USSR the Cup

The Cup. Zenit had a chance for a double this year, although in actual time it was not even a slight possibility: the Cup final was played in July, which is just in the middle of the spring-fall Soviet championship. At the time Zenit was 5th and quite distant from the leaders. Back than it looked like familiar race for the title – Spartak (Moscow) vs Dinamo (Kiev) – and the most a team like Zenit could hope for was the second trophy. And they had every reason to hope for victory: their opponent was Dinamo (Moscow), at the time last in the championship and seemingly heading for relegation. Dinamo had a lot at stake – this was their only chance to remedy a terrible season, perhaps their worst ever. And they had an advantage – Cup finals traditionally are played in Moscow, that is at home turf and in front of home crowd for Dinamo. This more or less equalized the situation: Zenit had a very strong season and their team was well oiled, but if player by player were compared, Dinamo had the same number of strong players and capable of standing their ground in one game, no matter what. Thus, the final proceeded with Zenit attacking and Dinamo defending relatively well and looking for counter-attacks. Aftre 20 minutes the game was pretty much equal, if not very exciting. No goals were scored to the end – 0-0. In the extra time Dinamo prevailed:

Valery Gazzaev scored in the 97th minute and

Aleksandr Borodyuk sealed the victory the 116th minute.

The rest is as they say ‘history’- Alekasndr Novikov received the trophy. History is also novelty – back in 1977 Novikov was part of the last Dinamo team winning the Cup. The coach back then was Sevidov. Now the coach was again Sevidov and Novikov captained the team winning the 6th Cup for Dinamo. Not bad.

Zenit failed to win a second cup, but their loss was perhaps more interesting to look at at the end of the season, when they were the new champions: Dinamo tamed them in about 20 minutes. Forced out of their own style and pressed hard, Zenit shrunk. No wonder: they were good, but not great team. Perhaps their best player – Larionov – missed the final and the team immediately suffered. But for the moment Zenit was just unhappy with missing a rare chance, not yet envisioning championship title. At the end of season they were champions and the lost Cup final was only a minor thing – they gained much more. For the records: Zenit had a chance for a double, but was unable to get it.

Happy winners. Standing from left: I. Bulanov, A. Yardoshvili – doctor, V. Matyunin, A. Maksimenkov – assistant coach, S. Krestenenko, A. Uvarov, A. Prudnikov, A. Golovnya, A. Sevidov – coach, V. Fomichev, I. Mozer – team chief, Yu. Mentyukov.

Front row: R. Ataullin, V. Gazzaev, A. Borodyuk, E. Mileshkin, V. Karataev, A. Khapsalis, A. Novikov.

Well, 6th Cup – not bad at all. Not bad at all, considering the state of team at the moment. Thanks to this victory the worst season was not looking all that bad at the end of the year. Of course, the poor play was explained with the usual excuses: too many new young arrivals. It was shaky time of rebuilding, then. Very likely, but this was poor squad. Novikov was getting old. So was, to a point, Khapsalis, already discarded from Dinamo (Kiev) and recently transformed from striker to defender. Borodyuk and Gazzaev, the stars of this vintage, were never more than second-rate players – talented, yes, eyed by national team coaches, yes, but big stars? Not really. Gazzaev was constantly criticized for missing scoring opportunities and almost narcissistic individualism. The rest was of generally much lower quality: true, both goalkeepers eventually donned the national team jersey, but presently Uvarov was too young and a reserve. Prudnikov joined Dinamo this year after spending some time warming the bench in Spartak (Moscow) – good, bad, he had zero chance there, because of Dassaev. Here he was practically starting from scratch. Golovnya suffered from injuries, Karataev and Ataullin were young promising players and that was all. Poor squad… That made this victory truly great – Zenit may have been far from great team, but they were in perfect form and among the leaders. Dinamo was David facing Goliath and managed to win over. So, let them be happy with the trophy, for frankly, the future of this squad was going to be troublesome – unless major changes were quickly made.