Penza, 21 February 2016. PenzaNews. “Laguna-UOR” and the St. Petersburg “Avrora” tied their most recent match – 2:2 – in the Russian mini-football championship for women’s teams in the Supreme League, which took place in Penza on Saturday, February 20.

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Ksenia Olkova scored the first goal of the game on the second minute, after overcoming the defense of the “Avrora” goalkeeper Victoria Ivanova and making a precise shot between the goalposts. The score screen remained at 1:0 for a significant amount of time. The home team remained defensive, while being confident in the offense, but failed to exploit the opportunities they were creating. The visiting team also kept the Penza mini-footballers on their toes, forcing the goalkeeper Maria Surnina to be involved in the game from time to time. She was assisted several times by Irina Rodkina, who was hitting the ball out of the goal at the last possible moment.

The main moments of the game occurred by the end of the second period.

On the 36st minute of the match, “Laguna-UOR” players suddenly left the main attacker of “Avrora” Victoria Afanasova unchecked, which she quickly exploited to even up the score.

On the 37th minute, Maria Surnina attempted to intercept the ball from Victoria Afanasova in the goal zone, but the ball was passed to Elmira Gamidova, who struck the goal left with no protection – 1:2.

Immediately afterwards, “Laguna-UOR” switched the strategy to playing with 5 outfielders, which proved to be fruitful in the very first dangerous moment that followed, as Alexandra Chernova equalized the score.

“We are missing the goals which the opposing team did not create. These are the shortfalls by the players, that begin to overcomplicate simple moments. I always say that everything great, especially in mini-football, lies in simplicity. You need to play it simple, and they will have no goals. Especially the likes of when there is a pass into the center, all players watch the ball, and then Afanasova runs out from under their noses and scores. The same with the second goal – if Maria Surnina had kicked the ball out, everyone would have returned to their positions, with no questions asked. The girls know whom to check and how to check, and when, but when we have such goals barely two minutes before the final call, and we are practically in the skid row by the end of the game,” Vitaly Antonov, president of “Laguna-UOR” and acting head coach of the team, commented on the play.

There are no complaints over the attitude of the players, he noted.

“The girls are great, they played, tried their best, and overall they did not fall behind their opponents,” the press service of “Laguna-UOR” quotes Vitaly Antonov.