Kiev’s Republican Stadium

========================================================
Of the five different arenas used in conjunction with the football tournament of the Games of the XXII Olympiad hosted by Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the impressive REPUBLICAN STADIUM in the Ukrainian S.S.R.’s capital city of KIEV was, beyond all comparison, the sporting venue of the 1980 Summer Olympics that had undergone the most numerous changes to its name over the course of its history.
========================================================

For the no fewer than the seventh time since the RED STADIUM of TROTSKY first opened fifty-seven years earlier, the football field situated on the slopes of the Cherepanov Hill in the Ukrainian capital city of KIEV was re-christened to celebrate the arrival of the Summer Olympic Games in 1980. The moniker “Central Stadium”, which had been in use since 1962, was jettisoned by the powers that be in favor of a return to traditional roots. The site had first been designated as the REPUBLICAN STADIUM in 1936, the very same year that saw local tenant Dynamo Kiev finish second in the first-ever all-U.S.S.R. league football championship.

Work on increasing the capacity to 50,000 spectators at the ground was begun in the late 1930s and, in 1941, the facility was finished and now re-titled the Republican Stadium of Khrushchev in honor of the contemporary leader of the Ukrainian communist party (Nikita) who would, one day, become the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as well as Premier of the entire U.S.S.R., itself. But not before the Great Patriotic War and the Nazi occupation both had arrived in the summer of 1941, after which time the home field of Dynamo Kiev was abruptly re-named the All-Ukrainian Stadium. Of course, that would be rescinded in early 1944 after victory was achieved on the battlefield the previous fall.

Almost needless to say, the liberated Republican Stadium of Khrushchev had suffered extensive damage during the Second World War and required major repair work, which would come in the years to follow.

===================================================

===================================================
The main facade of the REPLUBLICAN STADIUM OF KHRUSHCHEV was completed in 1954, as were the iconic columns (not pictured here) in the courtyard outside the football ground of Dynamo Kiev (white shirts, dark shorts running out onto the pitch); a more modernized scoreboard, featuring a contemporary-styled stadium clock and electric lights, would not arrive for another two years.
========================================================

========================================================
A shot of what was then still known as the REPUBLICAN STADIUM of KHRUSHCHEV in Kiev taken in 1961 — the same year that the Ukrainian capital city club, DYNAMO KIEV, won the very first of what would ultimately be a total of 13 league championships in the U.S.S.R.’s top flight.
========================================================

========================================================
The CENTRAL STADIUM of KIEV underwent a major renovation in 1967 with the addition of a second tier and, in doing so, increased the arena’s capacity to an official figure of 100,000 spectators; this development left the home ground of Dynamo Kiev in the Ukrainian capital city amongst the largest football stadiums in all Europe — just behind the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium in Moscow while level with Leipzig’s humongous Zentralstadion in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik.
========================================================

Kiev became only the third city (after Leningrad and Tbilisi) in the U.S.S.R., up to that point in history, other than Moscow to ever host the national team of the Soviet Union when the Central Stadium staged its first full international match in mid-October of 1969. A noteworthy crowd of 71,115 spectators dutifully turned out to see the home side dispatch visiting Turkey 3-0 in a World Cup qualifying match, then. After Dynamo Kiev boss VALERY LOBANOVSKY was appointed trainer of the national team in the mid-1970s, the U.S.S.R. hosted all four of its qualification matches for the 1976 UEFA European Championships at the Central Stadium in Kiev.

Prior to the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, the record attendance of for a Soviet Union national team match at the Central Stadium in the Ukranian capital city had been the total of 84,480 speactators who saw the U.S.S.R., on the strength of goals from Dynamo Kiev players OLEG BLOKHIN and VIKTOR KOLOTOV, upend the incoming Republic of Ireland 2-1 in a European Championships qualifier in May of 1975.

In 1977, the Central Stadium was actually closed for a spell as the facility underwent yet another major renovation, this time in advance of the Summer Olympic Games to be held in the Soviet Union. The drainage system for the field playing surface was completely overhauled and a new pitch laid while four new lightning poles, each 82 meters high, were installed, as well. In 1980, the Central Stadium name was shelved in Kiev and subsequently replaced with the historical “Republican Stadium” label.

