“I have an excellent team,” said Jozsef Szabo after the game against Bayer. The Dynamo coach had every right to say this because it was his (!) very team that was playing on the pitch that evening. As recently as six weeks ago soccer fans were biting their nails in anguish when the Dynamo players, who were losing 1:2 to Turkey’s Trabzonspor, stopped and threw in the towel. Now it is the opponents of Szabo’s team, a team that strives for victory at all costs and fears no rivals, who should be biting their nails.
A HUNCH
Whatever you may say about Ukrainian soccer fans, no matter how hard you criticize them for their unpredictable behavior, you cannot deny that our spectators always know exactly when they are in for a true soccer spectacle. At such times matches draw capacity crowds that put the wind up the visiting team.
Last Tuesday the common feeling was that people had not just come to watch a foreign soccer team (we watch them on TV almost every day) but were utterly convinced that Dynamo Kyiv would win. Against this emotional background, the “game” the police played (a stampede at the stadium entrance) was perceived not as violence and brutal abuse of the dignity of people who had shelled out several dozen hryvnias for a ticket, but as innocent monkeyshines of dimwitted guys in uniform.
Kyiv had been longing for a true soccer festival. The city had not seen a soccer show worthy of the squeamish big-city spectator since December 2003, when Dynamo failed to win a spectacular match against Milan’s Inter. In this case even the weather helped: just hours before the game the rain clouds disappeared, giving way to a normal autumn temperature of plus fourteen Celsius.
OUR BRAZILIANS ARE BETTER
When the Danish referee Milton Nielsen brought the Ukrainian and German sides onto the pitch, it appeared that most of the players were not Ukrainians or Germans but Brazilians. Both teams had three representatives of the world’s most soccer-minded country wearing their respective colors. At first there was only one Ukraine national team player — Dynamo goalie Shovkovsky.
The Dynamo coach stuck to the tactic that had brought success in previous Champions League games. Ukraine’s champions came out on the pitch practically without any halfbacks. The mid-field was occupied by a bunch of tough crashers: Leko, Rodolfo and Yussuf, while the artful Ghioane and Qaddouri played on the wings. The concept was clear: push the ball, without too many passes, forward, where the swift Verpakovskis was playing in the company of Brazilian magicians Kleber and Diogo Rincon.
The German club was relying on the two leading forwards Placente and Berbatov. These strikers, who score in almost every game, were to “pick up the baton” from the halfbacks among whom the Polish international Krzynowek looked the best. It should be noted that the Dynamo fullbacks managed to “neutralize” the visiting team leaders but allowed the opponents to tackle the ball quite freely in mid-field. The “ambush tactic” eventually brought success: Diogo got a pass from Leko, easily outplayed several fullbacks, and struck home into the corner of the net — 1:0. Our Brazilians could have scored more, but Kleber and Diogo failed to rise to the occasion several times.
Then came the critical moments in the second half of the game, when the Kyiv side seemed to be hesitating whether to attack or keep up the one-goal lead. To relieve Dynamo of any doubts, the visitors scored twice within ten minutes, not least of all thanks to another Ukrainian who was put on the field after the break. Ukraine international Voronin, who plays for Bayer, first pushed the ball toward Shovkovsky’s net after a strike from Berbatov, and then assisted Nowotny in changing the score in favor of the Germans.
It was at this moment that we saw “Szabo’s team,” which, unlike its predecessors, did not lose heart with only twenty minutes to go — on the contrary. Diogo hit in an equalizer after picking up the ball that a German fullback “lost.” Then came Cernat’s turn. Dynamo’s Romanian playmaker joined the game in the second half. He played in mid-field, dishing out accurate passes and striking Bayer’s net. The Germans were not prepared for this or for the excellent passes from Shatskikh. Dynamo’s Uzbek international literally broke through Bayer’s defense line, twice assisting Cernat to make the score 4:2.
ALL OF THEM ARE OURS
Failures divide people, while victories do just the reverse. Which of the 80,000 cheerful spectators remembered after the victorious match that Dynamo was a truly international team? The Brazilian, Romanian, Balkan, and Nigerian players are ours indeed. Who would dare say today that Diogo or Cernat are not true Dynamo fellows?
It is Jozsef Szabo who has managed to do this: he was head-hunting for Dynamo all over the world for several years and then, when the time came, he became the coach. Today it is crystal clear what Kyiv’s super club has lacked in the past few years. The excellent facilities for training high-class players should have been complemented by a bit of human warmth. No one is diminishing the achievements of the club’s previous coaches, who looked like omnipotent warlocks performing some sort of mysterious scientific research. No methodology will ever be a substitute for human contact between players and coaches. Fortunately, there is now an expert who can play soccer not only by means of formulas but also with his heart.
Jozsef Szabo gave no promises to beat everyone in the Champions League after defeating Bayer. He only said that Dynamo would go on playing with the same desire and inspiration. If this is the case, new victories are just around the corner.
THIRD, FOURTH, FIFTH ROUNDS...
In contrast to the political event that is going to occur in Ukraine in a month’s time, the Champions League soccer tournament has more than two rounds. The fact that Dynamo Kyiv ranks first in its group after the second round so far guarantees nothing but new matches against Europe’s best clubs.
