Sunday, April 17, 2022
The Maybe Men, Part 5
Following the 1986 World Cup, Valery Lobanovskyi stayed on as USSR coach, while still taking charge of Dynamo Kyiv. It was a heady time for Soviet football; in the wake of their efforts in Mexico, Lobanovskyi was named European Coach of the Season, while Igor Belanov won the coveted Ballon d'Or (his partner in crime in the Kyiv and Soviet attack, Alexander Zavarov, came sixth in the voting).
Further success arrived in the following season, with Kyiv reaching the semi-finals of the European Cup and taking out the USSR Cup as well. In the qualifiers for the Nations Cup, meanwhile, the Soviets had been placed in the same group as the defending champions France. Yet they shocked the French by beating them 2-0 in Paris early in the qualifying series, the first goal coming from yet another slick Belanov-Zavarov combination. Lobanovskyi's men went on to qualify handsomely.
It was a pivotal time for many of the Kyiv and Soviet stars, who were now mostly in their mid-to-late twenties. Glasnost and perestroika meant a new openness to the west, and that included western clubs. "Loba" had managed to keep his beloved club team together thus far, but after the Nations Cup in West Germany, a rapid exodus ensued.
The line-up for the 1988 Euros was impressive. As well as the German hosts, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and England were all there, not to mention the Danes who had been so impressive in Mexico. The USSR were to face Holland, Ireland and England in the opening round.
In many ways, it was the first game at the tournament between the Soviets and the Dutch, rather than their meeting in the final, which was the more significant. The Netherlands team featured not only Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten, both coming off a successful season with AC Milan, but several players from the dazzling young Ajax side which had succeeded Dynamo Kyiv as Cup-Winners Cup winners.
Both sides, it must be said, began the game badly. The Soviets, playing a dour, defensive game, failed to find their rhythm and committed a surprising number of clumsy fouls. The Dutch coach Rinus Michels, 1974 hero redux, had surprisingly omitted van Basten from the starting line-up. Without his presence, they looked laboured in attack, and the unwillingness of the Dutch fullbacks to get forward meant that they were often smothered by the Soviets in midfield. It looked like their best chance to score would be from one of the many free kicks that the Soviets gave away, and indeed Ronald Koeman forced Rinat Dasaev into a superb save from one of them on 18 minutes. Once again, the distinguished Russian gloveman was on top form, making another important save from Gullit at the end of the first half.
There had been a good deal of whistling at the quality of the football in the first period, but in the second, the Soviets began to click. The quick crossfield balls to Belanov, such a feature of their performances in 1986, began to materialise: first it was Zavarov, neatly picking out the Ballon d'Or winner who advanced and forced the Dutch keeper Hans van Breukelen into a save. The Dutch failed to heed the warning, and only two minutes later there was a repeat, with Vasily Rats this time finding Belanov with his unerring left foot. The latter advanced, and sent a beautifully-weighted pass across the top of the box back to Rats, who had sneaked forward unnoticed. His left foot did the rest.
van Basten belatedly arrived, but with the game situation as it was, there was to be no sumptuous interplay with his Milan colleague; instead, the Dutch relied on the lofted ball into the mixer, with two tall frontmen to aim for. Gullit, strangely, buried himself out on the right wing, where he was far from effective. Although Dasaev had to make one more good save, from Jan Wouters, and although the new Soviet sweeper Vagiz Khidiatullin twice almost contrived to score an own goal, the score remained at 1-0. van Basten would not be left on the bench again.
It was an encouraging beginning for Lobanovskyi and his men, and just as in Mexico, they followed it up with a draw and then another win. The draw was against the physical Irish, for whom Liverpool's Ronnie Whelan scored a spectacular overhead volley (almost as spectacular, in fact, as the famous goal from the final), but Belanov once again saved his team's bacon 15 minutes from the end, making a good goal for another Kyiv striker, Oleg Protasov.
Against a creaking England, whose midfield hero Glenn Hoddle was in wretched form, the Soviets were dominant from the start. Although England responded to Sergey Aleinikov's early goal with a typical set-piece header from the young Tony Adams, who had been tortured by van Basten in the previous match, the Soviets ran out comfortable 3-1 winners in the end. Another newcomer to the team, the lively midfielder Alexey Mikhailichenko, scored a headed goal following a superb team move, and a substitute, Viktor Pasulko, added a third from close range.
Italy awaited in the semi-finals. An Italian team featuring a number of talented young players, including the core of the Milan side which was to dominate European football in the next few years.
The game was to be perhaps Lobanovskyi's finest tactical triumph. More in Part 6.
