The XX Olympic Games were held in 1972 in Munich (Germany). And, unfortunately, they were marred by the savage crime of terrorists who took the lives of an entire group of Israeli athletes.
The Soviet team won many awards at that time. I would especially like to note the triumph of Valery Borzov from Kiev, who won gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter races.
Our footballers won "bronze". That team included players of Ukrainian clubs and pupils of the republican soccer: Yevgeniy Rudakov, Oleg Blokhin, Yozhef Sabo, Vyacheslav Semyonov, Vladimir Onishchenko, Anatoliy Kuksov, Viktor Kolotov, Vladimir Kaplichny, Yuri Istomin and Yuri Eliseev.
Our players in the first round defeated Burma - 1:0 (Kolotov), Sudan - 2:1 (Evryuzikhin, Zanazanyan) and Mexico - 4:1 (Blokhin - three, Semenov) and took first place in the quartet.
In the second round they defeated Morocco - 3:0 (Semenov, Kolotov, Eliseev), lost to Poland - 1:2 (Blokhin) and beat Denmark - 4:0 (Kolotov, Semenov, Blokhin and Sabo). As a result - second place, which gave the right to play in the "bronze" match.
Our team played with the GDR national team - 2:2 (Blokhin, Khurtsilava). According to the regulations, both teams received awards.
And the "gold" went to the national team of Poland, which won against Hungary - 2:1.
The next Olympics brought our players another set of medals for third place. And what is especially pleasant is that in Montreal (Canada) in 1976 eleven players of Kyiv Dynamo became the owners of Olympic awards. Here are the names of these glorious athletes: Vladimir Troshkin, Stepan Reshko, Viktor Zvyagintsev, Viktor Matvienko, Mikhail Fomenko, Leonid Buriak, Viktor Kolotov, Vladimir Onishchenko, Anatoliy Konkov, Oleg Blokhin and Vladimir Veremeev. Our national team was then headed by an outstanding coaching duo from Kiev - Valeriy Lobanovsky and Oleg Bazilevich.
From Europe in the soccer tournament of the XXI Olympic Games 20 countries expressed their desire to participate. Bypassing the qualifying matches, the national teams of Poland (champion of the 1972 Munich Games) and Canada - the organizing country of the 1976 Olympics - directly entered the final part of the tournament.
Even before the draw of the preliminary stage, Great Britain, Italy, Sweden and Portugal refused to participate in the tournament for various reasons. Of the European teams that started the tournament, only four ended up in Montreal.
Participants of the final tournament were divided into groups of four teams each. At this stage, our team beat Canada - 2:1 (Onishchenko scored twice), DPR Korea - 3:0 (Kolotov, Veremeev and Blokhin scored goals), and played a draw with Zambia (0:0). This allowed Lobanovskyi and Bazilevich's charges to take the first place in the group.
The second stage of the Montreal tournament was held according to the cup system. In the quarterfinals victory over Iran was given to us in a sharp confrontation - 2:1 (Minaev, Zvyagintsev).
In the semifinals Olympians of the Union met with the national team of the GDR and lost to the future owners of "gold" - 1:2 (Kolotov). In the second semifinal played Poland and Brazil. The Poles prevailed - 2:0.
And the final duel ended with a convincing victory of the GDR over Polish players - 3:1.
Bronze medals played our and the Brazilians. The opponent did not respond to the accurate strikes Onishchenko and Nazarenko - 2:0. Thus, the USSR national team at two consecutive Olympic tournaments in Munich-1972 and Montreal-1976 won the "bronze".
But at the Games of the XXIII Olympiad-1980 the USSR national team again became the third. Kiev Dynamo players Vladimir Bessonov and Sergey Baltacha played in that team.
And at the Games-2024 in Paris, as we know, the debut of the Ukrainian national team will take place. Recall that Ruslan Rotan's charges at the group stage will play against Argentina, Iraq and Morocco. The two strongest teams from the group will go to the play-offs.
Oleksandr LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua