For three long years Dynamo Kyiv fans waited for their favorite soccer team to make it back to the Champions League, UEFA’s major club tournament. Then the team’s first appearances in the group tournament showed that Dynamo Kyiv didn’t stand a change against Europe’s best squads. As a result, Kyiv’s main stadium was half-full when it came time for the tournament’s final game.
Those who refused to buy tickets were right. In a match where victory was the host team’s only opportunity, Paris Saint-Germain won without difficulty. French team simply showed better class, so they could easily counter all Dynamo Kyiv attacks (that were more often than not sluggish and predictable). Even when threatened, the PSG goalkeeper faced with a coincidence rather than Dynamo Kyiv’s calculated offensive. PSG mostly counted on counterattacks by the soccer star, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The man did it. His majestic through ball set Izequiel Lavezzi free to coolly finish on the stroke of half-time before a horrendous back-pass attempt allowed Blaise Matuidi to pounce and tee up the majestic through ball that set Lavezzi free to coolly finish on the stroke of half-time before a horrendous back-pass attempt allowed Matuidi to pounce and tee up the Argentinean for a second seven minutes into the second period.
Very early during the second period, Dynamo Kyiv fullback Yevhen Khacheridi opted to pass back to his goalkeeper, only to underhit the ball to Koval, allowing Matuidi to pounce and poke the ball to Lavezzi for the tap-in. The game was up. With their advantage PSG relaxed and easily rebuffed Dynamo Kyiv attacks. The host team showed nothing except wishful thinking.
The final minutes of the soccer meet passed with the audience whistling Dynamo Kyiv away from the field, demonstrating their disillusionment. Soccer fans can understand the reasons behind defeat, especially in a game with a strong adversary, but they don’t understand the reasons behind a sluggish performance, the absence of aggressive offensive. In such cases even victories do not suffice. That’s exactly what happened when Dynamo Kyiv was coached by Yurii Siomin, when every victory was a hard task accomplished using every effort. Then Oleh Blokhin became coach-in-chief. After that the team has been on a steady downward curve. No excuses – including the “dedicated effort,” Dynamo Kyiv coaches’ pet phrase – are good enough. No rhetoric can replace performance in the field, and this soccer team is going from bad to worse.
What will happen? In the Champions League, there is Dinamo Zagreb, an even worse team that could not score a single goal in five meets, which guarantees it a bottom rating. Dynamo Kyiv vs. Dinamo Zagreb will be the last group tournament’s meet. It will have no effect on the awarding of the third or fourth place (e.g., Dynamo Kyiv and Dinamo Zagreb, accordingly). Third place will allow Dynamo Kyiv to play in the Europa League, UEFA’s second-rate club tournament. One can only hope that Dynamo Kyiv will overcome its regress before February and show a good performance. Today this remains wishful thinking.
