The Olympic tournament attracted little attention – Russians went to see the games, of course, but internationally and especially in terms of discoveries and innovations, nobody expected anything and rightly so. There were only 4 serious teams, who are not to meet each other before the semifinals. Every group had a strong favourite and the rest were too weak for any surprise or upset. The groups were: Group A – USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, Zambia. Group B – Czechoslovakia, Kuwait, Colombia, Nigeria. Group C – DDR, Algeria, Spain, Syria. Group D – Yugoslavia, Iraq, Finland, Costa Rica. No need to points out the obvious favourites. The rest, including Spain, were nobodies by all accounts – in every group the battle was going to be for the 2nd place and it was unpredictable. Momentary form would decide half of the teams proceeding to the ¼ finals. There were no famous players, so it was no wonder coaches attracted most attention, for they were the most famous members of the finalists: Ivan Toplak was at the helm of Yugoslavia – one of the well respected Yugoslav coaches in the 1970s, his task obviously was to test and prepare players for the A team, going through rebuilding. Jose Santamaria lead Spain – the Uruguayan star of the great years of Real Madrid had not similar role to Toplak’s, only not so urgent. Spain was very young team, clearly testing promising youngsters, who may become leading players after 4-5 years. Otto Gloria was at the helm of Nigeria. The man who made Benfica top team in the early 1960s had a different role now: to bring some professionalism into talented, but ill-trained Africans. Kuwait had Brazilian coach for the same purpose – one Carlos Parreira. At the time, he was not famous yet, but at 37 years of age, he had vast experienced – the African championship, beating Algeria at the final. More or less, that was all, so really only team USSR needs closer scrutiny.
USSR was the biggest favourite – hosting the Olympics put special expectations on Soviet sportsmen in every sport, including football. The political aim was to show the world the supremacy of the Communist way of life via sporting victories. Under the general aim there was a more specific one: USSR badly needed victory – the whole decade was full of frustrations and disappointments. By 1980 USSR was at very low point, not even able to qualify to major international tournaments. They missed 2 World Cups, they missed 2 European finals, they lost 2 Olympic tournaments. Olympics were frustrating for separate reasons as well – they belonged to Eastern Europe, therefore to USSR as a flagman of the Communist world. Yet, team USSR not only did not win Olympics since 1956, but did not reached even the final since this same year. Mere ‘vassals’ eliminated the ‘masters’ in 1972 and 1976. Now, on home turf, it was time to win at last – and hardly anybody doubted Soviet victory, for they were the only team which was pretty much the A national team of the country. It was also expected that orders not to play hard against USSR will be given to at least Czechoslovakia and DDR. Yet, the mood in USSR was strange – there was little criticism after lowly Greece eliminated USSR and went to the 1980 Euro finals. Beskov was not sacked for the failure. Instead, the page was closed and new goal was elevated in 1979 – preparation for the Olympics was the most important and to hell with secondary distractions like European finals. May be reasonable approach, if it was followed to the letter – Beskov’s A team was a bit rag-tag during the European qualifications and remained so for the Olympics. Dynamo Kiev players were not in favour – the team was based on Spartak Moscow, which Beskov also coached. There were only 2 players from Kiev – Baltacha and Bessonov. In itself, it was not the most important thing – the really important thing was that it was still shapeless team. The aim was clearly building a new national team and the base of it was already in place – most of the Olympic players were soon to become world famous and the stars of the exciting Soviet team of the 1980s – but they were still inexperienced and clearly the whole team was still in the stage of searching the right combination before even tuning a regular squad. Since this team came under the name of Olympic team, no particular attention was paid to its shortcomings: it was