of Chorne More goal with a one-touch shot. Thus the score doubled and the teams went for the break in a different mood.
The second period of the game started with Chorne More attacks involving the fifth field player the part of which was played well by Ivan Belimov, the goalkeeper of Odessa team. He spent most of the time in the opponents’ half of the field, demonstrating feints worthy of nominal strikers, while managing to maintain high quality play in defense. Fedir Pylypiv’s team played in a sweeping manner, extending the defense of the team from Kharkiv. Phoenix entrenched in its own penalty box, waiting pragmatically for its opponent’s fault. Mykyta Bodnar and Danylo Boldyzhev made dangerous shots on Chorne More goal, Artem Shevchenko intercepted the ball several times but he could not make the play more acute.
The steady and composing game was disrupted by a surge of activity from Taras Golubets who plunged the ball with a toe kick right under the post of Phoenix goal protected by Volodymyr Lazeba. Having closed the gap to the minimum, Chorne More rushed everyone to attack, and several minutes later it was Nikita Bodnar who had to save his team by selflessly springing to counter the ball.
Phoenix tried to shift the play away from its goal and one of the counterattacks was a success. A dagger-precise three-moves play by Khodatskyi – Konkov – Dolhulia ended up with the run of the latter to Chorne More goal, and Maksym did not blunder, sending the ball accurately into the net past the Odessa team defender. Let us note an excellent one-touch assist from Ivan Konkov.
At the score 3:1 in Phoenix favor both teams switched to active attacking futsal to the joy of the spectators. Lazeba had to enter the game on multiple occasions, saving shots from Golubets, Romanenko and Belimov. In his turn, Mykyta Bodnar missed a marvelous opportunity to make the score look devastating when he made a shot from fifteen meters on goal left by the goalkeeper, but Yuriy Bondar saved his goal by doing the splits.
The final whistle announced the pre-term victory of the Rivne team in the Super Cup. Teams from Kharkiv and Odessa will compete for the second place in absentee mode. At the same time our team has a certain advantage as everything depends on it. Victory against KIVS Futsal will automatically make Phoenix the winner of silver medals in the tournament.