14 May 1975 is a memorable day in the 96-year history of Dynamo (Kyiv). The team from the banks of the Dnipro river was the first club from the former Soviet Union to win the prestigious European trophy - the Cup Winners' Cup.
Dynamo Kyiv is the 1975 Cup Winners' Cup winnerThe hard way to the possession of the trophy our team started on 18 September 1974 with a match in Kiev against the club Septemvriyske Znamme - 1:0. The opponents were matched in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the score was the same in favour of the Kyiv side.
In the 1/8 finals Valeriy Lobanovskiy's charges eliminated German Eintracht Frankfurt am Main from the running for the trophy (3-2 away, 2-1 at home). In the quarterfinals, Turkey's Bursaspor laid down their arms - 1-0 away victory for Dynamo and 2-0 home success.
In the semi-final, our rival was an experienced European Cup runners-up, PSV Eindhoven from the Netherlands. The Dinamo outplayed their opponents 3-0 at the home ground, and then could afford a minimum away defeat 0-1.
In general, the Kyiv side scored 14 goals in the rivals' goal on the way to the finals, and conceded only five. The five goals were scored by Dynamo forwards Oleh Blokhin and Volodymyr Onishchenko.
Winning final
Leonid Buryak, honoured master of sports, told about the final match in Basel, what preceded it and how it passed:
- Before flying to Switzerland, after the match in Yerevan, Muntean, Onishchenko and Blokhin were injured, Fomenko had a bad leg. The match against Ararat was the last test of our strength before the final of the Cup Winners' Cup. But we ran into a very rough game from the opposition, especially after we had the lead, and the Yerevan team felt they could lose.
The price of our victory was too high. It put our success in Basel, where we arrived on Sunday, three days before the final, in doubt.
We studied our opponents.
Dinamo's opponent was experienced. It had been playing in the Hungarian championship since 1901, had 21 Hungarian championships at the time, and had won the National Cup 11 times. On their way to the Cup final, Ferencvaros defeated Welsh Cardiff City, English Liverpool, Swedish Malmö and Yugoslavian Crvena Zvezda.
Valeriy Lobanovskiy was in Budapest to watch Ferencvaros in the Hungarian championship. Here is how he described our future opponents:
- Our opponent is tough, it cannot be daunted by massive attacks and counterattacks, it does not lose spirit, even when losing the score, and fights to the end. The game will be tough for us. But I believe in you guys.
The day before the game, we have watched the video of the match between the Hungarians and Red Star in the Cup Winners' Cup semi-final: powerful, perfectly balanced attacks, solid defence, they play tough. You could say the team has no weaknesses.
But we were confident in ourselves, we remembered that we had been preparing for this final for almost nine months, and we were ready to find the strength to overcome the final hurdle. In addition, our doctors managed to get our injured players back on their feet in a short period of time.
The match at St Jacob's Stadium, which hosted the Cup finalists for the second time, caused huge interest with 186 journalists and 50 photographers reporting on it.
The goal remained the same
Before the match, the statistics amateurs found out the following curious fact. Dynamo have two dangerous strikers, Volodymyr Onishchenko and Oleh Blokhin. However, Onishchenko scored all his five goals in the draw in the first half, and Blokhin scored in the second. It seemed to be a clue to the opponents whom they should fear more. But it didn't work...
17th minute. There are two opponents in front of Onishchenko, but the forward does not allow them to make a step - he shoots at once, without any preparation, and the ball ends up in the net.
39th minute. Once again Onishchenko can spoil the mood of the Hungarians by a long-range shot, doubling the score.
67th minute. Blokhin, having outplayed three opponents, netted his third goal against Ferencvaros.
Victory! The Cup Cup is ours! Now it's ours in Kyiv.
It is noteworthy that Dynamo played the final match without substitutions in this line-up: Rudakov, Troshkin, Fomenko, Reshko, Matvienko, Muntian, Kolotov, Konkov, Buryak, Onishchenko, Blokhin.
UEFA President Artemio Franco presented our captain Viktor Kolotov with a beautiful trophy, and each Dynamo player put the medals with the image of the prize they won around his neck.
This is how Artemio Franchi assessed the victory of Kyiv:
- Dynamo club is truly of the highest international class. I have not seen for a long time one team so convincingly proved its superiority over the other in the final.
And Stefan Kovacs, the coach of Ajax Amsterdam, who was present at the match noted:
- In my opinion, the Kyiv side are quite capable of setting the tone in modern European football.
"I have played many matches in my career. But that one, on May 14, 1975 in Basel on the pitch of St Jakob stadium, remains unforgettable. I lived in a happy football time," adds Leonid Buryak.
Oleksandr LYPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua
