Portugal is hospitable

Like other people, soccer players have both “lucky” and “unlucky” cities, and even countries. Until recently, Portugal was an unlucky country for the Dynamo players. They have come there three times in different periods, and each time they were defeated. They lost to Porto in 1987 in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, to Benfica in 1991, and to Boavista in 2001 in the Champions League Group Stage. The Soviet national team of 1983 and the Ukrainian national team of 1996, which consisted mainly of Dynamo players, lost to Portugal too.

When Dynamo came to Portugal on Oct. 20, it quickly became apparent that the current players and coaches of the team are either unaware of these stats or do not apply them to themselves, even if they know about them. Apart from the team’s name and the color of its jerseys, today’s Dynamo players have nothing in common with those who lost in Portugal. The team created by coach Yurii Siomin is slowly but steadily confirming its own soccer ideology without paying much attention to tradition.

Despite the clear advantage of today’s Porto over today’s Dynamo in terms of its past victories, the two-time winning team of the European Cup did not include any of the players who recently conquered soccer Europe under the leadership of its coach Jose Morinho. Every year the Portugese club sells its best players in order to create spots for no less promising soccer players, who are able not only to win, but also to spark interest in new potential buyers.

For this reason I didn’t quite believe that they have learned to create a team every year that is able to play successfully in the Champions League. In addition, the crushing defeat that Porto suffered at the hands of London’s Arsenal in the previous round of the group stage hinted at the possibility that the host team would not offer anything very complicated for the Dynamo players. The local press and fans did not have any raging enthusiasm before the game with the Ukrainian club, and the hosts were careful about making any predictions about the game.

The Dynamo players were no less circumspect. Siomin stated plainly before the game that he would be satisfied with a tie.

Recalling that the two previous games Dynamo played in the Champions League Group Stage were followed by a tie, one could easily have expected the game that was played in the beautiful Estadio do Dragao in Porto. The Dynamo coaches decided to continue the tactics of the previous games and concentrated nearly all their forces on defending the net.

Judging from the way the Portuguese were trying to break through this rearguard, it became clear that nobody had ever played defense in such a tight way against Porto. The virtuosos of soccer from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and other Latin American countries (there were only three Portugueses on the field) were clearly at a loss. Lucho, the leader of the Portuguese attack, was so tightly covered by Dynamo’s Ognjen Vukojevic that he was not able to display even part of his potential. The same thing happened to the other Portuguese players.

All that was left was to see how Dynamo would play the attack. It might have looked good, but an unexpected penalty goal scored by Oleksandr Aliev convinced the Kyiv coaches that the tactics should not be changed. Why should they be if there was already a result?

For over an hour of playing time after Dynamo scored a goal, the Ukrainian players were mainly trying to ruin their opponents’ game. And they were doing this so well that by the end of the game the Portuguese champions had lost their confidence that they would be able to kick the ball into the net of Dynamo’s goalkeeper Stanyslav Bohush.

At the end of the game, journalists asked Siomin about the team’s attacking game, which was barely observed. In response, the coach said everyone should just rejoice over the victory.

He may be right. We should be glad that Dynamo has won a guest game of the Champions League for the first time in over eight years, so we should leave the analysis of mistakes and planning until later. Why can’t we be glad now that Dynamo has overcome last year’s profound crisis and has returned to the League of Champions, not simply as a member but as a team that really fights for victory on its way to the title along with the world’s strongest teams?

We haven’t seen this for a long time. We got out of the habit of winning and were ready for new defeats. So it is very important that Dynamo has calmly and confidently shattered the myth of Portuguese invincibility in games on their home turf. We should not wait for Dynamo’s opponents to become hospitable to our team; we have to force them.

Dynamo’s next away game in the League of Champions will take place in England, where victories have also been rare. It would be nice to verify English hospitability. But in order to do this, Dynamo has to play against Porto on Nov. 5 in Kyiv.

League of Champions Group Stage

Group H. Round 3: Porto (Portugal) — Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) — 0-1; Fenerbahce (Turkey) — Arsenal (England) — 2-5