In the first game of the new soccer season, which traditionally is the Ukrainian Super Cup, the Shakhtar of Donetsk added that trophy to the Cup of Ukraine and the National Championship’s golden awards won in May thus confirming their supremacy over the last year champions - the Dynamo of Kyiv.
Traditionally, the Super Cup, despite its name, is not considered to be a prime soccer trophy. In modern soccer it is more a check- up of the previous season’s laureates’ readiness for the coming cycle of competition than a quest for the title. The current Super Cup was marked by a special event: several hours prior to the beginning of the game all the owners of the High League’s clubs assembled in Poltava to elect the head of the Prime League, which from now on will conduct the contests for the title of the Champions of Ukraine, substituting in this role the Professional Soccer League, which will take care only of the minor leagues.
Just as it was expected, the initiators of the Prime League’s creation failed to come to a decision about its head, and Vitaliy Danylov, President of the FC Kharkiv remained to execute the duties of the League’s provisional head. The Super Cup game was supposed to be the first one supervised by the new Ukrainian soccer authority.
The unchangeable participants of all the previous Super Cups Shakhtar and Dynamo entered the pitch at the command of a German referee Wolfgang Schtark, once again confirming our clubs’ chronic mistrust to our soccer referees. Unfortunately, there aren’t probably any other ways to keep the most decisive games of our teams free of judgment scandals yet.
Both teams had only two novices on the list each. Ukrainians Yevhen Selezniov and Rustam Khudjamov played their first game wearing the orange Shakhtar’s shirts in the center and at the goal. The Brazilian defenseman Betao and the Croatian versatile player Ognen Vukoyevych tried the blue and white “Dynamo” uniform for the first time. The “coal-miners” have not changed anything basic in their game staged by their coach Mircha Luchescu for a long time just picking new performers. Unlike them, the Dynamo players led by Yuri Syomin are only looking for the game, which is to bring them back to the leading positions in the home contests, and to the honored international status.
From the first minutes the Kyivites focused on fast and mobile playing in the center of the pitch, which deprived their rivals of the space for an attack, and made them make mistakes. Quite soon it brought them success: Artem Milevskiy skillfully outplayed his counterpart and was the first to score. However, Dynamo lost a few opportunities to hit the goal. When the initial physical freshness disappeared, the Shakhtar footballers’ superior teamwork and individual skills played their part. Their acute performance on both flanks decayed the Dynamo’s defenses and finally enabled Dmytro Chyhrinskyi to level with the rivals taking a pass from a direct kick.
The strife remained fierce until the last minutes of the game. The previous season’s Cup finalists and champions did not demonstrate anything that could have helped them to surpass their rivals. Shakhtar looked more confident and reliable which gave the team some psychological advantage in the series of penalty kicks, which were to determine the winner as the main time ended in a 1:1 drought. The Donetsk players never missed the goal and deserved the victory.
Looking at the perspectives of the two leading Ukrainian soccer clubs without the hot emotions of the game one may see that Shakhtar’s situation looks more secure. The team has not only preserved champion players and champions’ performance, but got reinforced by several promising players. Thus the champions certainly have a good beginning of the season, which beside the starting tours of the Ukrainian championship includes the qualifying matches of the Champions’ League, the first of which the “coal-miners” are to play less than in a month. As to Dynamo, there are no visible changes in the quality of their performing yet despite their coach Yuri Syomin’s verbal optimism. And if their performance level may put them among the leaders of the Ukrainian championship, it will be next to impossible for them to fight the way to the European elite, or, in case of success, not to be the last in the Champions’ League. At least in that starting game the Dynamo players did not show anything of a new and better quality, neither were they distinguished by anything but dedication and readiness to fight to the end. There is no true European class in this team’s performance. The fans of this most popular in the countries of the former Soviet Union team can’t help worrying.
The only comforting fact is that the Super Cup was only an overture of the season. The participants of the duel of the start have enough time to think it over and get rid of the drawbacks of their performance. They need it not only to score points. The stadium in Poltava got filled to the top for the first time in ten years. Keeping their fans’ sympathy is the task not less important for both Shakhtar and Dynamo than competing each other for the champion’s status, which today deservedly belongs to the Donetsk team.
