One more season of European soccer has gone past Ukraine. The second and last Ukrainian team in the Champions League was knocked out and will now focus on the less prestigious UEFA Cup.
In London we could have been more fortunate, but this would have been simply a lucky coincidence and not a reflection of Dynamo’s dominance over Arsenal. It appears that this year fortune is not with us and the Dynamo players are still unable to achieve a result with their own efforts.
Let me start my account from the moment when our team landed in Gatwick Airport. Dynamo’s lineup included 21 players. However, judging from coach Yuri Semin’s reasoning, there were few players fit to play in the game. One could hardly see any substitutes for Taras Mykhalyk and Milos Ninkovic who were missing because of traumas. Even during the training session that took place in the silence of the grand stadium it was evident that some players were indeed getting ready for going onto the field, whereas others were practicing with little hope of anything. It was clear that those who had played in the Champions League this year would go onto the field, not necessarily to take their usual positions.
A full day before the game, the London press and TV were diligently “preparing” the audience for the event, talking primarily about Arsenal. Dynamo was mentioned only when absolutely necessary. Of Dynamo’s current team and coaches, Arsenal’s numerous fans know only assistant coach Oleh Luzhny, who played for several seasons in Arsenal at the turn of the millennium.
Theoretically, the circumstances were favorable for Dynamo. The host team was missing nine main players and half of their lineup were junior players. Dynamo could and should have played aggressively against them. In theory, a draw could give the Kyiv team a chance to continue in the tournament, but a victory was more preferable.
Judging from our team’s lineup, Dynamo were intending to adop an attacking style: two strikers, Ismael Bangoura and Artem Milevsky, were simultaneously fielded, something that had never happened in visiting matches of the Champions League this year. Oleksandr Aliev, Roman Eremenko, Ognjen Vukojevic and Tiberiu Ghioane were to help the forwards in their attacks, and Betao, Pape Diakhate, Badr El Kaddouri, and Malkhaz Asatiani were responsible for the defense. Stanislav Bohush, the only ethnic Ukrainian in this lineup, took his place at Dynamo’s net. This is the soccer of today: Arsenal’s starting lineup did not include one Briton.
The guests were playing defense against Arsenal’s not-very-sharp attacks for the entire first half. After the half-time the score of the parallel game in Instanbul became known. Now the Londoners would be fully satisfied with a draw, whereas Kyivites had to win. Playing more freely against the rival with its several inexperienced players, Dynamo launched several attacks in the second half and created one play which was close to ending in a goal, but Milevsky failed to take advantage of it. And that was all.
When the disappointed audience started making its way to the exit, Arsenal suddenly struck a goal: Nicklas Bendtner headed the ball home after Cesc Fabregas’s long ball upfield. With four minutes left until the end of the game, Dynamo managed only to gain a warning for Aliev that ended in his dismissal from the field because he had not exactly been polite with the referee also in the first half.
Thus, Arsenal and Porto have won the right to play in the Round of 16 even before completing the group tournament. On December 10, Dynamo play against Fenerbahce for the third place in the group, which advances the team to the UEFA Cup in February.
This result is probably only fair. Today’s Dynamo is still incapable of beating even weakened Porto and Arsenal. The team does not have an appropriate level yet. One wishes to believe it will eventually come. The sooner the better.
