Gazzaev’s first loss

This had to happen sooner or later. Soccer teams that do not lose simply do not exist. So Dynamo’s 12-game winning streak with its new, Russian-born coach Valery Gazzaev had to snap at some point. And so it did—in Barcelona.

Before their Champions League group tournament game against Barcelona, arguably the strongest soccer team in the world, the Kyivites did not get a chance to face any opponents that would even come close to the Spanish club’s level — with all due respect to Vorsla and Metalist (the two Ukrainian teams that played Dynamo as equals) and Russia’s Rubin, which, despite its undeniable potential, is still no match for Barcelona.

Leaving for Spain, Gazzaev said precisely what I wrote in the opening paragraph: Soccer teams that do not lose simply do not exist. However, he meant Barcelona, which has not lost one game this season. We all wished to believe that Dynamo would put up a good fight.

Historically, these expectations were not totally ungrounded. The last time these two squads met in the Champions League, the Kyivites won 4 to 0. But this was 12 years ago and a different generation of players was involved. However, prior to Dynamo’s arrival, everyone in Barcelona, from ordinary fans to the newspapers and TV stations, recalled that historical game and once again admired the goals scored by Andrii Shevchenko. The only question that the Spanish asked Ukrainian journalists was: Is Shevchenko going to play this time?

The game did not exactly piqued the interest of the Barcelona fans. The organizers even allowed admission to the holders of last year’s season tickets in order to fill the nearly 100,000 seats of the Kamp Nou. Unlike Ukrainians, who come to see foreign stars, the Spanish fans come to root for their own. After all, Barcelona has had plenty of top-notch players in the last 50 years, who were purchased by the club almost without bargaining: Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona, Hristo Stoichkov, Ronaldo, and many others. Today Barcelona has two of the best forwards on its roster — Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovich – and the appropriate supporting cast.

Dynamo was to play against this stellar team, which is improving its play with each game. Unfortunately, Shevchenko was perhaps the only one in Dynamo’s lineup who managed to keep emotions under control and play as well as he can. However, he cannot do as much as he used to be able to, and without the support of his teammates he is not capable of carrying a game like this. The rest of the team left much to be desired – in every position a Dynamo player appeared to be weaker than his opponent.

Our coaches’ plan may have misfired, or the opponent proved stronger than anticipated – whatever the real cause was, Dynamo was unable to put up good resistance to Barcelona, never hitting within the goal frame and usually losing the ball after the first pass. The only thing that we should give Gazzaev’s team credit for is the disciplined, organized play throughout the game. They could have fallen apart, letting Barcelona score many goals. However, Dynamo remained focused and avoided a blowout. On the other hand, it had no chances of winning whatsoever. There were a couple of attacks, especially the one 20 minutes into the game, when the ball miraculously went past Barcelona’s goal. We could stretch our imagination and think that Dynamo could have scored, commit to defense, and maintained the score, thus winning the game.

But what’s the point of this exercise? Dynamo’s play is now inferior to that of Barcelona. Perhaps, things will change with time and the right conclusions will be made. After all, we know that unbeatable teams do not exist. Can Dynamo beat Barcelona in their next meet in Kyiv? Gazzaev and his team have enough time to work on mistakes. So this is just the beginning of the struggle in the Champions League group tournament.

Champions League. Group tournament. Group F. Rubin (Kazan, Russia) 1, Inter (Milan, Italy) 1. Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) 2, Dynamo (Kyiv, Ukraine) 0.