«Nika» (Nijni Novgorod) – «Energy» (Voronezh) 0:4 (0:2)

Scoring: Benson, 31 (0:1). Zhdanova, 40 (0:2). Apanashenko, 60 (0:3). Gorbacheva, 63 (0:4).
«Nika»: Kapustina (Gopalevich, 46), Kolubaeva, Popova, Znamenskaya, Kouptsova (Budakova, 84), Malevannaya (Shramok, 64), Kulakova, Lutzkevich, Mutanova (Ryaskova, 62), Nagornaya, Nikolskaya.
«Energy»: Tshegoleva, Carey, Strukova, Mishanskaya, Zhdanova (Korobitzina, 85), Apanashenko, Terekhova (Kozhnikova, 83), Danilova (Bukashkina, 83),Benson, Lamtyugina (Emelianova, 62), Gorbacheva.
Cautions: Kouptsova, 20. Kulubaeva, 47.
Referee: í. íÁÍÁÅva (Samara), ï. Zarenina (Ruzaevka), ï. Soluyanova (Saransk).
June, the 23rd. N. Novgorod. Stadium  «Dinamo». Attendance 200 . +22 degrees C.

 It is easy to see that the team “Nika” who is the debutant of the Russian championship didn’t become yet the strong rival to the main teams struggling for the title. Anyway the team shows some progress and some games ago got the first point. It was the fifth game out for the Energy team and of course it was rather difficult to keep good physical form. And also there were some problems with the squad: our strong forward Natalia Zinchenko stood at home because of old injuries, Elena Suslova got the disqualification, Ekaterina Stepanenko will miss this season because of the injury and medical operation, Nadejda Bosikova still doesn’t have a good form after the giving birth for her son.
The pitch of the domestic stadium isn’t good indeed. It is very uneven and it is difficult to guess the way of a ball. Thirty minutes the guests tried to adapt to the field. They had four good chances to score but  were not lucky. Finally after great pass from corner point of Elena Danilova Jennifer Benson who played left midfielder scored the first goal with her head – 0:1. The same manner of scoring was at 63^rd minute – Danilova kicked to Elena Gorbacheva and the last one scored with her head. But before defender Natalia Zhdanova scored too and Daria Apanashenko scored the goal also with her head. So all the heros of this game were the new players of FC Energy team.
The game was out with the big advantage of FC Energy. The host team were near the guests gates only tree-four times and nadejda Thegoleva had only one chance to do her job. There were some experiments with the starter’s squad – the coaches could allow this in N.Novgorod. The next game will be in Voronezh on the 28^th of June against “Nadejda” (Noginsk). This match will be difficult, intense and important for both teams.