The possibilities of the final line-up in the group where Dynamo and the Germany’s Bayer contested the right to go on to the second round gives more than enough food for variation. Indeed, two teams, Maribor and Lazio, have already done all they could: the Slovenes finished last, and the Italians moved into first place. The harsh realities of modern business, which big-time soccer undoubtedly is, were leading to a situation where the final round should be won by the teams with the greatest interest in it, i.e., Bayer and Dynamo. We were quite happy with this option, with due account of the points the Kyivans had gained and the lack of the powerful performance typical of Shevchenko-era Dynamo.
The Kyiv match began on an optimistic key: the almost full stadium greeted the appearance of Lazio bench warmers on the pitch. Compared to the Saturday game, on the visiting team only Pancaro and Couto shined. For various reasons, Lazio coach Eriksson kept off the field ten of his first- string players. The feeling of nuisance that we would not see Veron, Salas, Nedved, Boksic, Marchegiani, Nesta, Almeyda, ConseiНЛo, Favalli, and Lombardo (a fine team indeed!) was sweetened by a hope that, without these stars, the Italians would be no stronger than our Dynamo, which put out its whole first- string except Shatskikh. It became clear after the first few minutes of the game that Lazio, even with second-string players, was no weaker than Dynamo, to say the least. Mancini, Negro, Simone Inzaghi (not to be confused with his brother Filippo from Juventus), Gottardi, and other Laziali, weak from the viewpoint of the Italian championship, looked professional in the Kyiv stadium. And my tongue simply refuses to speak of the Argentine Simeone as back-up.
It turned out that in order to gain convincing superiority over the Roman team, the Kyivans should have been playing not against second, but fourth or fifth- string players. As in the first match of these teams in Rome, the mid- field was tightly controlled by Dynamo’s rivals. With all respect due to the superb efforts and selflessness of Kosovsky, Husin, Belkevych, and Kaladze, our boys played worse. They simply cannot jump higher than their head! If they could, they would be now contesting a place in the mainstream of European superclubs, as their recent partner Shevchenko is successfully doing. The Kyiv coaches’ faith in the potential of Mamedov makes me recall their strange affection for Boiko in the seventies, Khlus in the eighties, and Mykhailenko in the nineties. The former Moscow Spartak player professes a fundamentally different, non-Kyiv, non-Dynamo- style, soccer. This is why Dynamo’s attacks limped on the left leg throughout the first half: Kosovsky’s partners had “helped” him so much that he very soon came down and began to lose his flank to the fast and skillful rivals. And the goal Shovkovsky ceded a point because Mamedov let Marcolin shoot from under himself once more demonstrated that blind faith in a player not always brings success.
Lady Luck did not smile at the Kyivans that night. The situations they created never yielded the coveted result, and the indefatigable Rebrov had to rob his opponents of the ball, spearhead attacks, give and receive passes, all on his own. Even if the referee had awarded a penalty for Dynamo, as happened in Rome, this would have hardly saved them: Inzaghi and Mancini had 100% chances but failed to overplay Shovkovsky.
The Kyivans’ game disappointed us, so we had nothing to do but rejoice at the high sportsmanship of the Italians who honestly played a seemingly unnecessary match, giving Bayer a chance. All the aspirin capital’s team had to do was win its home game against Maribor which could no longer hope anything but UEFA prize money in the tournament. However, if miracles happen, they do so all and at once: Bayer failed to score, and the resulting 0:0 draw put the Kyivans, embittered by the loss, in the coveted second place in their group. For the first time after the positive result of a European tournament leg, thousands of fans did not shout “Dynamo, Dynamo” in the streets. Even the most rabid fans did not dare open their mouths after such a lackluster defeat. The people cried out “Maribor, Maribor,” thus thanking the Slovenes for a small sports miracle. But was it really a miracle? No, that was only a fair game by both teams from the first minute to the last. For we had forgotten this, adjusting ourselves to compromises in life and, hence, in sports. The unexpected success of an obscure Slovene team seemed a breath of fresh air to our souls rusted by daily lies.
We thank Maribor for its fair play. Let Lady Luck smile on Dynamo in another such fair play!







