The former footballer of Dnipro Serhii Diryavka shared his memories of the Ukrainian championship of 1992/93, when his team scored as many points as Dynamo Kyiv, but the champions of the country on the best goal difference between goals scored and conceded were the Kyiv team. Initially, with equal points, the fate of the title was to be determined in the "Golden Match", but after the first round, this clause of the regulations was removed.
Sergey Diryavka - You were very close to winning the championship in 1993. Why didn't you take the gold?
- The main reason was our youth. Then we did not think that this may be the only opportunity for us to win the championship and to rise to the level of "Dnipro" in 1983 and 1988. We were naive and confident people. We thought we were so tough that if not this season, then next season we would win.
What we lacked was to avoid misfires. First of all, in Kharkiv with Metalist, where we lost 0-1. And in a home game with Kryvbas, which ended in a 0-0 draw. I think those matches were the key ones for us. I remember, before Kryvbas, I even got my second yellow card, to zero out before the final part of the championship. And it turned out that the game with "Kryvbas" was one of the toughest and most principled. We played against our friends and former partners in Dnipro. Even later I reproached my friend Serhii Solovyov: "You`ve deprived me of a gold medal.
- You and Dynamo scored equal numbers of points, had an advantage in a face-to-face meeting, but lost on goal difference...
- There was a famous story with the championship regulations. In the winter, before the start of the second round, they suddenly decided to change it. They made the rules for Dynamo. Of course, Kyiv is a capital city and the financial opportunities are much higher than in the regional centers. And then there is the new format of the Champions League. The officials were deep in their offices and decided there would be no golden match.
If something like that happened in a country governed by the rule of law, which is where Ukraine is going now, you could sue them and win - 100%. And in terms of the game that season we were stronger than Kyiv. The game of the second round on the Meteora confirmed it. There was a crazy rush in the city. There were 40 thousand fans (the stadium could hold a maximum of 35). Many people had to climb trees to watch the game. I think Dynamo players were simply taken aback by what they saw. This support of the fans was our additional trump card. "Dnipro won thanks to Maximov`s goal.
And the championship in the season was just stolen from us. The team, in my opinion, was worthy of the title.
- Did you know that "Dynamo" encouraged everyone who played against "Dnipro"?
- Yes. When I played for CSKA-Borisfen, Prudius, who scored the winning goal in Kharkiv, told me that they were given a very good bonus for that game. Increased bonuses were given to all the teams who took points from us.
When the opponent is stimulated by the third party, there is nothing bad about it. I am normal to this. But when a team gives up on us and in one round loses to Dynamo by five goals, I can`t understand it. It all just pissed me off.
For example, "Veres" lost to "Dynamo" in Kyiv without a fight. The score was 6:0. After one tour they are fighting desperately - 0:0. Tavria, the champion of the country, on its field loses to Dynamo 0:5, while we snatched the victory from them with great difficulty - 1:0. Then it was counted that for the 15 games of the second round they scored 40 goals (And in the first round the Dynamo players scored 19 goals - ed.).
I do not understand how there could be such a difference between us and Dynamo. We were not inferior to them in class.
Oleksandr Petrov
