Defender of Dnipro in the 1970s and 1980s, Petro Kutuzov recalled the sensational victory of the team in the 1983 USSR Championship.
November 6, 1983. Kutuzov gives an interview to the «Football Review» program— The championship of Dnipro in 1983 — is the creation of the duo of Volodymyr Yemets and Hennadiy Zhyzdyk. What was their strength?
— In the duo and mutual complementarity. They were like police officers: one good and one bad. If Yemets excluded a player from the team for some violation, then Zhyzdyk would give another chance and return him. Often such educational methods worked. Hennadiy Opanasovych is a front-line soldier who lost his arm in battle. A very modest and decent person.
— After their arrival in the team, they organized a serious restructuring that affected all the veterans. You — are one of the few who remained in the team.
— There were three of us: Lysenko, Krakovskyi, and me. I won’t lie — I was worried about my place. I had excellent relations with the goalkeeping coach Leonid Koltun. "Don’t pay attention. Work as you used to," Leonid Yakovych advised. I did just that.
— Dnipro made many comebacks in the championship season.
— This indicates that the team had character. And this character was forged in struggle and in difficult training. We worked like crazy during the training camps. While other teams were waking up and going to breakfast at 8:30, we were returning to our rooms wet and tired. If we could not outplay someone, we could outrun them.
— After the championship match against Spartak, Hennadiy Zhyzdyk said in an interview that this — is the happiest day of his life. Do you agree?
— After the match, we all went into the dressing room, and Hennadiy Opanasovych addressed us: "Guys, you have no idea what you have done. Years, decades will pass — only then will you realize." And this is true. The understanding of that triumph came to me much later.
Lyubomyr Kuzmyak
