SPORTSLINE
by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
SOCCER
Kyiv Dynamo prepares for semifinal
On April 7, preparing for a fateful semifinal on home turf, Ukraine's capital-based team was in a position to accomplish something it never managed while within the USSR's sports system: reaching the finals of the European Federation's League Champions Cup.
Kyiv Dynamo won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986. Its opponents in the 1975 finals, as historical irony would have it, stand in its way this year: fellow semifinalist Bayern München (Munich), which currently sits atop the European rankings.
As of April 4, Kyiv Dynamo had leapt to its highest position in these rankings in years, to perch at the No. 4 spot. Kyiv Dynamo's record in this championship is seven victories, three ties, two losses, having scored 25 and surrendered 10.
A day before the game, Reuters carried a report in which Munich Manager Uli Hoeness conceded: "Of all semifinalists, Kyiv have performed best in the Champions League." The item also quoted a more partisan assertion: FC Bayern München President and German World Cup hero Franz Beckenbauer claimed that his current team was better than the one that won a European Champions Cup title hat trick 1974-1976.
"I have fond memories of Bayern," Dynamo coach Valeriy Lobanovsky countered. He has good reason. Under Mr. Lobanovsky, Kyiv defeated Munich in the 1975 European Super Cup game and two years later in 1977 ended Bayern's winning Champions Cup run in the quarterfinals.
Kyiv Dynamo striker Andriy Shevchenko, who is likely to play for the Italian Inter Milan club next year, said he hoped the match will be another step towards a place in the May 29 final in Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium. "It would be great to play there again in the final," he told Reuters, reminiscing about a 4-0 shellacking of the home team earlier in this season's championship.
For the April 7 match, the Dynamisty are in luck because of Munich's injury and yellow card situation. Brazilian striker Giovane Elber is out with severe ligament damage in his knee, playmaker Mario Basler is still recovering from knee surgery, French defender Bixente Lizarazu will probably sit out the rest of the season after suffering a cruciate ligament injury in his knee playing against Ukraine in Paris on March 27.
Stefan Effenberg, the other principal goal scorer for the German team, has a yellow card against him in the books. He faces ejection if he commits another infraction.
Nevertheless, Bayern remains the favorite going into the contest. Its balanced attack, which includes Carsten Jancker, Hasan Salihamidzic and Alexander Zickler, and their incredibly stingy defense (only seven goals against in Cup play) are strong reasons for their No. 1 European ranking.
On the Kyiv side, Serhiy Dmytrulin is said to have recovered from a knee injury, while Vladyslav Vashchuk is the lone player to have been disciplined with a yellow card.
Shevchenko currently leads all scorers in European Cup competition with nine goals. Teammate Serhiy Rebrov, who so often feeds the superstar striker, has scored eight goals himself, placing him in a tied for second with Sean Bartlett (Zurich) and Tomasz Kulawik (Wisla Krakow). Illia Tsymbalar, a Ukrainian who plays for Spartak Moscow and the Russian national team, has scored five goals.
Byshovets joins Shakhtar Donetsk
Anatoliy Byshovets, sacked as coach of the Russian national team after a string of humiliations there, and having served briefly as the coach of Turkish team Besiktas, has returned to Ukraine to assume the post of head coach of Shakhtar Donetsk - Kyiv Dynamo's main rival in the country's premier league.
In an interview quoted on the Ukrainian football (soccer) website (see below), Mr. Byshovets relates that he received a telephone call from Shakhtar Club President Rinat Akhmetov on March 30, and was in Donetsk on March 31 to accept the post.
Mr. Akhmetov also told his new coach that he wants Shakhtar to win the league championship this year - a tall order.
However, he does have players such as Volodymyr Mykytyn, Serhiy Popov and Serhiy Kovialov who are strong forces on the national team, and pressure is mounting within the league to loosen Kyiv Dynamo's quasi-monopolistic grip on the best players in the country.
National Team
After months of good news, the powerful engine of Ukraine's national team is showing signs of sputter. For two matches in a row, the usually ruthless efficiency of striker Andriy Shevchenko is ending in disappointment.
