Phoenix won the Kharkiv Futsal Cup for the third time in its history. Without losing a single match in the group stage, the violets gained two playoff wins today. First, our team beat the Youth Sports School No 12 in the semifinals, and then in the traditional final with the Sports School 'Volna' Phoenix won the Cup.
The victory in the final helped the team to set its unique record: Phoenix won 'gold' three times in just one month. The team lived these three dozen calendar days in high gear, winning the Major League of the Futsal Fair, the Ukrainian Cup and now the Kharkiv Cup.
Zero failed matches. Great attacking style and very careful defense. The average number of goals scored per game in Lutsk was 7.2, in the Ukrainian Cup - 5.8, and in the Kharkiv Cup - 7.3. We conceded as little as 28 goals in all three tournaments. That is about 1.27 per game. At the same time, all field players, without exception, scored for the team. There was Eldar Bratchuk in one of the matches, on top of other things.
Phoenix was so tired of coming second during last season that getting to the top has become the team's main goal this season. As well as overcoming the 'last step' complex, which stood in our way so many times last season that it is better to be forgotten. The team would show brilliant performance in the group stages, but lose sight of the victories in the main playoff matches. And the cause was not the gameplay, but rather a psychological barrier.
We came second at the start of this season, too, despite the very good performance of the guys at the Ukrainian Super Cup in Lviv. But Phoenix simply could not but become the champion. After an impressive last season. After the exhausting training camp sessions. The boys deserve to be the first with their work. Even the superstition factor inherent in many coaches and clubs has not been forgotten. They went to church and chose the 'lucky' captain - Mykhailo Soldatenko, with whom the team won the first Cup of Ukraine and the 'silver' of the National Championship of Ukraine.
It was not only Phoenix' intensive training and superstition that won over this October. After the lost match with School No 4 of Rivne, the violets suddenly started talking about professionalism and professional attitude. Together we decided that being a professional in any field means to disallow yourself to fall below a certain level: a certain self-set standard and the level of responsibility to teammates and fans in the stands.
So this 'golden' October not only gave the boys three sports peaks. It gave them something more important in their five-year journey to success. From that day on, thirteen guys in violet T-shirts are not just champions to us - they are young professionals.