seeing the Soviet bloc moving compactly […] was an impressive sight,
even if my father shared little of my enthusiasm and continued to smoke […],
silently moving his lips to the rhythm of Santa Maria, ora pro nobis
Carlo Miccio, The trap of offside
In Lyon, in the 1986 Cup Winners’ Cup final, Dynamo Kiev demolished on the level of play and overwhelmed Atletico Madrid on that of the score, which enjoyed the favors of the prediction. Overlaps, role swaps, quick and close touches, bucking on the wing, throws by heart, ball running and players running even more. In all this organized, almost scientific tourbillon, the hand of coach Valerij Lobanovskijit’s obvious.
The colonel, nickname due to the rank reached in the Red Army, but definitely suited to his impassivity on the bench, already has a very important palmares: at the helm of the Ukrainian white-and-blue he won six Soviet championships, four USSR cups, the Cup of Cups of 1975 and the European Super Cup of 1976. Precisely by virtue of the successes obtained the Soviet Federation had already entrusted him with the leadership of the national team twice, but without great results. The third time will be better, they think of Moscow. Thus, about ten days after the cup victory and about fifteen before his world debut, Lobanovskij finds himself head of the Soviet Union in place of Malafeev and, of course, transplants his Dynamo Kiev to the national team as a whole.
That the Federation has seen it right this time is clear right away. Lajos Detari’s Hungary, who had taken the luxury of beating Brazil 3-0 in a friendly in Budapest just a few months earlier, were destroyed. The most impressive thing is that in the third minute the result is already 2-0 thanks to a goal under measure by Jakovenko and a lash from distance of the future Juventus and Lecce player Sergej Alejnikov. A penalty made by Belanov always in the first half and three descents in the prairies made available by the Magyars fix the result at 6-0: Jaremcuk, Dajka in his own goal and Rodionov score.
In the second match, the Soviet team will play for first place in the group against France: given the goal difference and given that the third match will see them opposed to Canada, a draw is enough. In hindsight, perhaps it would have been better to finish second and meet Italy …
In any case, Vassilij Rats, a symbol of Lobanovskij football for flexibility, tactical diligence, racing and because outside the colonel’s teams he will never perform well, strikes at the beginning of the second half the French goalkeeper Bats with a powerful left foot from outside the box. Fernandez with a nice central insertion equalized shortly after and the result did not change anymore.
Against Canada, the USSR does a bit of a turn over. The two goals that are worth the victory arrive in the second half and seem to suggest a sort of handover between the eternal Oleg Blokhin, Dynamo Kiev striker already at the time of his first European victories, Golden Ball in 1976, surprisingly excluded from the A typical formation to the advantage of the more fit Belanov, and the three quartist Aleksandr Zavarov, the most promising player of the whole lot also because of his young age.
This leads to the second phase. At the 1982 Spanish World Cup, the first to 24 teams, the twelve teams that had passed the first round had been divided into four groups of three: morale, some national teams had had to say goodbye to the event while not losing in direct clashes. Among these the USSR, eliminated by a too narrow victory against Belgium. To overcome this inconvenience, FIFA has decided to change the format and to play a second part entirely in direct elimination, at the cost of picking up four of the best third parties from the groups and bringing the number of teams that pass the first round to sixteen, in 66.7% of those registered practice. One of the fugitives is destined for the USSR and fate has it that Belgium that four years earlier had indirectly contributed to its elimination.
The red devils were defeated by Mexico in the inaugural match, they won by measure with Iraq and drew 2-2 with Paraguay. Coriaceous, grumpy, still trained by that Guy Thys who had brought them close to victory at the European Championships in 1980, but in short, decidedly inferior to the Soviet national team.
The game is played in Leon at 4pm local time. Referee is the Swedish Fredriksson, one of the most accredited in UEFA, known to the Italians for having validated a dubious goal against Liverpool in the final of the Champions Cup against Roma two years earlier. As we will see, even this direction of competition will not plead in favor of the Scandinavian whistle…
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