On March 27, Andriy Shevchenko had missed a glorious opportunity to allow his country to latch a hammerlock on first place in Group 4 of qualifiers for the European Cup 2000, sending a ball at French keeper.
In the end, as reported earlier in The Weekly, the away match at the ultra-modern Stade de France in Paris ended in a satisfying 0-0 tie.
On March 31, Coach Joszef Szabo's side went into a home match at Kyiv's Olympic Stadium with its huge crowds of supporters against clear underdogs Iceland.
Perhaps not sufficiently wary of the fact that the island nation's footballers had held World Champions France to a 1-1 tie and beaten Russia 1-0 earlier in the European Cup 2000 qualifying campaign, the Ukrainians decided to abandon their hugely effective defensive but counter-attacking strategy in favor of all-out offensive.
According to a report carried by Agence France Presse on April 1, "Ukraine, two points ahead of the French at start of play, were a shadow of their usual selves as passes went astray and Mr. Shevchenko missed several good chances in a dire first half."
Vladyslav Vaschuk, a colleague of Mr. Shevchenko's from Kyiv Dynamo was said to have "finally lost patience with his teammates' inability and broke the deadlock [at the 59th minute], striding through from deep midfield to evade a clutch of defenders and drill home a low right-footed shot past visiting keeper Birkir Kristinsson."
Iceland evened the score on a tally by Larus Orri Sigurdsson in the 66th that shocked the home crowd, then held out despite strong pressure from an increasingly desperate blue-and-yellow side.
Two ties in a row have allowed France, which cruised past Armenia on March 31 by a score of 2-0, to draw even with Ukraine at first place in Group 4 standings. In the same group, Russia exploded out of its doldrums to beat tailenders Andorra 6-1, although it is not likely to be a factor in these championships.
A note of consolation: Ukraine drubbed Iceland 5-1 in the under-21 contest on March 30 in that category's qualifier. A day prior to the senior team's matches, the juniors play a contest mirroring that of their elders.
Goals by Hennadiy Zubov (45th minute), Oleksa Oliynyk (48th), Vitaliy Balytskyi (67th), Anatoliy Timoshchuk (71st) and Oleh Yashchuk (88th), allowed Ukraine to continue vying for first place in the group. They are currently tied with Russia and France at nine points.
This was also a face-saving game after the demolition visited upon them by France on March 27. David Trezeguet a young man who played on his country's World Cup Champion team last year, singlehandedly pulverized the Ukrainians with goals at the fourth, 44th, 58th and 66th minutes.
| W | T | L | F | A | Pts | |
| 1. Ukraine | 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 11 |
| 2. France | 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 11 |
| 3. Iceland | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 9 |
| 4. Russia | 2 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 8 | 6 |
| 5. Armenia | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 4 |
| 6. Andorra | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 0 |
The schedule of remaining qualifying games (home side first):
June 5
June 9
September 4
September 8
October 9
Websites
We'll make another mention of the superlative Ukrainian soccer website at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~myckola/f-ua.html
Come here to get all the latest news and rumors, archived statistics and histories, as well as an excellent network of links to the official sites of Kyiv Dynamo, Shakhtar Donetsk, Karpaty Lviv, Metalist Kharkiv, Metalurh Mariupol, Metalurh Zaporizhia, plus some fan sites for other teams in the Ukrainian premier league.
The site also has links to daily and weekly sports and football newspapers, as well as the invaluable "Jareky's Hot Pages" (http://football.wertep.com) and "Jaroslaw Jarmola's Hot Pages" (http://shrike.depaul.edu/~jjarmola).
Sportsline is open to Netizens. We can be reached by e-mail: toronto@ukrweekly.com.
If you know of the sportish exploits of a Ukrainian athlete, team, coach, or even management type, please let us know. Please provide evidence of any individual's Ukrainian background or history of having played/coached for Ukraine.
If you know of a website that provides data about the above-mentioned, drop us a line.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 11, 1999, No. 15, Vol. LXVII
| Home Page |