Having returned from Germany, where Phoenix won the Hamburg Cup International and the silver of the Christmas tournament, Serhii Hrytsenko and Yurii Vashchenko’s trainees played a match of the Kharkiv Open Futsal Championship last Sunday. Our guys opposed Persha Stolytsia, with which they had recently had a full-time duel as part of the Championship of Ukraine in the age category U-15.
In that match, Phoenix celebrated success 5-3. Today, the pupils of Serhii Smykalov were determined to gain revenge for that failure. As subsequent events of the match showed, Persha Stolytsia players managed to achieve their goals due to their great determination, competent tactical combinations and the will to win.
Our guys then during the match were in some kind of unbalanced state. None of them managed to take on leadership, which added ammunition to the opposition. One would not call the type of game that was going on spectacular, since it splitted into a large number of combats with a minimum of meaningful combinations. Both teams used high pressure tactics, which made it difficult to develop attacks. The 'violets' acted without any spark or desire, being untypically passive at times. Serhii Smykalov's trainees caught the opponent's mood and started to dictate their own game. Moreover, their attacking actions were not particularly variable: the goalie would often throw the ball to the powerful Artem Plotnikov, and if that tactic did not work, then the flanks would get a bigger load. It was after the flank shot that the ball deflected off Mykyta Bodnar and for the first time ended up in Eldar Bratchuk's net.
A missed goal spurred Phoenix players and the guys started showing more active play. Still, the luck was tough and they could not make it to the finishing. Our guys, however, managed to level the score. Daniil Dudin, having successfully intercepted the ball, kicked it into the lower corner of the goal with a powerful shot.
Soon the game got more stable and both teams were trying, with little success, to get the opposition number. And when the opposition seemed to be leaving for a break with a tie, Olexander Lyashkov got lucky. The player of Persha Stolytsia turned out to be more efficient than the others and scored from close range.
Phoenix is known to often succed in standard combinations. However, today the boys did not succeed in this game component, and their positional attacks were not as sharp as usual.
As time went by, the score did not change, and the coaching staff was forced to take extreme measures, using the 5-a-side tactics. Danylo Boldyzhev put on goalie's bib and was close to restoring balance in the score. In a few minutes Persha Stolytsia scored the third team goal. Moreover, goalkeeper Vladyslav Hlushok took part in the scoring combination. After his fly kick, the ball hit the crossbar, and Danylo Boldyzhev attacked the opponent in his own penalty area against the rules. As a result, the referee awarded a 6-meter kick, and Artem Plotnikov shot confidently from the penalty mark.
Phoenix players continued to attack, but failed to break the opponent’s defense before the final whistle. It is worth noting here that Persha Stolytsia through the efforts of Arthur Yevlakhov and Yehor Mostovych scored twice in Phoenix empty net and set the final result in the match - 5:1. Of note, with the same score, Serhii Smykalov’s trainees got the better of our guys in the recent Ukrainian Championship match in Zolochiv.
However, the main event of the match day happened in the head-to-head between Phoenix-2 and DYSSh-11-2. Our guys won 2-1, and the credit for both goals goes to goalkeeper Volodymyr Lazeba. Moreover, the goalie-scorer distinguished himself both times, having now 4 goals in his asset over his career.
Serhii Hrytsenko (Phoenix coach):
- Today the game fell flat. Phoenix failed the whole match completely. It may be because some of the players took part in tournaments in Germany, and some remained at home. The whole team played terribly today.
- What can you say about today's opponent?
- The opponent executed pressure well and won almost all combats, whereas nothing was going right for our guys, there were few shots on goal. This is children's futsal and it is unpredictable.