Honored Master of Sports, five-time champion of the former union, bronze medalist of the 1976 Olympics (Montreal, Canada), holder of the Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Super Cup (1975) Leonid Buryak continues to speak about his teammates with whom he played more than a hundred matches for Kyiv’s “Dynamo” and the national team.
This time attention goes to Vladimir Veremeev.
Vladimir VeremeevIn the team, Volodya was recognized as a playmaker. He came to “Dynamo” from Kirovograd’s “Zvezda.” He played as a forward there and scored a lot.
In Kyiv, the rookie was moved to midfield. His sharp tactical thinking and ability to clearly execute assigned tasks made this gifted player literally irreplaceable.
His truly formidable weapon became his precise passes—cut, curled. The midfielder sent the balls in such a way that they flew with some indescribable arc around the live “wall,” catching the goalkeepers off guard and slipping away from their hands after cannon-like cunning shots.
Volodya never panicked, it seemed that the ball stuck to his foot. My partner was a great master of accurate passes from 30-40 meters. Moreover, he did it with both feet.
Fell, got up, and kept playing
Veremeev posed a significant threat to opponents. Trying to neutralize the inconvenient player, opponents would stop at nothing to achieve their goal. Thus, the brave Dynamo midfielder underwent more than one operation.
We often thought in horror: well, that’s it, he won’t pull through! But Volodya fell and got up, healed, and returned to the field again, continuing to do his tough and very necessary job. Corners taken by him sowed panic in the opponents’ defense.
Standing behind the goal, he was on the field with us
Unfortunately, Veremeev did not play in Basel in the final of the Cup Winners' Cup-1975, where our opponent was Hungary’s “Ferencváros” from Budapest. Two yellow cards shown to Volodya by Spanish referee Sanchez Ibañez in the semifinal match against PSV (Eindhoven) turned into a red one. A dismissal and automatic absence from the final match. It is clear that our comrade was very upset.
He didn’t want to watch the game from the stands, but somehow got hold of a “Press” vest and with a beginner’s camera (“Smena”), he stood behind our goal. I think throughout the match he clicked the shutter just a few times, no more. And he mentally was with us on the field, in the thick of the battle.
We never saw the colleague’s photos. But the main thing was our shared bright victory of 3:0!
Veremeev is one of the most titled players of Kyiv “Dynamo,” for which he played 310 matches. He is a six-time national champion, five-time silver medalist, and three-time cup holder. Together with the team, he won the Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Super Cup (1975).
With such a magnificent master, I took the field in the midfield of “Dynamo” (Kyiv) and the national team.
Aleksandr LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua
