A “reserve” trophy
Dynamo Kyiv’s third-string players win Supercup
Last Tuesday Dynamo Kyiv continued a series of victorious at- home matches, beating Shakhtar Donetsk in the Supercup final penalty shoot-out. This time Dynamo fielded third-string players to win the honorary prize instituted three years ago by Ukraine’s Professional Soccer League (PSL). On the one hand, it is good that our club has a reliable reserve. On the other, this puts into serious question the prestige of a Supercup that can be won by third-string players. But let’s start with some pleasant things.
In spite of the scandalous unwillingness of the Ukrainian champions to send their first-string players to the Supercup match in Odesa, the Dynamo-Shakhtar encounter was quite a spectacle. On that warm summer evening, the grandstands of Chornomorets Stadium gathered a large number of spectators, a third of whom were fans who traditionally come from Donetsk. The public excitement promised by the organizers did not materialize, and if the two competing clubs had not dipped into their own pockets to bring some organized groups of fans, Odesa’s soccer arena would have been half-empty.
As for the players who were slated to take part in the match, both coaches went back on their word in a way. Dynamo manager Anatolii Demianenko made a last-minute change, relegating the team’s key players Mykhalyk, Gavrancic, Rybka, and Markovic to the reserve. Another first-string player, Ninkovic, was also in the reserve. Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu, who was supposed to field his best players, didn’t do that either. Maybe the players were not prepared, or perhaps a likely defeat of Shakhtar’s first string at the hands of the Kyiv “reservists” would have been too painful a blow to the Romanian soccer guru.
The organizers of the match, contrary to their good intentions, put Shakhtar in an embarrassing situation. Before the game it was announced that Matuzalem da Silva was being awarded the prize for best player of the previous championship of Ukraine. Didn’t the PSL know that the Brazilian international da Silva, formally Shakhtar’s captain, had fled the club several weeks earlier and was hiding somewhere abroad?
Shakhtar, the last championship’s runner-up, immediately fielded three novices, who joined the club a month ago: Piatov (goalie), Yezersky (fullback), and Hladky (foreward). All three are candidates for the national team of Ukraine. There were no leading Shakhtar players, like Marica (forward), Elano (midfielder), Lewandowski, Kucher, and Srna (defenders), and da Silva on the pitch. Dynamo gave a chance to players who are not beginners but have been competing for more than a year for a place in the first string. They are forwards Lysenko and Oliinyk, midfielders Aliev, Moroziuk, and Dedechko, and defenders Mandziuk and Fedoriv.
As was to be expected, the more experienced Shakhtar players set the pace of the game, while the younger Dynamo boys mostly played in counterattacks. It was obvious that both sides lacked good midfielders. So there were a lot of mistakes in simple situations, which made the game more interesting and unpredictable, on the one hand, but on the other, raised doubts about the players’ class. In the long run, each team took advantage of its rival’s mistakes. All four goals (Mykhalyk scored twice for Dynamo, and Hladky and Tkachenko scored for Shakhtar) resulted from glaring errors in the defense line. Dynamo goalkeeper Rybka also contributed to the result. At first he made a few spectacular saves during regulation time and later forced his opponents to make two mistakes during the penalty shoot-out.
The final score was 2:2 in regulation time and 4:2 in the shoot-out in favor of Dynamo. The prize was solemnly awarded, the winners took a victory lap, holding the Supercup aloft, and fireworks were set off. This great day at Odesa Stadium left a double impression. On the one hand, we saw an interesting, even dramatic, match between longtime rivals, which kept us on tenterhooks until the final seconds.
Actually, all matches should be like this. But this was a Supercup match, supposedly a hallmark of national soccer. Yet in Odesa we did not see a high-class team game that would correspond to the expected competition level. The two sides seemed to have decided beforehand that the Supercup is not their ultimate goal - the main thing is the upcoming Ukrainian championship matches and Champions League qualification fixtures. What we saw was just a training match, not a Supercup tie, which for some reason was followed by the awarding of an honorary trophy.
I’m still hoping that these kinds of things won’t happen again, and that the Supercup (if it is not canceled) will continue to be a Supercup not only in name but also in the playing level.
