In order to get back to their usual quality of game, Phoenix had to change the hall. As soon as the team left the disgusting rubber of the Dynamo arena, its gameplay again became familiar - vivid, intricate and fast-paced. Actually, all the main unsuccessful matches of the season were lost at Dynamo.
Sports centre 'Mobile' is an absolute copy of the sports grounds on which the team spends most of the matches of the Championship of Ukraine. Teraflex coating, of course, is not the usual home parquet flooring. But, most importantly, it is not rubber - not the rather worn out rubber. The ball quickly moved about the pitch and the boys managed to fulfill almost all the ideas of the trainers. And, most importantly, we finally saw a game that we had been missing. Moreover, it was a match with a more than serious opponent.
DYSSh-12 (2004) is a team that plays in the Kharkiv Championship out of competition because of being in a different age group, the same as Persha Stolytsia (2004), to which we lost the last match of the year. At the same time, the victory of the team of the twelfth sports school with the peers from Persha Stolytsia was convincing - 6:2. On the eve of today's meeting, Serhii Shalbayan’s trainees and Phoenix were only two points apart. Therefore, a defeat could take Phoenix down the standings and out of the four quarter-finalists in our group. That means there was simply nowhere to retreat.
From the first and to the last minute of the match, DYSSh-12 players used high pressure tactics, obstructing our players immediately at the penalty area. Under such conditions, the clarity of passes came to the fore, and our guys had no equal in that today. Everything worked - 'give-and-goes', overlaps and standards. Both fours looked very cool, attacked a lot and played in a highly disciplined manner, with little mistake, in the defense.
In the first half the team scored all three goals on counterattacks, mainly focusing on the defense of their own goal. In the second half, though, Phoenix stuck to attacking tactics, which, of course, was delightful.
The second team did well, too, having beaten Benfika (4:3) after losing the first half with a score of 0:2. May it be Phoenix-2 temper that leads the team to victory, it is important that the guys have more than enough of that temper!
On Sunday, both of our teams will hold regular matches of the Kharkiv Championship. Unfortunately, again at Dynamo. Phoenix will play against Torpedo (Babai), Phoenix-2 will compete with KhTZ-2, which has not yet lost a single point in its group.