Column by Alexander Lipenko. 1960 The first gold of FC Dynamo

I am a sports journalist with great experience. Honored Journalist of Ukraine, winner of the Golden Pen, master of sports, vice-champion of the USSR in rugby. He talked a lot, wrote about football, working on television, in newspapers, on radio. I continue to write about my favorite football, the most popular game in the world.

I told and continue to do so about Dynamo players of different generations, their brilliant achievements, about coaches, about the victories of FC Dynamo in the domestic and international arenas. And these are 29 gold medals won in the championships of the USSR and Ukraine, 22 Cups, 12 Super Cups, 2 Cup Winners' Cups (1975 and 1986), UEFA Super Cup (1975).

For the first time I saw a match with Dynamo Kyiv in September 1953. With a score of 13:1, the Kyivians defeated the East Bengal Club (India). I was 11 years old. From that very day I fell in love, love and will love Dynamo. There is and I am sure it will be for what.

Dynamo player with experience

I have been a Dynamo player since May 1954, when 12-year-old Nikolai Fedorovich Fominykh and Nikolai Pavlovich Melnichenko accepted me at the Dynamo stadium into the Young Dynamo football section. In our football battles in the yard, I was always the goalkeeper. They stayed.

I will explain why such an introduction, what it is for.

FC Dynamo is the most titled football club in Ukraine. And the Dynamo youth team won the first gold medals for the club. In 1960, we guys born in 1942 won the national championship. We have been moving towards this success for six years, winning the championships of Kyiv and Ukraine.

Before the all-Union final tournament, we had training camps. They took place at the Dynamo base on Nivki. They lived in tents next to the football field. The main team of Dynamo trained on it, but there was time for us too. We carefully watched the training of our idols: Makarov, Voinov, Kanevsky, Lobanovsky, Erokhin, Troyanovsky, Sabo. We tried to be like them.

In the summer, it was our turn to declare ourselves by participating in the youth championship of the USSR. But in order to get to the final, we had to successfully perform in the "Ukrainian zone" first. Which we successfully did, defeating our peers from Lviv, Krivoy Rog, Lutsk, Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk) in Mukachevo.

Next was the semi-final group of the championship. The matches of this stage were held in Druzhkovka (Luhansk region). Here, our rivals were guys from CSKA Moscow, Spartak Yerevan, Lokomotiv Vinnitsa and who else has forgotten. Only one team advanced from the semi-final group to the final. Having beaten Muscovites in the decisive match with a score of 3: 2, we turned out to be this team.

All I needed was a win

The final was held in Russian Michurinsk. The dispute for the title of the strongest team in the country was fought by: Dynamo (Tbilisi), Shakhtar (Stalino, now Donetsk), Spartak (Moscow) and we - Dynamo (Kiev).

In the first match with Shakhtar we drew 0:0. In the second meeting, they beat Dynamo Tbilisi with a score of 5:2. Spartak defeated these teams, so in the game with Muscovites, only victory suited us. We got it and became the champions of the country, the first of the teams of FC Dynamo. In 13 matches at all stages of the draw, we scored 59 goals against the opponents, and conceded only 6.

We were warmly welcomed in Kyiv. A group of guys was invited to train with a backup team. They looked at us. Sometimes they were released on the field in the matches of the All-Union tournament of understudies.

Three entrenched

Three of them got a foothold in Dynamo. Our captain, forward Kolya Pinchuk, another forward Valera Kravchuk and Vadim Sosnikhin. In our youth team, he successfully played in the center of attack. At the heart of Dynamo, he became a central defender. Vadim became the champion of the Union four times, won the Cup twice, was included in the lists of the “33 best players” 6 times. After completing his football career, he worked a lot at the Dynamo school.

Kolya Pinchuk did not gain a foothold in Dynamo, then moved to Dnipro, for which he played 187 matches, scoring 35 goals. Valera Kravchuk and Tolya Linnik played in several teams of masters.

I exchanged a bouquet of flowers with Valery Lobanovsky.

I remember how, before the match of the national championship, we were honored at the Republican Stadium. We lined up on the treadmill. We were warmly welcomed by the audience, and the main players each of us were given a bouquet. Valery Lobanovsky gave me flowers. A year later, in the fall of 1961, we, the champions of the USSR in 1960 among youths, congratulated the Dynamo team with their first gold medals of the country's champions in the same way. This time I handed my bouquet to Valery Lobanovsky.

Here are the names of the guys, playing with whom for Dynamo, I became the champion of the USSR in 1960 among youths at the age of 18: Volodya Kramarenko, Tolya Shity, Kolya Pinchuk, Vadim Sosnikhin, Vitya Sharanov, Igor Petrov, Tolya Linnik, Valera Kravchuk, Sasha Goridovsky, Volodya Malakhov, Volodya Kokovyakin, Sasha Vodopyanov, Slava Stukalov, Tolya Murashev.

Unfortunately, there are five of us left in this football world. But our Dynamo hearts continue to beat.

Alexander LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua