Phoenix new uniform turned out to be lucky after all. Not result-wise, of course, even though we should not complain about the tally. In the first place it concerns the gameplay. The Phoenix of today was amazing. Each and every team member was in place.
The coaches played against Arsenal in three four-player squads. That required minimum swaps – powerful Artem Shevchenko was sent in to support Kyrylo Horbatenko, Denys Mikhno and Vladyslav Khrypchuk. Shevchenko’s place in the first four-player squad was taken by Maksym Dolhulia.
From the very early minutes of the match the violets set such a pace that the first goal was scored in the second minute of the game. Soldatenko broke up an attack in the left flank, passed to Dolhulia, who made an assist to Khodatskyi, whose powerful kick right under the crossbar Ivan Shapusha failed to save.
Phoenix would not slow down, showing great control of the ball and the field. Having missed out several goal chances, the team got to its power-minute when it scored twice. In the first episode Mykyta Bodnar quite impressively brought Oleksandr Bezruk into Arsenal keeper’s area of attention, where Bezruk sent the ball into the far corner of the net. A few seconds later Bezruk gave a great assist to Dudin, who brought the score to 3:0.
Such a start was good enough to throw any competition off their track. To Arsenal’s honour the team took the fight. Even though the attack failed to put their position play in place, Rostyslav Turin’s players did manage to show their mettle and perseverance in counterattacks. And at such a rate! In as little as three minutes the ball hit our net three times. Realization one could envy, given the fact that Phoenix allowed the opposition not so many chances at its goalmouth!
The teams ended the first half with Phoenix narrow advantage, which was thanks to Danylo Dudin’s goal that interfered with Arsenal three minute scoring.
Just as the second half commenced Phoenix started putting forth its intricate combinations at the goalmouth of the opposition, enjoying the advantage in territory and gameplay. All the eight goals Phoenix scored were so beautiful that each of them without exception will enter the review of best goals of the season. Especially picturesque was the goal scored by Mykyta Bodnar after Demyd Yevsiukov’s fine heel pass.
The third four-player squad deserves separate praise – Denys Mikhno and Vladyslav Khrypchuk had lots of moments for conquering the net and are both worth being put down in the ‘goals scored’ chapter of the match minutes, for both of them were very close to scoring.
Phoenix elders had a marvelous match just as the youngsters, who beat Yunior of Pesochyn 3:1 (Soldatenko, Nikiforov and Oliinyk). The small players gained their third victory, having played in four matches of their debut tournament!
Both the elders and the youngsters have shown good attacking styles – 39 (!) goal attempts for Phoenix 2013 and 46 – for Phoenix 2006.
Both our teams have high chances of getting to the next stage of the tournament, the format of which is still not quite clear, though.