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Will Kyiv Dynamo Match Its Road Success at Home?

06 March, 00:00

By Petro MARUSENKO, The Day One cannot help draw parallels between the League of Champions quarterfinals last year and on March 3. In the former case, the Kyivans played Turin's Juventus which was then considered at least a probable finalist, if not the winner, of the European Cup. In the latter case, on the contrary, Real, although winner of the two by far most honorable titles in the world, the Cup of Champions and the Intercontinental Cup, is now in crisis. The team is plagued with failures in the Spanish championship. With its match against Kyiv only a week away, the captain's bridge got a new helmsman. Most authoritative Dutchman Guus Hiddink was replaced by a no less authoritative Welshman John Toshack. In any case, John had no warm-up time, and he simply could not make any radical changes in game strategy and tactics. But he was quite capable of shaking up the players and making them forget their losses.

For Dynamo, as any other post-Soviet club, the beginning of spring is traditionally considered a bad time. But the Kyiv boys might well assert that this has no longer anything to do with them. Coach Valery Lobanovsky is proving for the second straight year that it makes no difference to him if soccer is played in the spring or winter. The guests entered the Santiago Bernabeu field in excellent physical condition and were not inferior in this aspect to the well-known players of the royal club. While we observed a certain minimal superiority of Real in the first half (more in terms of territory than play), early in the second half the visitors got the upper hand. The game took on a collision course. Both teams scored a most spectacular goal, and both missed a few good chances. The goals scored were first-class indeed. First Serhiy Rebrov outplayed in a jump famed Fernando Hierro, 14 centimeters taller than our forward, and gave an accurate pass to Andriy Shevchenko. The latter, in spite of the fullbacks' resistance, kicked the ball exactly into the goal's corner. It was done in the 54th minute, and 12 minutes later the Spanish players outwitted the Kyivans. A free kick immediately near the rival's goal area always harbors great danger when done by Real. The Brazilian Roberto Carlos is rightly considered a past master of this. It was he who came up to the ball and riveted Dynamo's undivided attention. But it was Predrag Mijatovic who also quietly approached the ball and then suddenly sent it spinning exactly into the Dynamo's goal corner much to the delight of spectators.

Then Predrag hitched up his vest, and the spectators saw his jersey bearing the Spanish word "animo," Spanish for rejoice. This is how he thanked the fans for their patient tolerance of his previous failures.

The 1:1 draw perhaps reflects the course of events on the field. And again parallels come to mind with last year's battle with Juventus. In that case, the same result was achieved by force of two factors: a brilliant performance by goalie Oleksandr Shovkovsky and a great stroke of luck for the Kyivans. In the return match, the Kyivans looked better but were unlucky, and the Italian club thrashed Dynamo 4:1. But, with all due respect, Real is no Juventus. The royal club may be as strong but it lacks pressing so typical of last year's Old Signora. Real plays and lets play.

The return match, to be played March 17 at Kyiv's National Olympic Stadium, promises to provoke exceptional interest. I don't doubt that all 86,000 seats will be filled. Two weeks will be of use for both sides. In Real, coach John Toshack will gain a two-week period to create a model of his own. Kyiv will have time to practice.

Newspaper output №:

№9, (1999)

Section

Society