The Olympic final USSR and Brazil. Clearly, the best teams at the Olympics. If the Soviets always prepared a team for a long time, Olympic teams in the West were traditionally a secondary matter – but this time Brazil did it ‘Soviet style’, if you like. Seven players of the squad participated in the European tour of the A team in 1987 – this was hardly impressive tour, but in fact the Olympians got good early preparation for the 1988 Games. Team USSR had some problems, though – the concept of separate Olympic team was still new for them and hard to swallow. Without the best national team players it looks not very serious to Soviet eyes. All that changed during the Olympics, but at the final two equal teams met, both well prepared and ambitious.
Ketashvili clears the ball. It was fairly equal match with Brzilians the more dangerous at first.
Of course, the Brazilians were more technical and the Soviets – rougher, but well organized. The world was getting used to someone called Romario.
1-0 Brazil in the 30th minute. Who scored it? Well, the new guy… what’s his name? The Soviet journalists were unable to get his name right even in their articles on the final – he was called in one and in the same piece Funes, Romario, and Romario Funes. A whole Brazilian line of strikers, three in one. Well, Romario was already the top scorer of the Olympics, but new boys are rarely called right.
The Soviets were far from beaten – in fact, they gradually got the upper hand, but still had to do defensive work and fret. Left to right – Viktor Lossev, Evgeny Kuznetzov, Vladimir Lyuty, Aleksey Mikhailichenko, Arminas Narbekovas, Gela Ketashvili.
Brazil tried to slow down the flow of the game, but the Soviets were pushing forward and eventually equalized. In the 61st minute Mikhailichenko scored the awarded penalty – it was not only the mysterious Funes-RomarioFunes-Romario making strong impression: between the goalposts was another new discovery, Taffarel. Perhaps the best player at the final. He saved a lot, but could not save the penalty. It was 1-1 at the 90th minute.
In the extra time younger Brazilians got tired and physically stronger Soviets eventually scored a second goal – Vladmir Lyuty here is just about to pass a header to Yury Savychev, who scored 2-1 in the 105th minute. The result stayed unchanged to the end, except both teams were left with 10 players after Tatarchuk was redcarded in the 110th minute and Ademir was expelled in the 118th minute. Another 5 players got only yellow cards during the final – the Soviets eventually complained from brutal Brazilian play, but they got more yellow cards.
Soviet Union 2 – 1 Brazil (aet, FT 1-1)
Soviet Union: Kharin – Ketashvili, Yarovenko, Gorlukovich, Losev – Kuznetsov, Dobrovolsky, Mikhailichenko, Tatarchuk – Lyuty (Sklyarov), Narbekovas (Savichev).
Brazil: Taffarel – Luis Carlos, Aloisio, Andre Cruz, Jorginho – Andrade, Milton, Neto (Edmar) – Careca II, Bebeto (Joao Paulo), Romario.
Referee: Gerard Bignet (France) Attendance: 75 000
Scorers: 30′ Romario 0-1; 61′ Dobrovolski (pen) 1-1; 103′ Savichev 2-1.
Brazil finished with silver medals, once again unable to win the gold, but the team was more than promising – few players was seen as future big stars, Taffarel and Romario in particular. More importantly, this Brazil squad was a solid and well prepared team, something which was never the case with their Olympic selection.
USSR was more experienced and may be a bit better playing team than Brazil and they won the Olympic title. It was well deserved victory – USSR and Brazil were the best teams at the finals, it was not simply a matter of chance.
So, USSR won its 2nd Olympic title after a very long and sometimes frustrating wait. Sitting from left: G. Ketsahvilil, O. Cherednik, I. Sklyarov, A. Janonis, I. Dobrovolsky, Z. Ordzhonikidze – doctor, A. Narbekovas, V. Tatarchuk, Yu. Savichev, O. Prudnikov, V. Lossev. Top row: V. Miklyeav – press officer, D. Kharin, V. Tishtenko, E. Kuznetzov, I. Ponomarev, O. Borodyuk, O. Tukmanov – team chief, V. Salkov – assistant coach, V.Lyuty, A. Byshovetz – coach, S. Yarovenko, G. Gadzhiev – assistant coach, S. Fokin, O. Mikhailichenko, S. Gorlukovich.
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