Conquering Fortune
Truly unforgettable, the Dynamo-Arsenal match in the third round of the Champions League group tournament will go down in history. It will be remembered and cited as an argument. A new legend has replaced the legend born five years ago, when Dynamo defeated Arsenal in the same tournament in the fall of 1998. Beginning with Arsenal, Dynamo in its 1998 lineup beat the then holders of the Champions Cup, thus achieving its best result ever in this tournament.
The victory of Dynamo in its current makeup seems quite natural and means something more than merely additional points in some fixture list. This victory became yet another argument against the numerous Ukrainian so-called soccer experts, who piously utter the names of Europe’s leading clubs considering their players nothing short of Martians.
It was recalled before the match in Kyiv that Arsenal in its current makeup did not score a single point in Ukraine. In 2000 Arsenal lost to Shakhtar. Two years ago Arsenal’s goalkeeper Lemann, then playing for Dortmund Borussia, hung on to a tie in Kyiv, allowing two goals by Melashchenko and Idakhor, who today are not even Dynamo bench-warmers. Moreover, things did not auger well for the guest team either. It is common knowledge that teams sporting blue-and-yellow jerseys have no luck on Ukraine’s main pitch. Meanwhile, Arsenal players sported such colors instead of their traditional red jerseys with white sleeves.
The atmosphere before the match were reminiscen of the good old days, when fans from across Ukraine would come to the capital to support Dynamo during their Champions League matches. Neither distance, nor weather, nor hard-to-get tickets stopped the fans, who were confident that they would not only see a match of the highest class, but would also rejoice in their team’s victory.
The tournament lineup forced the host team to play to win. An hour before the match it became known that Moscow’s Lokomotiv unexpectedly defeated Inter-Milan 3:0, which gave it a chance of making it into the next round of the tournament. With only one point scored in its two previous matches and not a single goal, Arsenal also needed a victory.
It appears that the guest team fell pray to the traditional British haughtiness, that they felt their strength is no doubt good. But coming to a Champions League match on the night of the match without limbering up on the Kyiv pitch the day before seemed somewhat overconfident. Granted, Arsenal is a team of legendary players and much-publicized superstars. Taken one at a time the London luminaries no doubt eclipse the Kyivans. But soccer is a team sport. Dynamo scored all of its previous victories primarily thanks to playing in a collective, disciplined, and dedicated manner. For this very purpose goalkeeper Shovkovsky, defenders Dmytrulin, Fedorov, Havranchych, and Nesmachny, halfbacks Peev, Husev, Leko, and Ghioane, forward Shatskykh, and captain Belkevich, who was more than a forward and midfielder, went onto the pitch last Tuesday. It was Belkevich who showed that the Kyivans would not simply try to fight off their celebrated opponents, but try to beat England’s soccer champion. One could tell that Dynamo defenders were nervous in the first minutes. Thankfully, the crosspiece saved Shovkovsky’s goal after a series of corner kicks.
The match statistics suggest that in the first half the teams played on a par. However, fortune smiled on Dynamo, with Shatskykh scoring a goal from a short distance when the ball rebounded after Leko’s kick. The goal thus scored did not affect the further course of the game. Unlike last year in a similar situation, the Kyivans did not attempt to retreat to defensive positions. They put up a tighter defense in the second half and responded with counterattacks. Hard as they tried, world and European champion Henry and European champion Wiltord could not penetrate Dynamo’s failsafe defense. Although Arsenal forwards managed to strike a few times, Shovkovsky was his usual unerring self. It did not take long for Dynamo to score a second goal. After goalkeeper Lemann made a mistake, Belkevich slid the ball into an empty goal. Only a dilettante could call Dynamo’s goals accidental. Our players forced their opponents to make mistakes and used them. This is how you win games on such a high level. The last fifteen minutes tested Dynamo’s nerve, when world champion Vieira, Olympic champion Kanu, and champion of England Ljungberg were fielded. With fresh forces the guest team managed to push Dynamo back to their own goal, while the indefatigable Henri managed to send the ball into the corner from a close distance.
The last ten minutes of the match were especially stressful, with each team putting the other’s goalkeeper to the test. But when Ture sent a ball into the crosspiece in overtime, it became clear that Dynamo would win.
Now Ukraine’s champions with their six points share first place in their group with Inter-Milan. They are followed by Lokomotiv with four points and Arsenal with one. Ahead of them is the second half of the group tournament, in which the leaders could become outsiders and vice versa. Dynamo will play a very important match on November 5 in London. Fortunately, it appears that Arsenal’s coach Wenger has not understood anything. After the defeat in Kyiv he said that he did not doubt that his team would win until they allowed the second “accidental” goal. Tough luck, he said. As if the celebrated coach does not know that in soccer luck is on the side of the stronger. In turn, Kyivans’ coach Mykhailychenko noted that his team wanted this victory more than their opponents, and this is why fortune smiled on them. As for skill and class, can there still be those who question Dynamo’s international class and the team’s ability to score victories in Europe? Perhaps Londoners still think so, which is only to the Kyivans’ good.