==================================================

==================================================
A shot taken during the 1980 Summer Olympic Games hosted by the U.S.S.R. shows the recently-installed, towering light fixtures as well as the iconic columns that great visitors to the massive REPUBLICAN STADIUM in the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev; the Olympic football program at the Republican Stadium included six round-robin matches (three games each in Groups C and D) as well as one quarterfinal contest (featuring the defending Olympic gold medalists from East Germany).

Moscow’s Dynamo Stadium

========================================================

The U.S.S.R.’s capital of MOSCOW was, itself, home to no fewer than five different football clubs who were all competing in the Soviet first division (comprised of eighteen teams) when the Summer Olympic Games arrived in the middle of the 1980 domestic season. Four of these five clubs (CSKA, Dynamo, Lokomotiv, Spartak and Torpedo) all had, by the 1960s, ground to call their very own within the city’s limits, as well. None of these four stadia, though, could even begin to compare in terms of spectator capacity with the massive Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium, which never had an official club team tenant but often hosted important intra-city derbies as well as many European matches involving the Moscow city club sides.

On the other hand, not even the great national stadium on the banks of the Moskva River could stack up with the historical DYNAMO STADIUM in Moscow’s Petrovsky Park for its length of service, though.

=======================================================

=======================================================

The venerable Dynamo Stadium had been built in 1928 to serve as the home of the team with direct ties to what is respected as the very first football club in Russian history. The descendent of Morozovtsi Orekhovo-Zuevo Moskva, which was originally founded as a factory club in 1887, was quickly taken over by the fledgling Soviet Ministry of the Interior after the Russian Revolution broke out three decades later. DYNAMO MOSCOW, who quickly became despised by other intra-city rivals as a result of their direct association with the notorious Chekha secret police, later went on to win the inaugural all-U.S.S.R. domestic championship in 1936 and reclaimed that honor the next year, as well.

=====================================================

=====================================================
A photo of the famous bronze statue of legendary Soviet footballer LEV YASIN, the highly-acclaimed Dynamo Moscow goalkeeper who won the 1956 Olympic gold medal and the 1960 UEFA European Championships title with the U.S.S.R. national team, outside the Dynamo Stadium in Petrovsky Park.
=====================================================

It was Dynamo Stadium that actually was the site of the very first post-Stalin international football match ever hosted by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics when Sweden came to visit the capital city in early September of 1954. NIKITA SIMONYAN of hometown Spartak Moscow, who later would be let go as trainer of the national team roughly a year ahead of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, scored the very first goal for the U.S.S.R. at the Dynamo Stadium, then, as the Soviets romped to an easy 7-0 triumph over their Scandanavian guests. As would be the case for the national side’s first three matches in Petrovsky Park, the Dynamo Stadium was packed to the maximum of 54,000 spectators for the landmark meeting with the Swedes.

Six of the U.S.S.R. national team’s seven home matches at the Dynamo Stadium, the last of these being the Soviets’ 5-0 shutout of Israel in July of 1956, had drawn the capacity crowd before the Lenin Stadium was opened in another part of Moscow at the end of September later that year.

==================================================

==================================================

Like all the different facilities in the Soviet Union that were used in conjunction with the 1980 Summer Games, the Dynamo Stadium underwent a thorough renovation in advance. By now officially known as the Grand Arena of the Dynamo Central Stadium as other sports installations had been added to the site, the 52-year-old venue — which saw its official capacity shrink slightly to 50,000 spectators in order to accomodate additional VIP boxes — hosted six different matches during the Olympic football tournament. The program in Petrovsky Park included four round-robin contests as well as one quarterfinal (which featured the U.S.S.R.) and one semifinal match, each.

========================================================

========================================================
The venerable Dynamo Stadium was closed permanently for the purposes of demolition in 2008 to make way for the currently-planned VTB Arena, which is scheduled to be finished in conjunction with the occasion of Russia hosting the final tournament of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Grand Arena Of The Central Lenin Stadium At The Luzhniki Olympic Sports Complex

=======================================================

Although five different stadiums in the whole of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would host football matches during the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, there could never be any doubt as to which one would host the tournament final — as a matter of fact, as the very name of the facility, itself, would elaborately suggest, the massive GRAND ARENA of the CENTRAL LENIN STADIUM at the centralized LUZHNIKI OLYMPIC COMPLEX in the capital city of MOSCOW was built with the very purpose of a major global athletic competition specifically in mind.

The Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium had been, by the time of the Moscow Summer Games, expanded to accomodate an official capacity crowd of 103,000 seated spectators — this increase pushed the Lenin Stadium past the German Democratic Republic’s enormous Zentralstadion in Leipzig, which had actually opened in the exact same year as the Lenin Stadium in 1956, for the honor of largest football ground in all of Europe.

The Luzhniki Olympic Complex, itself, was among the largest of its kind in all the world. According to THE GREAT SOVIET ENCYCLOPEDIA (1979), this de facto athletic city included roughly 140 separate facilities for the pursuit of a multitude of sports. In addition to the the humongous Grand Arena, itself, the facility in the Khamovniki district of Moscow also featured the famed Palace of Sport ice hockey arena with its capacity for 13,700 spectators as well as the Olympic Pool of the Central Lenin Stadium, which seated another 10,500 people.

And then, of course, there was the Minor Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium (8,700 capacity) and the tiny Druzhba Mutlipurpose Arena (3,500 capacity) …

=======================================================

=======================================================
A panoramic shot of the distinctive Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium during the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXII Olympiad, which was held in the crown jewel of the extraordinary Luzhniki complex on the banks of the Moskva River in the Soviet capital city on July 19, 1980.
=======================================================

The national team of the SOVIET UNION made its international debut at the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium in front of a reported audience of 102,000 spectators on September 23, 1956. The opponent for this historic match in the U.S.S.R. happened to be none other than HUNGARY, the defending gold medalist from the 1952 Summer Olympic Games and runner-up to champion West Germany at the 1954 FIFA World Cup. The Magic Magyars would prevail over the Soviets 1-0 in Moscow thanks to a goal by ZOLTAN CZIBOR but, a month later, the Hungarian Revolution suddenly errupted and that result would eventually see the Hungary footballers withdraw from the approaching 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.

Despite the inaugural setback, the Soviet national team would continue to stage virtually all of its home matches in the spacious confines of the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium until the mid-1970s. And this scenic riverside location soon became a nightmare for incoming visitors to Moscow, particularly in FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championships qualification contests. In fact, the U.S.S.R. won 19 consecutive qualifiers at the Lenin Stadium on the trot until Chile finally posted a fateful draw in late September, 1973.

The Soviet Union began holding internationals in other places, most notably the Republican Stadium in the Ukranian city of Kiev, following the ’74 World Cup debacle. Only after experienced Spartak Moscow boss KONSTANTIN BESKOV was re-appointed as the national team trainer did the Soviets return to the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium in earnest. Nevertheless, the unbeaten streak in tournament play for the U.S.S.R. national team at the impressive site along the Moskva River near the so-called Luzhnetskaya Embankment was still intact when the Games of the XXII Olympiad arrived in the summer of 1980.

=======================================================

=======================================================
An aerial photograph of the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium at the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’ capital city of Moscow that was obviously taken in the era of the 1950s or not long afterwards, certainly well before the floodlights were first installed in the 1960s.

Moscow Olympic Games : Great Expectations

========================================================
Soviet Union defender OLEG ROMANTSEV of Spartak Moscow, who later became the record-setting trainer of his old capital city club and also steered the national team of Russia to the final tournament of a FIFA World Cup, looks to settle the ball in front of France defender MARIUS TRESOR (5) of Olympique Marseille during the international friendly at the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium contested on May 23, 1980.
========================================================

It had been a little while (1960) since Stalin’s footballing children had accomplished anything on the international stage. But, then again, U.S.S.R. national team trainer KONSTANTIN BESKOV had already earned the exalted military decoration, the Order of the Patriotic War, for his efforts on behalf of the Red Army during the Second World War. And, certainly, those at the highest levels of power in the Soviet Union were hoping that the 60-year-old Spartak Moscow boss could, once agian, rise to the occasion of a major global event.

Any optimisim would have been easily justifiable considering the five consecutive victories the Soviet Union reeled off to commence the calendar year of 1980. At the core of this new-look national team were five players from Beskov’s successful Spartak side, the Soviet domestic champion for the 1979 spring-to-fall season including the youthful but talented RINAT DASAYEV. The 23-year-old shot-stopper who would come to be known to some as “the Iron Curtain” had originally unseated the veteran ALEXANDER PROKHOROV, a reserve on the bronze medal squad for the U.S.S.R. at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, as the first choce of the capital city club before making his full international debut in a friendly against the German Democratic Republic in September of 1979.

