Phoenix complex arithmetic goes as following: the team enters the final of the Summer Futsal Tournament, having lost Danylo Boldyzhev. 

The significance of the semi-final match started to show in the pre-game warmup already, which for both of the teams was mostly devoted to the coaches setting up their players. Kolos, with a minimum lag in the group stage, was fully ready to make a step forward. Phoenix, in its turn, had to take care of an optimal combination of its four-player squads while being under the summer vacation staffing shortage. 

The first half discomposed the fans of the violets. Serhii Hrytsenko and Yurii Vashchenko’s players seemed to be using the attacking style, their fussiness, though, caused superfluous mistakes and technical errors. 

The situation got even worse, when in one of the first attacks Danylo Boldyzhev fell on his arm quite misfortunately during a goal mouth scramble. The acquired forearm fracture, as the team learnt later, would send one of Phoenix leaders to the sidelines for a long while. 

Phoenix tried to get itself going and played several tough attacks, all of them either ending in inaccurate passes from unbeneficial positions or being saved by competition goalie Dmytro Hasan in a confident play. 

A fussy game of the first half ended with a clean record. The coaches decided not to change anything, simply trying to calm the guys down during the break. 

It did work, as the first minutes of the second half showed. Phoenix play became more confident, with sharper attacks but still no goals. In minute 24, though, Dmytro Hrekov gave an inaccurate pass to the goalkeeper, and the violets got the right to an indirect free kick at Kolos penalty area. Sensing a potential turning point of the match, Serhii Hrytsenko asked for a minute. Dudin took a run, Bodnar passed to Konkov, who assisted with a volley to the free Yevsiukov. Dmytro Hasan managed to save the kick of the latter with the ball getting to Bodnar, who scored the first goal with his accurate shot. 

The goal scored by the skipper added confidence to the teammates and calmed Phoenix play. There were fewer mistakes and more attacks, in which Phoenix was ruthlessly counterattacked by the competition. Fortunately, Volodymyr Lazeba’s play was flawless that day. In two attacks in a row Kolos was very close to getting even. Artem Merzlikin had a particularly beneficial moment for that: his first shot was off target and the second one was saved by Lazeba and the sweepers in their timely moves. 

Phoenix played a quick attack in return. With a diagonal pass Daniil Dudin sent Danylo Khodatskyi along the sideline, whose far post pass was ‘read’ by Hrekov kicking the ball out. Khodatskyi brought the ball into play by immediately passing it to the running in Yevsiukov and Demyd with a powerful volley sent the ball under Kolos crossbar. 

In the remaining time Phoenix were playing the score, leading careful attacks and in a more or less calm manner brought the game to victory. 

Now Serhii Hrytsenko and Yurii Vashchenko’s main puzzle is how to form decent four-player squads out of the remaining players to stand up to Valky Sports School in the final match. Most probably all the practice sessions of the pre-final week will be devoted to the issue in question.