Dynamo Kyiv 1, Boavista Porto 0
One of the punishments that can be imposed on foreign clubs is playing without spectators. By decision of a local or international federation, one team or another can be bound over to play one or two closed-door home matches for a certain violation. On October 30 all the Olympic Stadium entrances were open. However, there were perhaps more police and staff than Dynamo fans at the stadium. Why, then, did the aficionados of our champions choose to vote with their feet and stay out of Dynamo’s last official international match this year?
Is it only the absence of chances for the Kyivans to rise from the last rung in the chart that made the public indifferent to a Champions League soccer game, an event of quite a rare occurrence? Is it only the drizzle rain and a warm for the end of October wind that stopped people on the way to the stadium? Or is it perhaps the Dynamo players themselves who weaned even their most fervent supporters from the bleachers? Step into the shoes of a spectator told in advance that there will be no show, that a strong team good play style and a high result will come later.
Western professional soccer clubs play for audiences on which they depend materially. This is why every soccer match in, say, Italy is a battle for victory until the last second, no matter which league the teams play in or what place they occupy. Andriy Shevchenko, a national team of Ukraine forward, fell victim to this struggle the Sunday before last. Playing for Milan in a routine championship of Italy match in the presence of a 70,000-strong audience, the Ukrainian striker, trying to win the ball, collided with a Bologna fullback and had his nose broken. This has cast a grave doubt on whether our superstar will play for the national team against Germany on November 10 and 14. That the broken cartilage will not knit within twelve days is, so to speak, a medical fact. But, apart from medicine, there is also a such thing as the athlete’s willpower and desire to help his national team. Andriy Shevchenko really knows what true professional soccer is, so we all hope for a miracle, expecting to see Andriy in a blue and yellow jersey on the Olympic pitch.
Pending this, eighty thousand vacant seats of the main sport arena (with not more than 5000 taken) witnessed Dynamo’s last Eurocup game. While the result of this encounter could not change the standing of our side, the Portuguese could have been knocked out of the Champions League in case of a defeat.
Could anybody foresee this when the tournament started? The Kyiv game seemed to illustrate the situation in which Dynamo would be now had it not been for a few painful mistakes by goalkeeper Filimonov and the unexpected follow-up decision “to create a new team.” And the “old Dynamo” turned out to be fully able to outplay the Portuguese champ. Approximately the same scenario should have occurred in Portugal as well: a nervous first half with a great number of mistakes and tough struggle, a goal against the rivals, followed by counterattacks. Having reinforced up their lines with one more of last year’s players (after all, a new team is being formed), namely Maksym Shatskykh, the Kyivans forced, quite confidently and wisely in terms of tactics, the rivals to accept their game pattern. Shatskykh, the transfer player who had last played for Dynamo in March, at first looked unconvincing, in contrast to Melashchenko. Yet, a couple of forwards, tried out shortly before in a cup tie versus Obolon, did a good job. In the fourth minute of the second half Shatskykh cruised past two visiting fullbacks in their free-kick area and shot at the goal. Melashchenko came running just in time to score his victorious goal, leaving the keeper and the defense line gaping at the new posts and bar installed on the Olympic pitch shortly before the game.
All’s well that ends well. Our side managed to keep up a positive score, thus bolstering their prestige and earning an additional several hundred thousand Swiss francs from UEFA. Thanks to Liverpool’s 2 to 0 win over Borussia, the Portuguese outstripped the Germans on the aggregate and remained on the desired second place. Those fans who kept loyal to Dynamo in hard times got a good deal of satisfaction from the victory of their club plus a hope that the promised new team is the well- forgot old one. All the Ukrainian nationals of this club will get ready for this season’s pivotal match versus Germany on November 10. On that day the Olympic Stadium should be busting its buttons!
