In 1991, the last year of all-Union soccer and the whole USSR, Dynamo Kyiv met not only without its head coach Valeriy Lobanovskiy, who led the UAE national team, but also without many players from the main squad. In particular, Bal, Chanov, Demyanenko, Litovchenko, Rats and Yuran were no longer in the team.
Newcomers - Kutepov, Martinkenas, Sharan, Yurchenko - came in. But it was impossible to expect that they would be able to maintain the previous level of the team's game in a short time.
In the championship with 16 teams Dynamo finished only on the fifth place. The Kyivians scored 35 points with the goal difference 43:34. The champion, CSKA Moscow, has 43 points, followed by Spartak (41), Torpedo and Chernomorets (36 points each). Oleh Salenko was the most productive for Dynamo, scoring 14 goals in 28 matches.
Dynamo played their last match in the USSR championship in Moscow with Torpedo (0:1). 13-time gold medalist (record), 11-time silver medalist, 3-time bronze medalist, 9-time winner of the USSR Cup, 3-time winner of the Cup of the season, participant of all 54 championships played the final game in this lineup: Kutepov, Luzhny, Tsveiba, Aleksanenkov, Shmatovalenko, Kovalets, V.Moroz (Gritsyna), Zaets, Salenko, Betsa, Sharan.
In the spring of 1991, Kyiv met in the quarterfinals of the Cup Cup with Catalan "Barcelona". In Kyiv the distinguished guests snatched victory - 3:2, and in Spain the tense game ended in a 1:1 draw. In the fall of the same year Dynamo already played in the group tournament of the Champions Cup.
In December 1991, the USSR ceased to exist and Ukraine became an independent state. On December 13, FFU decided to withdraw from the USSR Football Federation. The Ukrainian Federation was headed by a great former goalkeeper Viktor Bannikov - Honored Master of Sports, Honored Coach of Ukraine.
In 1992 the first championship of independent Ukraine started. Several champions of the former USSR of 1990 - Yakovenko, Tsveiba, Shmatovalenko, Salenko, Luzhny remained in the Dynamo squad. The head coach of Kyiv Anatoliy Puzach invited the guys from the nearest reserve to the team. "Dynamo was considered the main favorite of the debut championship of the independent country.
Its 20 participants were divided into two groups, the winners of which met in the duel for the championship medals. The Kyiv team passed the group tournament without any difficulties. Dynamo team was ahead of Dnipro by seven points and Metalist by nine. Salenko and Hrytsyna scored seven goals each. In total, 31 goals were scored in the gates of nine opponents, and only 11 goals were conceded. In the Dynamo group also played: "Niva" (Ternopil), "Volyn" (Lutsk), "Bukovyna" (Chernivtsi), "Zarya-MALS" (Lugansk), "Neftyanik" (Akhtyrka), "Prykarpattya" (Ivano-Frankivsk), SC "Odessa" (Odessa), "Metalist" (Kharkiv), "Dnipro" (Dnipropetrovsk).
June 20, 1992 in Lviv in the match for "gold" with the winner of Group "A", Simferopol "Tavria", Kyiv Dynamo lost unexpectedly for many - 0:1. In the history of Ukrainian soccer the first champion will forever remain Simferopol "Tavria".
In the collection of Kyiv team today 16 sets of championship medals, 12 - silver, 1 - bronze, also won 13 national cups and 9 national Supercups. Hopefully, the continuation follows...
Oleksandr LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua