Two games of the match day today were of different nature for the Phoenix. If there was a desire to avoid playing against women Legion team, the game against second team of Lyubart was intended to confirm champions’ ambitions of the violets. And in any case points could not be lost. There is an excellent history record of how these losses ultimately ended up.
The game against women football team Legion was considered by Phoenix as one of the mandatory steps on the way to successful performance at Futsal Fair. If the team pretended to get the main awards, neither the fans nor the coaches could expect any other result from the team than decisive victory in the game against outsider. The first period left some ambiguous impressions. On the one hand, as early as by the end of the first minute Ivan Konkov succeeded to put the ball in the back of Legion net twice, and till the end of the period the competitors could not make any shot on Eldar Bratchuk’s goal. On the other hand, Phoenix was playing in a very relaxed manner and did not succeed to solidify its advantage before the break. It cannot be said that there were no moments at all, but the players preferred steady ball possession, intensifying the game only on rare occasions. After a strike from Maksym Dolhulia the ball hit the post of the goal; a shot from Danylo Zamula from the goal line was kicked away by Legion defender; Mykyta Bodnar was denied to turn a powerful cross from Olexandr Bezruk into goal by Yana Yarmolska who did a leg split, and it was her again who saved her team after a long-range shot from Ivan Konkov.
The second period started following similar scenario – with two quick goals scored by Phoenix, but this time it was Maksym Dolhulia who performed the functions of the striker instead of Ivan Konkov, sending the ball into the goal in cold blood after deflection. But Dolhulia did not stop at that and scored a hat trick with a long-range shot.
It was only after that that Legion built up a single dangerous attack for the whole game during which an opponent used Danylo Zamula’s fault and took a weak shot in the hands of Eldar Bratchuk.
However, Zamula redeemed himself immediately, opening the score for his goals in this tournament in the counter attack.
Trying to find at least some intrigue for their team, the coaches gave instruction to play in training mode, giving an opportunity to distinguish themselves only for the boys of the third four-players squad who went out into the filed more rarely than the others. The boys diligently took Vladyslav Khrypchuk and Danylo Zamula to striking positions in turns, but those were clearly unlucky in the closing stages of attacks.
And a historic event occurred two minutes before the end of the game. In his 199th game for Phoenix Eldar Bratchuk who joined the attack of the violets, opened his goal score and shot precisely into the far corner to the delight of his teammates.
It seemed as if both teams were glad to hear the final whistle – both the exhausted Legion players who did not surrender to the last minute and futsal players of Phoenix who lost sport motivation. The only one who remained dissatisfied at the end of the game was Vladyslav Khrypchuk whose goal was canceled as the shot was made at the time of the final whistle.
The game against second team of local Lyubart was intended to confirm champions’ ambitions of Phoenix. Unlike previous game with Legion, here nobody expected an easy walk, being aware of uncompromising stand of Lutsk team. The more pleasant it was to watch the first goal to hit the net of Lyubart-2 as early as at the fortieth second, becoming the result of set play piece, which was finished by Danylo Khodatskyi with a precise shot. Olexandr Bezruk could double the result, but he did not use an accurate pass from Danylo Boldyzhev. But only a few seconds after that a lightning-fast transition from defense to attack was demonstrated by Boldyzhev, Bodnar and Yevsiukov who cut down through the entire defense of Lyubart-2 and kicked the ball into the empty net.
As soon as the Lutsk team kicked off the ball from the center, the violets scored again: Yevsiukov ‘snatched’ a cross and gave a well-placed pass to Bezruk who shot past the goalkeeper and brought the score to 3:0.
Defending confidently, Phoenix players started wasting the moments; thus, in one attack Ivan Konkov and Mykhailo Soldatenko could not hit the net from the prime shooting position. In another attack of the “violets” the numerical superiority in the opponents’ penalty area was realized by Mykyta Bodnar with his accurate shot in the center. And after a timeout initiated by the coach of Kharkiv team Lyubart-2 even scored an own goal after not coping with a powerful throw-in by Demyd Yevsiukov.
There were still four minutes left to the end of the period during which Danylo Zamula managed to score, grasping in the situation after the cross from Artem Shevchenko. At the end of the period Lutsk players had a hundred-percent opportunity to settle the score with one goal, using a fumble from Volodymyr Lazeba, but they failed to send the ball into the empty goal from a few meters.
During the break both teams changed their goalkeepers, but the game pattern didn’t alter. After the game restarted Lyubart-2 only managed to get two touches on the ball, and then the ball was snatched and kicked into the net by Olexandr Bezruk. A few minutes later Bezruk rushed out the following counter attack that was finished with an accurate shot into the empty goal by Demyd Yevsiukov.
The best chance to arrange a goal into Phoenix' net was provided by its own goalkeeper Eldar Bratchuk who played clumsily with his feet, but then he rectified his mistake heroically by blocking shots from the Lyubart striker twice.
When five minutes were left to the end of the game, Phoenix switched to playing with the fifth field player whose part was played by Danylo Boldyzhev, but it did not succeed to organize more or less serious threats near Lyubart-2 goal, demonstrating that there is room for improvement for the boys in this component. As a result, despite the significantly higher class of the opponents and the nature of the game, the second Phoenix game for the day ended with an identical score – a big win 8:0.
The match day ended with a game between the second Lyubart team and one of the tournament leaders, Futsal Junior from Chervonohrad. Defeat or draw for the team from Lviv Oblast made Phoenix the winner of Futsal Fair in advance. But players of Futsal Junior who were losing in the course of the game managed to equalize, and then score the second goal one minute before the end of the game. This result defined the status of tomorrow’s game between Chervonohrad team and our team as the final game of the tournament. Notably as many as three teams have the chances to occupy the first place: Phoenix, Lyubart and Futsal Junior.