supposed to be ‘different’ team than the A national team. So, there were players, who were considered as national team material at the time, but clearly part of ‘trying’ stage: Prokopenko (Dynamo Minsk), Gazzaev (Dynamo Moscow), Nikulin (Dynamo Moscow). The back-up goalkeeper on the other hand showed fear: Vladimir Pilguy (Dynamo Moscow) was good, but at 32 he was also on his way out of the national team, where he never established himself anyway. In and out for years, he played only 12 matches for USSR to this moment , most of them friendlies. Seemingly, Beskov wanted insurance… he was uncertain of his own discovery Rinat Dassaev. Dassaev, although with 7 caps for USSR already, was still unknown even in USSR – everybody knows his name today: Rinat Dassaev. Right? Well, in 1980 he was listed Renat – even officials in USSR were not yet aware of the correct spelling of his name. Since only 17 players per team were permitted at the 1980 Olympics, team USSR was suddenly suspect – 4 players were not exactly promising great future, the rest had little experience and there was no certainty that they will became regulars and make a strong national team, and in the same time various promising youngsters were out. So were established stars – the biggest absentee was Oleg Blokhin. It was curious approach – it did not look serious enough. It did not look like Beskov was the right man to ensure victory. It was a team neither here, nor there – not the A team in full force, yet not entirely different Olympic team. It was not entirely team for the future, but not a team based on former respectable players getting last chance to succeed internationally either. One really expected the Soviets to put their very best for a home victory, which politics demanded. But even with such misgivings, team USSR looked much stronger than any other – DDR, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia had clearly weaker teams than their A national teams. Team USSR deserves to be given in full not that much because of its strangeness, but because most names will ring a bell – most players will become very familiar soon after 1980.
1. Rinat Dassaev (Spartak Moscow) 2. Tengiz Sulakvelidze (Dinamo Tbillisi) 3. Aleksander Chivadze (Dinamo Tbillisi) 4. Vagiz Khidiatulin (Spartak Moscow) 5. Oleg Romantzev (Spartak Moscow) 6. Sergey Shavlo (Spartak Moscow) 7. Sergey Andreev (SKA Rostov) 8. Vladimir Bessonov (Dinamo Kiev) 9. Yury Gavrilov (Spartak Moscow) 10. Fyodor Cherenkov (Spartak Moscow) 11. Valery Gazzaev (Dinamo Moscow) 12. Vladimir Pilguy (Dinamo Moscow) 13. Sergey Baltacha (Dinamo Kiev) 14. Sergey Nikulin (Dinamo Moscow) 15. Khoren Oganesyan (Ararat) 16. Aleksander Prokopenko (Dinamo Minsk) 17. Revaz Chelebadze (Dinamo Tbillisi).
Genady Radchuk, one of the best Soviet football commentators, casually mentioned that the rules for European and South American teams forbade using players who played at World Cup matches. Who exactly made the rule is unclear and was it really followed is also unclear, but in the Soviet case it was easy to follow it: the last qualification match for the World Cup USSR played in the first half of 1977. Almost all of the participants in it were not called to the national team for a long time already. The Olympic team was the new national team, which did not start the next World Cup campaign yet.
USSR opened their Olympic campaign against Venezuela – captains Romantzev and Sanchez shaking hands with mutual puzzlement, for neither team knew much about the opposition. The Soviets played pretty much the same team which appeared as the A team less then a month before against Denmark. It was an easy sailing – 4-0. Zambia was no more difficult either – 3-1. Cuba was even weaker than the previous opponents – 8-0. There was no much to comment… so vast was the difference between USSR and the anonymous teams. In the second half against Cuba Beskov replaced Dassaev with Pilguy, giving a chance to the back-up goalie to play a little.
Cuba won the other two matches and finished 2nd in the group, thus going to the ¼ finals.
1. USSR 3 0 0 15-1 6
2. Cuba 2 0 1 3-9 4
3. Venezuela 1 0 2 3-7 2
4. Zambia 0 0 3 2-6 0
Nothing worth mentioning… Cuba got a bit of praise, for ‘overachieving’, but if another team finished second, it would have been the same.
A moment from the match between Cuba and Zambia – the players are quite surprised by… the ball.