I already told you about the soccer career of Oleg Bazilevich. Recall.
In Kyiv "Dynamo" Oleg Bazilevich played 10 years, in the championships of the former Soviet Union for the players on the right wing played 161 games. The champion of the Union in 1961, two-time silver medalist (1960 and 1965), winner of the Cup of the country (1964). Six times Oleg was included in the list of "33 best players of the season. He played in the Olympic team.
In 1968, Oleg Bazilevich finished his career of a player and started coaching. He began his long hard and happy life in this field.
Oleg took his first steps in the role of the coach at Chernihiv Desna. Then there was Shakhtar (Kadievka), Avtomobilist Zhytomyr. In 1972, Shakhtar Donetsk led his first elite team from the First League to the High League.
At the same time Valeriy Lobanovskiy coached Dnipro. Ex-Dynamo players often talked to each other, shared experiences and ideas. And when in late 1973 Lobanovsky led Dynamo, he invited to work together Basilevich.
1975 was a triumphant year for this tandem. On May 14 in Basel (Switzerland) "Dynamo" beat Hungarian "Ferencvaros" (Budapest) - 3:0 in the final of the Cup Winners' Cup, won its first European trophy.
In autumn, having beaten twice Bayern Munich (1:0) and Kiev (2:0) winners of the European Cup Winners' Cup, Dynamo became the UEFA Super Cup winner.
And the team Kyiv, led by young specialists Lobanovsky and Bazilevich, was named one of the best clubs in the world in 1975.
The next year was not an easy test in the coaching biography of the already famous coaching duo. The setback started when Dynamo lost in the quarterfinals of the European Cup to French Saint-Etienne. The USSR national team (formed on the basis of Dynamo club) led by Lobanovsky and Bazilevich took the torch of troubles. It lost in the quarterfinals of Euro-76 to Czechoslovakia, which eventually became the champion.
Then the Olympics-76 in Montreal (Canada). There, in the semifinals, the Soviet team was defeated by the GDR team, which eventually became the Olympic champion. The bronze medals of the Games are now quite a success. But then this award was assessed as a huge setback.
That is why the Ukrainian coaches were fired both in the first and in the Olympic team. And Bazilevich was also dismissed from Dynamo.
Then a new stage of Oleg Petrovich's coaching life began - Dynamo Minsk, Pakhtakor Tashkent, CSKA Moscow, Zorya (Voroshilovgrad), Ukraine national youth team, Slavia (Sofia), the Bulgarian Olympic team, the Ukrainian national team, the Olympic team of Kuwait and the club El-Kuwait. Then followed another four years of work at the home Dynamo club.
Different successes, different degrees of satisfaction with professional activity. But all that pales on the background of the tragedy, which happened on August 11, 1979 in the sky over Dniprodzerzhinsk. Then Pakhtakor whose coach was Bazilevich died in a plane crash.
It was only by chance that he survived. With the permission of the Tashkent club management, Oleg Petrovich had to take a different flight the next day after the team. He wanted to spend an extra day with his family that he had not seen for a long time. This saved him, but the pain in his heart remained forever...
This world honored coach of Ukraine, candidate of pedagogical sciences Oleg Petrovich Bazilevich left on October 16, 2018 (at the age of 80). He is buried at Baikove cemetery, next to the graves of Valery Lobanovsky, Viktor Bannikov, Yuri Voynov, Yevgeny Rudakov, Andrei Gusin, Valentin Belkevich, Andrei Bal, Viktor Chanov, Vitaly Khmelnitsky, Viktor Matvienko, Valery Zuev.
Oleksandr LYPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua