Phoenix wins the second final of the Cup of Ukraine in futsal in its history and becomes a two-time holder of one of the most prestigious trophies in children and youth futsal!
Despite squad losses, the team simply had no right to repeat the nightmare of the concluding game of the Championship of Ukraine U15 last season. Very often our team lacked the skill to make the last step. But today the boys excelled in one of their best games this season, leaving no doubts in their superiority at least for a second.
The violets did not push their luck and started besieging the goal of Lviv players from the first minutes. Moments near Volodymyr Manevskyi goal emerged one after another. Danylo Khodatskyi shot into the upper V after throw-in from the touchline – the goalkeeper Manevskyi was in position. Bezruk had a good run along the right flank, but he could not outrun the goalkeeper. The first goal was scored soon: play-out of the free kick by Phoenix ended up with a through pass by Nikita Bodnar, Olexandr Bezruk got the ball and he kicked it accurately past the defender.
Phoenix also was the first to score in the game yesterday, but then Lviv players were the final victors. Keeping this in mind, Kharkiv players did not slow down the game at all. An excellent vision of the field was demonstrated by Yevsiukov who saw an opening in the defense of KIVS Futsal, but his cross pass was intercepted by the defender. Still, Demyd did not have to regret it for long as he burst into the free zone after a worked-out corner kick and converted a pass from Nikita Bodnar into one more scored goal.
Both teams maintained high tempo, however, there were almost no dangerous moments near Lazeba’s goal. To make matters worse players of Lviv team brought the third goal home themselves: Danylo Khodatskyi sent a long cross to Dolhulia from one penalty area into another, but the ball did not even touch the head of Kharkiv team “pivot” and flew into the corner of Manevskyi’s net who got lost in the situation. Thus the score became 3:0 and Khodatskyi equalized with Dolhulia by the goals scored – at this moment both of them, just like captain of Lviv players Lucian Sibirtsev, had six goals scored at the tournament.
Despite attempts of the away team to set up attacking actions, Phoenix had evident advantage in this component. Twenty goal attempts of Kharkiv players against four of their opponents – such was the statistics of the first half of the game. Still, Lviv team did not look helpless at all. In one of the rare KIVS Futsal counter-attacks Andriy Shevchik made a smart pass to Vladyslav Koniv, but Khodatskyi devised his plan and kicked the ball out of the touchline. The game settle down a little bit, and moments started to emerge for the team of Yurii Shukatka, but Demyd Yevsiukov and his partners in defense played reliably.
And on the tenth minute the ball hit the back of Lviv players net for the fourth time after the efforts of Artem Shevchenko and Demyd Yevsiukov. Yurii Shukatka took a time-out to rearrange Galician players to play in five-players squad.
After a one-minute pause Manevskyi was substituted for the fifth field player: Vladyslav Bekar put on a black shirtfront. Soon after this Lucian Sibirtsev had a good moment, but, having stayed unmarked, he decided to make a pass instead of shooting and was mistaken. A long-range shot from Berezyak was not a problem for Lazeba: in fact, Phoenix goalkeeper entered the game seriously at the end of the first period. Koniv had a good moment, but he lost the ball in Lazeba’s penalty area. Phoenix goalkeeper instantly returned the ball into play, sending it to Maksym Dolhulia, and the striker of Kharkiv team turned out to be one against three defenders and could not beat them.
During the last seconds of the period a controversial episode occurred: a player of KIVS Futsal was injured in the struggle against Shevchenko, the referee showed there was no foul, but Phoenix striker kicked the ball out of the touchline to observe the principles of fair play. The whistle signaling the end of the first period sounded amidst the attack of KIVS Futsal; a frustrated striker of Lviv team shot in the back of Lazeba’s net after the whistle, but the referee decided not to punish young futsal players with a yellow card.
The second period did not change anything substantially in the pattern of the teams’ play and the arrangement of players in the field. Except that the tempo of ball and players moving fell down significantly. Kharkiv team decided not to force the events, firmly maintaining score advantage, and Lviv team was trying to score, but it could hardly overcome Phoenix defense positions. Lucian Sibirtsev, who pretended to become the best striker, had the first dangerous moment, but his first shot went into Lazeba who ran out of the goal, and the second one proved to be inaccurate. Yurii Shukatka continued to stake on playing in five-players squad, substituting the players in turns, who put on the shirtfront, but this did not work well. Methodical rolling of the ball by players of KIVS Futsal on their half of the field completely satisfied Phoenix players. Moreover, the violets managed to score again: in one of the build-up attacks of Phoenix Yevsiukov made Boldyzhev accelerate along the flank, his low cross was turned aside by Manevskyi, but in the second wave attack Bezruk made a grandmaster’s pause and rolled the ball to Shevchenko who only had to put his foot forward.
At the score 5:0 dangerous moments started to emerge near the goal of Volodymyr Lazeba. In one of the moments he scarcely turned aside a dangerous shot from Berezyuk, and literally one minute later a mistake was made by Lviv players, Maksym Dolhulia ran out alone to the empty goal and scored his seventh goal at the tournament, taking the lead in the strikers leaderboard.
The Galicians continued attacking as if nothing had happened; Vladyslav Koniv heightened the tension several times in the role of the fifth field player, but the ball stubbornly did not hit the net. Nevertheless, activity of KIVS Futsal players led to the result. The consolation goal was curios and beautiful at the same time: Volodyslav Bekar could not deal properly with one of the passes, he let the ball slip under his foot, and it reached Maksym Berezyak who shot past Volodymyr Lazeba with a powerful strike.
But the final point in the game was put by Maksym Dolhulia, who made a “Panenka-style” strike from the center of the field into the empty goal of KIVS Futsal and scored his eighth goal at the tournament. Being overjoyed, Maksym was recorded in the game report once again, having received a yellow card for his conversation with the referee.
At the last second of the game KIVS Futsal players received the right for a free kick from eleven meters. Having conferred with the goalkeeper, the boys decided not to draw a “wall”, giving Lazeba an opportunity to turn away an improvised “double-penalty”, and he dealt with it brilliantly.
The final whistle announced that Phoenix won the Cup of Ukraine in futsal for the second time in its history!
In addition to the beautiful cup and medals, the boys also received individual awards. Apart from the title of the best striker for Dolhulia, Nikita Bodnar was announced as the best player of the violets, and Danylo Khodatskyi – as the best player of the Cup of Ukraine!