All’s Well That Ends Well

After an unexpected victory in Kyiv, the champion of Slovenia lost its remaining three Champions League matches with a total score of 0:10. This point, plus the week- old optimistic result in the Dynamo vs. Bayer Leverkusen game, made us treat the Maribor match as a moment of truth, which must put the record straight. Our side was to prove in practice that their Kyiv defeat at the Slovenes’ hands had been accidental, and to show their class.

They could have scored several goals against the Slovenes and then play a calm game with the hosts, or they could have scored one goal and then control the further game according to the book, as European champions sometimes do. But everything was different. At first, there was a short reconnaissance in the first minutes of the game marked by the unfortunate injury of Yashkin who unexpectedly, after a long absence, played on the Dynamo first string. After our players failed to take advantage of a few good chances, they started, or, to be more exact, continued to play a cheerful and open game near their rivals’ goal area like we saw in Kyiv in the match against Bayer. The Slovenian champions would take vantage points in front of Shovkovsky’s goal area with surprising easiness, only to bury their faces in their hands each time they failed to shoot the ball home at the right moment. The hosts managed to launch counterattacks from a defensive position as easily and quickly as could be. One or two accurate passes, and the ball neared the Dynamo goal. Somewhere faraway, in the pitch center, there should have been our halfbacks, while our forwards never rose to the occasion: in their best matches they attacked their rivals so actively that the latter lost the ball and could not attack fast. Mamedov, in charge of the Kyivans’ right flank, at last made it clear to us what an outstanding player Luzhny is, of course, in comparison to Mamedov himself. Kosovsky and Dmytrulin clearly hampered each other on the left. Where our leading halfback or third central fullback was to have been, there only was either a light gust of wind or the attacking Slovenes. I doubt that our coaches had set the team the goal of putting Shovkovsky through the mill during the match. Feeling capable of dangerously attacking the Kyiv goal area, the defiant Maribor went ahead almost in a body, only to be taken aback by a counterattack. Rebrov, standing at a striking position, made a showpiece shot after receiving a header from Shatskikh. The hosts did not get embarrassed after the annoying mishap, on the contrary, they continued to attack. Our defense line was being torn to pieces, but not by world-class stars, such as Salas, Boksic, or Kiersten. Our halfbacks were always being outplayed, but not by such outstanding sweepers as Veron or Emerson. Djuranovic, Fillipovic, Simundza, Zidan, and others, totally unknown in Europe, were pressing our goal area, so a goal was imminent. At a certain moment, Shovkovsky did not risk taking a ball kicked high above the free-kick area by a friendly player. Vashchuk got lost for a split second, and, as a result, Balaic equalized the score. What then followed was an open soccer game with equal chances. Shatskikh again disappointed us in the forward line. His passivity was at times compensated for by a lively Rebrov who again played for himself and for the fellow now in Milan. Now our Milan-based star Shevchenko can perhaps help the Dynamo player only morally, stating, in unison with the team, his unambiguous election preferences. Totally surprising is the speed with which foreign citizens Shatskikh, Mamedov, Belkevych, Kaladze and a number of other Dynamo foreigners have come to grips with the political situation in Ukraine and made their choice. However, it became much more difficult to come to grips with Maribor. We cannot put the lack of teamwork in our halfbacks down to Yashkin’s absence, for we have a few more players who can lay claim to the international level. With about ten minutes to go to the end of the game, only Shovkovsky’s fantastic reaction and a well-dug-in goal post saved Dynamo from rolling back to the bottom rung in their group chart. Every attack of our team was followed by a still more acute counterattack by the hosts. We were lucky that the referee appropriately reacted in a decisive moment to the spectacular fall of a Dynamo player in Maribor’s free- kick area, awarding a penalty. But for that occasion, we would now have to be content only with sizing up Dynamo’s chances of Dynamo in the UEFA Cup tournament. Our side was simply lucky for God knows what time. The chain of luck, begun in Leverkusen by goalkeeper Matysek’s mistake which allowed the Kyivans to crown their attacks with a goal, then continued in Moscow, where the mistake of Russian goalie Filimonov gave Ukraine a chance to continue contesting the European team cup. Then Lady Luck smiled on Shovkovsky who cleared an inevitable goal, rebuffing the penalty, in the Kyiv match against Bayer. And, in conclusion, the lucky eye of the referee who saw through a penalty in Maribor in our favor. Fortune, as we know, smiles on the strongest. We will know who is really strongest as soon as November 2 in Kyiv, where Dynamo will be playing versus Rome’s Lazio, leader for the Italian championship, which, along with Barcelona, Real, Milan, Inter, Chelsea, and Arsenal, is a variant of the world select team. Our side needs only a victory, while the Romans have already solved their international problems, having drawn a home match versus Bayer and thus coming off first, ahead of time, in our Champions League group. As to Dynamo, they have also secured, ahead of time, third place in the group, which guarantees them, in case they lose to Lazio, continuation of the struggle for the UEFA Cup, but not the Cup of Champions. This means we are going to see at least one more demonstration of big-time international soccer in Kyiv this year.