YURI GAVRILOV had already been capped before Beskov had taken charge of the U.S.S.R. national team for the third time in his long managerial career in July of 1979. But it had been the astute Soviet trainer who had already brought the slender winger from intra-city rival Dynamo Moscow to Spartak in 1977. And it was under Beskov that the skilled left-footer truly developed into one of, if not the most creative playmaker in the history of Soviet football.

===============================================

===============================================
National team trainer KONSTANTIN BESKOV, the former war hero who spent his entire playing career with Ministry of the Interior club Dynamo Moscow, was a member of the very first U.S.S.R. athletic team that ever showed up at the Olympics and, as such, appeared in both matches for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics against eventual silver medalist Yugoslavia at the 1952 Summer Games hosted by Helsinki, Finland.
===============================================

Defender VAGIZ KHIDIYATULLIN of CSKA Moscow and midfielder VLADIMIR BESSONOV of Dynamo Kiev, who later transformed into, perhaps, the best Soviet left back ever, were a pair originally introduced by the previous national team trainer, NIKITA SIMONYAN. As for the rest of the 17-man Olympic team, though, the overwhelming majority of the U.S.S.R. footballers at the 1980 Moscow Games had gotten their international start as a result of Beskov. Altogether, nine of this lot would also be included in the Soviet squad which appeared in Spain at the final tournament of the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

Defender ALEKSANDR CHIVADZE of Dinamo Tbilisi was one Beskov ‘discovery’ who would eventually be honored as the Soviet Footballer of the Year in 1980. Chivadze and his Olympic backline constituent, TENGIZ SULAKVELIDZE, were both now less than a year away from triumphantly lifting the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup with their Georgian club teammates in Duesseldorf, West Germany. Midfielder KHOREN OGANESIAN of Ararat Yerevan, who went on to earn 34 caps for the U.S.S.R. and shoot the only goal to defeat Belgium at the ’82 World Cup in Spain, was easily the best player to ever come from the Soviet state of Armenia.

The defending gold medalists from the Deutsche Demokratische Republik clearly sent a B side to the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. Czechoslovakia left most of its big guns at home after traveling to Italy for the 1980 UEFA European Championships and finishing in third place. And while Yugoslavia brought some bright prospects to the U.S.S.R., their inexperienced Olympic squad was also certainly not equipped with all of the country’s best available players.

========================================================

========================================================
The national team of the UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS stands at attention just prior to the international friendly match with visiting Denmark at the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium in Moscow on July 12, 1980, a little over a week before the start of the football tournament at the Summer Olympic Games hosted by the Soviet Union.

Left to right — Vladimir BESSONOV (Dynamo Kiev), Tengiz SULAKVELIDZE (Dinamo Tbilisi), Sergei ANDREYEV (SKA Rostov-on-Don), Revaz CHELEBADZE (Dinamo Tbilisi), Sergei SHAVLO (Spartak Moscow), Fedor CHERENKOV (Spartak Moscow), Yuri GAVRILOV (Spartak Moscow), Vagiz KHIDIYATULLIN (CSKA Moscow), Aleksandr CHIVADZE (Dinamo Tbilisi), Rinat DASAYEV (Spartak Moscow) and captain Oleg ROMANTSEV (Spartak Moscow)

On this day, the Soviet Union would win its fifth consecutive full international match on the trot with a 2-0 victory over Denmark on the strength of goals from Cherenkov and substitute VALERY GAZZAEV of Dynamo Moscow.

Road To Moscow Olympics – D.D.R., U.S.S.R. Draw In Rostock

========================================================
Deutsche Demokratische Republik debutant winger JUERGEN HEUN (2nd from left) of FC Rot Weiss Erfurt and central striker DIETER KUEHN of FC Lokomotive Leipzig (far right) compete with a pair from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics defense during the international match at the Ostseestadion in Rostock, East Germany; off to the right in the background, one can observe the advertisement for the Kunsthalle (art gallery) in the Baltic Sea port city.
========================================================

Case in point with respect to the confusing business of sorting out the differences between a “full international” and an Olympic football match ….. May 7, 1980 : the DEUTSCHE DEMOKRATISCHE REPUBLIK meets the UNION of SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS in front of an audience of 20,000 at the modest Ostseestadion in Rostock, East Germany.

