Still two cup-tournaments, but the faded Soviet Army Cup had its last issue – although the former national cup tournament lost importance as soon as true national cup was introduced on UEFA’s insistence, the collapse of Communism ended the days of it. For whatever it was worth, its last final was somewhat symbolic of dying era: it was between CSKA and Botev (Plovdiv), two clubs belonging to the Army only a few months before and symbolizing greatly the Communist rule. The final somewhat represented exactly the ‘good old days’ – the ‘coronels’ were not going to oppose ‘the ‘generals’, Botev lost. But not without a fight: only 1-2. Of course, this is just on symbolic level: in reality CSKA was too strong at the moment. As for the trophy… it was more a matter of pride, for the tournament was not important at all.
Trakia started the competition, but by the time of final it was already Botev for months. Sitting from left: B. Khvoynev, T. Zaytzev, P. Zekhtinski, At. Pashev, Tz. Dermendzhiev, ?, Tzvetkov. Middle row: D. Dermendzhiev – coach, P. Shopov, A. Pekhlivanov, T. Pachev, P. Kartev, Ya. Petrov, Chr. Kirilov, N. Dafinski – assistant coach. Top row: I. Stoynov, Z. Rakov, Il. Nikolov, Iv. Kunchev, Iv. Terziyski, O. Yosifov, Sl. Khorozov.
So unimportant the Soviet Army Cup was, there is no photo of the winners, so let present CSKA just by their regular 11 – the regulars at least in part of the season, for the photo is seemingly from mid-season winter training camp and the club is still named CFCA Sredetz. Standing from left: Petar Zhekov – assistant coach, Roumen Apostolov, Dimitar Mladenov, Georgi Georgiev, Roumen Stoyanov, Ivaylo Kirov, Dimitar Penev – coach. Front: Stefan Bachev, Kiril Kachamanov, Trifon Ivanov, Petar Vitanov, Christo Stoichkov, Marin Bakalov.
The Bulgarian Cup final presented a chance for CSKA to make a treble. If one looks for the symbolism of the transitional season… CSKA opposed Sliven, a no brainer: if in the very recent past the Soviet Army Cup final was ‘generals’ vs ‘coronels’, this one was ‘generals’ vs ‘captains’. Sliven was even more sub-ordinated to CSKA in the Army system than Trakia/Botev. And this final was important. But times changed and if the Soviet Army Cup could be seen as the last, however stubborn, gasp of the Communist days, this final represented the new reality: Sliven, free from the Army now, not only opposed, but prevailed over CSKA. Quite confidently too: 2-0. Valkov and Yordan Lechkov scored the goals. Perhaps CSKA underestimated their opponents – Stoichkov was not among the starters and came out in the second half – but more important was the brave game Sliven played against the strongest by far Bulgarian team.
CSKA was unable to win a treble and although this is not a photo from the Cup final, it is representative of the new reality and also new problems: the club is already CSKA, not CFCA Sredetz; there are sponsor adds on the shirts; Stoichkov a captain. Champions; Trifon Ivanov sporting a beard, which was just unthinkable only a year ago, but not Cup winners. Front form left: Illiya Valov, Dimitar Mladenov, Marin Bakalov, Trifon Ivanov, Christo Stoichkov, Kostadin Yanchev, Kiril Kachamanov, Emil Kostadinov. Middle row: Petar Vitanov, Emil Dimitrov, Georgi Georgiev, Roumen Apostolov, Roumen Stoyanov, Slavcho Illiev, Stefan Bachev, Marius Urukov.
What a triumph for Sliven (Sliven) – they never won a trophy before! For years the fate of Sliven depended largely on CSKA – on coaches and players coming from the big Army club to the smaller one. Sliven mostly reminded one of a farm-club of CSKA in the manner of NHL hockey clubs, except they played in the same league as their mother-club, thus providing easy points to CSKA and taking away points from CSKA’s rivals. Success was not in the books, not even in the dreams of hard-core fans. But now… free at last, eager, and finally successful. First ever trophy!
Cup winners crouching from left: Penev, Petar Ivanov, Valeri Valkov, Ivan Vassilev, Ivan Mitev, Veliyan Parushev, Mutafchiev, Valentin Stefanov. Second row: T. Stoyanov, Marinov, D. Vassilev, Yordan Lechkov, Lyudmil Goranov – coach, Vassil Tinchev – captain, Kiril Kirilov, Kr. Illiev, Dancho Yorgov.
If anything, Sliven was experienced – the core players played together for years already and that includes the remain of the tightly-connected to CSKA past – Vassil Tinchev. A bit of a scandal at the beginning of the season – Mutafchiev was one of the 4 players who applied for transfers to 2 clubs simultaneously (along with Balakov) and more or less typical mid-table season. Good and well respected coach – Lyudmil Goranov. It was good that Sliven managed to keep their squad, but it was also not so good, for those players were already used to middle-of-the road performance, already reached the peak of their abilities and were quite cynical in their expectations instead of ambitious. Even Lechkov – 23-years old at the time, but with already 125 games and 37 goals in the First Division – most likely would have settled for sedate life with Sliven if the political changes did not happen: so far, he did not attract the interest of CSKA, just like his teammates from the team of the 1980s. Now, however, there was a chance – a chance to get better pay, a chance to play abroad, or if not yet, at least to go to big Bulgarian club, because the stars were rapidly leaving the country and somebody had to replace them. Lechkov was noticed already, but he was not a major star – perhaps the Cup final was the new starting point for him and for the whole team: with success, better things could happen to every player individually. At least in his case, this was the moment he took the road to stardom: soon after the Cup victory he joined CSKA, which already lost a number of top players, so he had again a chance to shine – which he did, but that is in the future. Presently, he enjoyed with his teammates and the whole city of Sliven their greatest historic moment – they snatched the Cup away from Stoichkov and company, their first ever trophy. And also their last… Miracles happen only ones.
So, let take one more look at the 1989-90 Cup winning squad, for that is all remaining from the miracle. Today the club does not even exist.
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