There was no smell of defeat in the arenas of Krasnaya Presnya

Even a cursory glance at the results of the tour will not give any doubt about the tough struggle: in most matches of the Theater Football League, the advantage of one of the parties was expressed by just one goal. But even in those two games that fell out of the general series, the score changed only in the last minute.

In fact, the Musical Theater did not plan to visit the site of the Krasnopresnensky arena in January, but circumstances forced them to do without a day off: the Taganka Theater and the Bolshoi Theater were not ready to play that day. I had to bail out the organizers so that the harmony of the schedule would not be disturbed. But the turnout of the players turned out to be close to one hundred percent, if desired, it was possible to make two full fives. Even Dmitry Zhurzhalin, who was not always selected for the tour, and Pavel Ivanov, who was generally absent for a couple of seasons, appeared. When asked what caused such a long absence, a specific answer followed: “Premiers, premieres, premieres …”

However, a rich selection of shots did not allow taking at least a point from Sketches in Space. When the score was tied, the team in black jerseys got the right to a corner, the ball flew to Denis Sazhenev, who seemed to shoot unaccentedly, but this was enough to score a goal.

“Plus one” on the imaginary scoreboard for the “Sketches” meant “minus one” in the composition: a toe injury deprived last year’s vice-champions of a fighting unit. True, they looked no worse against the Theater of Nations, also conceding an optional goal after a set piece: after retracting from a free-kick, Sergei Selivanov struck from a distance in the center, but under the goalkeeper.

Having completed their performances in the group stage, Alexander Tsai and his comrades moved to another arena, reasonably suggesting that they would have to play for third place there. However, at some point they risked going to the locker room, and from there home: in the final meeting of group A, the Musical Theater led with a score of 5:4! The initiative of Georgy Mergelov, who turned from a goalkeeper into a striker, was supported by Zhurzhalin and Ivanov, which led the team to the final – due to the greater number of goals scored with equal points and the same difference for the three teams. But the author of poker Selivanov before the final whistle was helped by a rebound from the bar and the goalkeeper.

And in the trio under the letter “B”, a sharp match immediately turned out, in which the players of the Pushkin Theater combined great, including playing in touch on the third. But they found themselves in the role of recovering when the goalkeeper did not fix the ball sent from a decent distance by Serpukhovka veteran Vladimir Antipov, and Evgeny Bukhalev, thanks to finishing, began his way to a hat-trick.

The scorer of the Theatrium in the next game required medical attention: an air duel led to two broken heads. However, after the dressing, he played the tour to the end – unlike his counterpart from “Satyricon” Grigory Galkin, who was still recommended by the ambulance team to go with her to get a stitch.

Of course, this was not the reason for the two defeats of the bronze medalists of the previous championship. It was more affected that Yakov Lomkin dropped out before the end of the season, plus Anton Kuznetsov again had to conduct partners from the gate, and not from the center of defense. Against the Pushkin Theater “Satyricon” led the score, but ran into smashing attacks of opponents who scored point-blank.

In the dispute for the third place, the rested “Sketches” used their chances and achieved an advantage of two goals. The decisive fight could well have ended in a penalty shoot-out: after Nikolai Zverev reduced the gap to a minimum, the gates of Gleb Gervassiev were under threat more than once. But for the favorites, everything worked out.

Vasily Nosakov (Bolshoi Theatre) remained the leader in the scorer race with 18 goals, but Sergei Selivanov (Theatre of Nations) is now only four goals behind him. And Evgeny Bukhalev (Teatrium on Serpukhovka) took the third position, having 10 accurate shots.

The placement in the standings, of course, was influenced by the unequal number of rounds that the teams played. The harvest of rating points so far has been distributed as follows: Theater of Nations – 20, Teatrium on Serpukhovka – 18, Taganka Theater – 16, Sketches in Space – 14, Bolshoi Theater – 8, Satyricon and Pushkin Theater – 7 each, Musical Theater – 6.

Georgy Morozov.

Photo courtesy of Theatrical Football League.

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4th round results

Group “A”

Sketches in space – Musical Theater – 3:2

Theater of Nations – Sketches in space – 1:0

Theater of Nations – Musical Theater – 5:5

Group “B”

Teatrium on Serpukhovka – Pushkin Theater – 3:2

Teatrium on Serpukhovka – Satyricon – 2:1

Pushkin Theater – Satyricon – 2:1

Match for 3rd place

Sketches in space – Pushkin Theater – 2:0

Match for 1st place

Theater of Nations – Teatrium on Serpukhovka – 3:2