Once again, the Olympic Games soccer tournament is in the spotlight. Why do we remember the competition in Seoul? Yes, because our national team became the champion then. And it was led to triumph by a native of Kiev, a pupil of FC Dynamo school, a brilliant striker of the Kiev club and the national team of the Union, and then a successful coach Anatoly Byshovets.
Ukrainian footballers became Olympic champions: Oleksiy Mykhailichenko (Dynamo), Volodymyr Lyuty, Oleksiy Cherednik and Vadym Tishchenko (all - Dnipro).
116 national teams expressed their desire to participate in the Games-1988. The qualifying tournament lasted almost a year and a half. In Europe, the contenders for Olympic tickets made up five groups.
The USSR national team competed with rivals from Switzerland, Bulgaria, Norway and Turkey. Anatoly Byshovets' charges successfully completed the selection process and won the right to play in the final tournament of the Olympics ahead of schedule. Together with our team at the tournament in the Republic of Korea Europe was represented by the teams of Germany, Italy, Sweden and Yugoslavia.
The draw distributed 16 participating teams into four groups. In their quartet our team played 0:0 with the hosts of the Olympics, then beat Argentina - 2:1 (Igor Dobrovolsky and Alexei Mikhailichenko scored goals for the winners) and the United States - 4:2 (Mikhailichenko - 2, Dobrovolsky and Arminas Narbekovas) and took first place.
In the city of Busan on September 25th the ¼ finals match between USSR and Austalia took place. Our next victory - 3:0 (Dobrovolsky - 2, Mikhailichenko).
And two days later was the semifinal with Italy, which before that in extra time defeated the Swedes - 2:1.
The match of the 1/2 finals was characterized by special drama. Losing 0:1 (Virdis, 50), Dobrovolsky equalized 12 minutes before the end of the main time. In extra time, Narbekovas put the Union team ahead (92), and Mikhailichenko increased the advantage (106). The Italians responded only once - Carnevale (118).
The USSR team reached the final again after 32. Then in Melbourne (1956), our players won "gold", defeating Yugoslavia - 1:0.
In the second semifinal in Seoul-1988 teams of Germany and Brazil met. The main and extra time did not name the winner - 1:1. In the penalty shootout, the Brazilians took the upper hand. They realized three 11-meter shots, the Germans - two.
At the final match on October 1, 1988, the stands of the Olympic Stadium in Seoul were filled with 74,000 spectators. The referee was Gerard Biguet (France).
USSR - Brazil - 2:1 (0:1)
Goals: Dobrovolsky (60 pen.), Yuri Savichev (103) - Romario (29).
The Brazilians, which included such famous footballers as Claudio Taffarel, Jorginho, Andre Cruz, Aloisio, Romario, Bebeto, expected to win the "gold" of the Olympic tournament for the first time in history.
But the USSR national team under Anatoly Byshovets managed not only to win back the ball Romario, scored in the first half after a corner kick by Neto (with a penalty awarded for a foul Andrade against Mikhailichenko, at 60 minutes Dobrovolsky distinguished himself), but also thanks to a goal of the substitute Yuri Savichev to snatch victory in extra time.
In the second extra time in the USSR national team was removed Vladimir Tatarchuk (a pupil of Ukrainian soccer), but a few minutes later the teams were equalized - Edmar received a straight red card for a foul against Mykhailichenko.
In the "bronze" meeting the footballers of Germany outplayed Italy - 3:0.
And we are waiting for the start of the Olympics-2024 in Paris. After all, for the first time in the final soccer Olympic tournament will be the debut of the Ukrainian national team. Recall that at the group stage the rivals of the Ukrainians will be the teams of Iraq, Morocco and Argentina ...
Alexander LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua