IV^th International SOCHI TEK/PROM Cup-2018

Probably, for the overwhelming number of participants – the IV^th International SOCHI TEK/PROM Cup-2018 – will be the most vivid football impression of the year. At least, this competition became a special one for the organizers definitely. Just crazy geography of participants, excellent conditions for the organization, weather, resort Adler, Olympic Sochi, the sea, mountains, fresh air – all of them created just paradisiacal football conditions in total. It was symbolic that the Ambassador of the coming World Championship from Sochi, the best player of the USSR in 1972, the renowned Spartak player Evgeny Serafimovich Lovchev, who was also stunned by the extensive geography of the tournament, became the honored guest of the competition

GROUP A

Under the roaring of airplanes, picturesquely flying right above the football field, the competition started with matches of groups A and B. The first quartet became the most "domestic" in the tournament. Despite the fact that the teams arrived in Sochi almost from all the parts of Russia and Kazakhstan, by lot, 3 representatives from the Krasnodar Region got here at once: the hosts – Sochi Enterprise of MPL, the neighbors from Tuapse – RN-Tuapse and Krasnodar residents from Gazprom Burenie. The residents of Ufa from Bashneftegeofizika kept a company to them. They showed the most stable game in all senses at the group stage, alternately beating their rivals with the same score 1:0. The football players of RN-Tuapse slightly conceded to the Bashkirs, they completed the other two fights by confident victories over Gazprom Burenie 5:0 and 4:1 over Sochi Enterprise of MPL. However, not only Ufa and Tuapse got into the Golden Playoff, but also the hosts of the competition that beat Gazprom Burenie Krasnodar 2:0. As it turned out later, the tournament schemes were such that 3 points in the group were enough for the third place to get into 1/8 of the main playoff of the tournament. The final table in quartet A was as follows

GROUP B

Two teams from Kazakhstan – Karaganda Kazakhmys and Mangistaumunaigas from Aktau – entered quartet B at once. And it shall be said that both teams showed their force already in the first round. Kazakhmys played a truly battling draw with the hosts from the Black Sea Centre of IAD 2:2, and the football players from Aktau confidently took over Abinsk Electric Steel Works – 2:0. In the second round, there was the first and, as it turned out later, the only Kazakhstan derby in the tournament – Kazakhmys pulled out the victory with a minimum score from Mangistaumunaygaz, thus reaching the intermediate first place in the group, together with the Black Sea Centre of IAD, which outplayed AESW – 3:1. However, the Karaganda residents managed to become the sole leaders of the quartet in the final round, thanks to the victory over AESW 1:0 and zero draw in the match between Mangistaumunaygas and Black Sea Centre of IAD. Thus, even before the end of the matches in all the groups, it became clear that three teams from group B, taking the first three lines, would enter the Golden Playoff with a probability of 99,9%

GROUP C

From the first minutes the pace in group C was set by the football players of FORES from the town of Sukhoy Log near Yekaterinburg. Moreover, the force of the residents of Sverdlovsk became increasingly obvious: in the first round 2:0, over the Urals neighbors from Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat, then 3:0 over IDGC of North-West, represented at the competition by the branch of Komienergo from Syktyvkar and finally, 6:1 over one more Gazprom subsidiary branch from the Moscow Centrenergogaz. But the fate of the second place in the group was decided in the last round. Having 3 points in their assets, for victories over Centrenergogaz 9:0 and 2:1 respectively, Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat and IDGC of the North-West, in the face-to-face meeting, despite many points for scoring the goal, scored just one single goal for two. Luck smiled on football players from Syktyvkar. Truly to say, the team from Salavat with three points in the assets was able to qualify for the Golden Playoff of the competition too

GROUP D

Having played the first round for a carbon copy (Sochiteploenergo – RN-Krasnodarneftegaz 1:1 and Novosibirsk branch of SGC – Podzemburgaz 1:1), the teams of group B were divided then in two camps with directly opposite results. The residents of Sochi and Krasnodar were at the bottom, the Siberians and drillmen from Shchelkovo near Moscow were at the top. The latter confidently coped with Krasnodarneftegaz 6:0 in the second round, and they beat Sochiteploenergo 3:1 in the third round. The representatives of Novosibirsk as a whole showed themselves a little gentle, beating first the residents of Sochi 4:1, and then – Krasnodar 4:2. Thus, two teams from quartet D went to the Golden Playoff – Podzemburgaz and Novosibirsk Branch of SGC. Well, Sochiteploenergo and Krasnodarneftegaz continued the competition battle in the "Silver Playoff"

GROUP E

In quartet E, the teams from the Urals met with the teams from the Russian South. And the result of their confrontation was not in favor of the latter. Already in the first round, when Novokuznetsk Sibshakhtostroy smashed IDGC of the North Caucasus with a score of 7:0, and SUENCO – Novocherkassk Electrode Plant – 3:0. In the second round IDGC beat Novocherkassk – 1:0, and Sibshakhtstroy won SUENKO – 4:1. Thus, Novokuznetsk secured its first place already after the second round. But this did not help the team of the Novocherkassk Electrode Plant, which fell under the Novokuznetsk roller – 0:7. The residents of Tyumen from SUENCO pulled out a hard victory over Pyatigorsk in the final game – 1:0. However, the football players from IDGC of the North Caucasus also qualified for the Golden Playoff

GROUP F

Group F can rightly be called a group of death. The winners of the Novosibirsk Champions Cup came together here, one of the strongest Siberian teams – ASI Corporation (Kemerovo), the finalists and bronze medalists of previous SOCHI TEK/PROM Cups – Moscow Gazprom Energoholding, strong and skilled Bashneft-Pererabotka (Ufa) and finalists of the Kazakhprom Cup-2017 – Eurasian Group from Astana. The fact that the struggle would be hot was already clear in the first round, when ASI Corporation broke up with Gazprom Energoholding peacefully – 1:1, and the Eurasian Group and Bashneft played "zero". In the second round, Kemerovo residents managed to become the leaders, thanks to the scoreless draw of the rivals from Moscow and Ufa, and the minimal victory over the guests from the capital of Kazakhstan. In the third round, ASI Corporation strengthened its leadership, beating Bashneft-Pererabotka – 2:0. The company of Kemerovo in the Golden Playoff was Gazprom Energoholding, which played the third match again in a draw 1:1 against the Eurasian Group

SILVER PLAYOFF

The quarterfinals of the Silver Playoff started right upon completion of 1/8 games in the Golden Playoff. It shall be noted that the representatives of the group of death, i.e. Group F, did not leave a stone unturned from their opponents in the quarterfinal. Eurasian Group – Gazprom Centrenergogaz 8:0, Bashneft-Pererabotka – Gazprom Burenie Krasnodar 5:1. It was more difficult for Sochiteploenergo to reach the semifinal (victory 2:0 over NEP-Energoprom) and Abinsk Electric Steel Works (victory with the score of 2:1 over RN-Krasnodarneftegaz). In the semifinal, Bashneft did not experience much difficulty in the match against Sochiteploenergo 5:1 again, but AESW almost deprived the Eurasian Group of a ticket to the final, losing only in the penalty shootouts – 2:2 (1:3 by penalties). Thus, the representatives of the Krasnodar Region met in the match for the third place. And the football players from Abinsk were a little stronger – 2:1. The final was even more stubborn and dramatic. The residents of Astana, conceding 0:2 during the match, eventually made the score equal, and in the penalty shootout, thanks to the goalkeeper's save, the Eurasian Group became the winner of the Silver Playoff!

GOLDEN PLAYOFF



According to the rules of the tournament, 16 teams went to the Golden Playoff at once (all the first, second places, as well as 4 best third places in subgroups). Each of these teams, in accordance with the results shown in the group stage, received the corresponding seeding number from 1 (the best first place in the group) through 16 (the fourth third place in the group) and then according to all the principles of sports justice in 1/8 the pairs were distributed as follows: seeding numbers 1-16, 2-15 ... 8-9. At the same time, according to the regulations, at the first stage of the playoff, the teams from one subgroup could not meet. Thus, the playoff net took the following form.

Relatively easy, three teams won the ticket to the quarterfinal of the Golden Playoff: Sibshakhtostroy (victory 5:0 over Sochi PMEL), ASI Corporation (4:0 – Black Sea Centre of IAD) and IDGC of the North-West (3:0 – Novosibirsk branch of SGC). The remaining five quarterfinalists had to strain muscles. Thus, RN-Tuapse won SUENCO – 2:0, Gazprom Energoholding – Kazakhmys – 2:1, FORES – IDGC of the North Caucasus – 2:1. Two quarterfinalists were determined only in the series of penalty shootouts after the match. In the Bashkir derby, Bashneftegeofizika and Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat didn't score a goal each other in the regular time, but the representatives of Salavat were more accurate in the series of six-meter goals – 4:3. Mangistaumunaigas and Podzemburgaz scored 1:1, and the football players from Kazakhstan played 3:2 in the penalty shootouts. Thus, having come out in 1/4, Aktau footballers automatically won the Peoples' Friendship Cup, as showing the best result among the foreign teams of the competition. The next score of 1:7 from ASI Corporation in the quarterfinal, naturally, could not deprive Mangistaumunaygas of this honorable award. It would seem that everyone was waiting for a super-match and Kuzbass derby between Sibshakhtostroy and ASI Corporation in the semifinals, however, the forge sensationally lost to RN-Tuaspe. The Tuapse residents succeeded in a quick goal and subsequent competent game in defense, which left the flawless Sibshakhtostroy without any medals. With great difficulty, FORES, which played 0:0 with IDGC of the North-West, also made a penalty shootout, winning 3:1. The post-match lottery happened in the Gazprom derby too, where Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat, that difficultly entered the main playoff from the third place in the group, thanks to the six-meter series, knocked out of the champion race one of the favorites of the tournament – Gazprom Energoholding with the score of 0:0 (2:0 by penalties). The victory in the semifinal was morally pulled out by ASI Corporation, which outplayed RN-Tuapse 1:0, and FORES, that defeated the uncompromising Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat with the same score. The match for the third place was emotional, stubborn and combative, wherein RN-Tuapse celebrated the victory 2:1. But the final was even more strong-willed, which became the cherry on the cake of the entire remarkable Sochi competition. In the equal match of the two masterful teams, FORES was the first one to score – at the beginning of the second half, the Urals succeeded in a massive attack, culminating in three consecutive shots for goal, the last of which shook the net behind the ASI keeper. It seemed that the game was going on up to this only goal, but in the end there was no less than one more difficult goal forced out by the residents of Kemerovo – 1:1. Now everyone bore in mind a penalty shootout, but already in the first attack after the missed ball, using the most beautiful kick to the distant nine, FORES simply discouraged the early-pleased opponent. The score was 2:1 – heavy, beautiful and well-deserved victory of FORES. And the main SOCHI TEK/PROM Cup went to Yekaterinburg, or rather Sukhoy Log! By the way, the final exchange of goals can be seen in Instagram in the profile @gorelov_aleksei. Just a crazy and beautiful outcome of the final!

I^st place – FORES (Yekaterinburg)
II^nd place – ASI Corporation (Kemerovo)
III^rd place – RN-Tuapse (Tuapse)
I^st place in the Silver Playoff – Eurasian Group (Astana, Kazakhstan)
II^nd place in the Silver Playoff – Bashneft-Pererabotka (Ufa)
III^rd place in the Silver Playoff – Abinsk Electric Steel Works (Abinsk)
The best supporting group – Mangistaumunaigaz (Aktau, Kazakhstan)
Discovery team of the tournament – IDGC of the North-West (Syktyvkar)
The best supporting group – Podzemburgaz (Schelkovo)
The best player – Vladimir Tsyganenko (ASI Corporation)
The best forward – Denis Kovalev (FORES)
The best defender – Vladimir Korinenko (Eurasian group)
The best goalkeeper – Yury Meretukov (RN-Tuapse)
The best sniper (best penalty-kick taker) – Andrey Krasnov (Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat)
The first goal of the tournament – Roman Kuznetsov (Sochi PMES)

The team of Sportiko organizers thanks all those involved in the organization of this large-scale event: the leaders of the participating companies, organizers of the teams, participants, fans, the staff of Yunost Sports Complex, for perfectly created conditions for organizing the tournament, Evgeny Serafimovich Lovchev, who found an opportunity to visit the SOCHI TEK/PROM Cup-2018 in his tight schedule, the cheerleading support group of the Cheerleading Federation "Pearl", the referee team of the Sochi Football Federation, the presenter, photographer, sound engineer, brigade of volunteers, information partners of the event and everyone, without whom holding the IV^th All-Russian Football SOCHI TEK/PROM Cup-2018 would be impossible. See you at the SOCHI TEK/PROM Cup – 2019!