Phoenix vs DYSSh Valki is always promising! There is the bright poster, beautiful game, fever pitch and intrigue. However, two games in two days, perhaps, are too much. Too much energy - physical and emotional - the teams invest in such confrontations.
The Valki team, staffed by players born in 2005, is perhaps one of the overdogs of this qualification. It looks too powerful, harmonious and sound on the pitch. That is why Phoenix yesterday's victory is so valuable. And all the more pleasant, our team is the only one to whom Viktor Detyuk’s squad yielded in the running time.
But today everything was happening exactly the opposite way. From the very outset Valkovians determined their claims for the win back. If yesterday luck was often on our side, today it has returned to the opponent a hundredfold. Judge for yourselves - the light greens made 9 shots on our goal in the first half, of which four ended up in Volodymyr Lazeba's net! For the entire match Valki DYSSh made 12 shots on our target and scored with exactly half of them. Any professional club could envy such performance, and such a start could be unsettling to any opponent.
Phoenix, which itself is notable for its good performance, made almost twice as many shots on the opposition target, with only three balls ending up in the net, though, and at the very end of the match.
Unluckily for Phoenix, Serhii Hrytsenko and Yurii Vashchenko's players replenished the team infirmary. After the first match of the day with Olympic UFK, it became clear that Nikita Bodnar, who had dispersed the attacks of the second four the day before, and Artyom Shevchenko - one of the heroes of the first match with Valki DYSSh, were of no help to the team in the second match. Both losses were really substantial. And, if Demyd Yevsiukov looked good at Nikita Bodnar’s position, Artem's replacement did not work out as expected. Pivot's physique is of too big importance in a match with a physically superior opponent.
With the score 0:4 in the first half, Phoenix switched to 5-a-side. From this minute on and until the end of the match, almost the entire game took place on Viktor Detyuk team's half, who played the score. The Valkovians made only three shots on Phoenix's target in the second half of the game, with two balls ending up in the net. Those who are familiar with the history of confrontations between the two teams can easily guess whose shots hit the empty net of the violets. Anatolii Naku once again confirmed his reputation as the highest scoring goalkeeper.
Phoenix, though, possessing an overwhelming territorial advantage, could not get anything out it for a very long time. During a minute break in the first half, and in a long break between the halves, the coaches asked the guys to toughen the game using the central zone. It hit base only in the last two minutes of the match, when Dolhulia trapped the ball twice in the center, passed it on, with Khodatskyi crashing it.
Why the boys would not do that earlier - was the question that remained unanswered for Phoenix coaches and the coaches of other teams who were watching one of the main matches of the tour.
Assessing the team’s performance in the first round, it’s hard to be skeptical. This is not the previous year's draw in which we played in our age group. By analyzing the standings and the remaining fixtures, we can say that the team has very good chances of reaching the finals. This is also due to unexpected failures of direct competitors - Persha Stolytsia and DYSSh-5 (read 'Sokil'). As a result, with those two teams, Phoenix is sharing second to fifth lines in the standings, lagging by additional indicators.
The next round is planned for December, and it will undoubtedly clarify the further prospects of the teams in the group, which, in principle, is quite uniform and each team is not only capable of springing a surprise, but is actually doing it. Favorites change with a kaleidoscopic frequency and to observe the development of events in group B is, frankly, entertaining. Not to mention the fact that this football deck also has its joker - FC Avdiivka that failed to take part in the first round. Nobody really knows what this team is, and it is all the more interesting to expect the second round of the tournament, which, frankly, gives us a wide range of emotions.