The Deutscher Fussball Verband, the ruling body for football in the German Democratic Republic, somehow always saw this particular contest as an official “A-Laenderspiele” (designation for full international) despite the fact that it was the Olympic squad of Dr. Rudolf Krause that turned out to face the visiting Soviets in Rostock. Six of the thirteen players who appeared for the D.D.R. at the Ostseestadion that day were on their full international debut, according to the official D.F.V. records recognized by FIFA. And only three of this East German baker’s dozen ever did manage more than 20 caps on the whole of their careers with the D.D.R. national side.

The Soviet Union, in direct contrast, never did count this very same match with East Germany in the Baltic Sea port city as a full international as far as their official records validated by FIFA were (and still are for posterity) concerned. Although it was clearly a second-string side, it is also true that ten of the thirteen Soviet players appearing in Rostock had already been capped by the U.S.S.R. at the senior international level. Two of these players, the Dynamo Kiev pair of LEONID BURYAK and VIKTOR ZVYAGINTSEV, were integral members of the squad that had bagged the set of bronze medals at the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Canada, as well.

=======================================

=======================================
MARTIN TROCHA of FC Carl Zeiss Jena
=======================================

As for the match at the Ostseestadion, itself, the experienced Olympian Buryak did send the visiting Soviets from the penalty spot with less than a quarter hour to play. But the U.S.S.R. had also gone in front just ten minutes into the match via Dynamo Moscow striker VALERY GAZZAEV and FC Lokomotive Leipzig striker DIETER KUHEN had already been able to equalize just before the half hour mark. And, once again, the resilient East Germans were able to level when Dynamo Berlin midfielder FRANK TERLETZKI scored his first and last goal for the D.D.R. national team less than five minutes from time.

Gazzaev would be the only player from this particular Soviet team in Rostock chosen to represent the host nation at the 1980 Summer Games although both Buryak and defender SERGEI BOROVSKY of Dynamo Minsk were later named to the U.S.S.R. squad that qualified for the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain; nine of the participating East Germans from this meeting at the Ostseestadion would, soon enough, march in the Opening Ceremony of the Moscow Olympics.

There, for the third time in as many Olympiads, the D.D.R. and the U.S.S.R. were destined to take the field opposite one another in the knockout phase of the Summer Games football competition … but that would be another story.

=====================================================

=====================================================
Georgian goalkeeper OTAR GABELIA earned his one and only full international cap for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the 3-1 loss in Tbilisi to would-be Euro ’80 champion West Germany in the fall of 1979 but later won the 1981 UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup after Dinamo Tbilisi rallied to defeat East German outfit FC Carl Zeiss Jena at the virtually-empty Rheinstadion in Duesseldorf.
=====================================================

Ostseestadion in Rostock
May 7, 1980

D.D.R. : Rudwaleit – Baum – Brauer (M. Mueller 7′), Uhlig, Strozniak – Schnuphase, Terletzki, Steinbach – Trocha (Baehringer 58′), Kuehn, Heun

U.S.S.R. : Gabelia – Zvyagintsev, Kostava, Borovsky, Kruglov – Buryak, Leshchuk, Maksimenko (Tarakhanov 78′) – Rogovsky (Yarzek 78′), Gazzaev, Staruchin

goals — Gazzaev 11′, Kuhen 28′, Buryak pen 76′, Terletzki 86′

========================================================

========================================================
An aerial view of the old OSTSEESTADION, which was totally renovated in 2001 with the most noticeable improvement being that all spectator areas are now completely covered and is now known as the DKB Arena for sponsorship purposes. The football / track and field stadium in the Batic sea port city was originally constructed in 1954 and, altogether, was the site of eight full international matches hosted by the old Deutsche Demokratische Republik back in the day. The Olympic warm-up with the visiting Soviet Union in early May of 1980 was actually the very last time that the senior national team of the German Democratic Republic ever appeared in Rostock.
========================================================

SOVIET UNION national team record
===========================

Leonid BURYAK …………………. Dynamo Kiev ……………. 74-83 … 49 ga, 8 go
Sergei BOROVSKY ………………. Dynamo Minsk …………. 81-85 …. 21 ga, 0 go
Viktor ZVYAGINTSEV ………… Dynamo Kiev …………… 75-76 …. 13 ga, 1 go
Valery GAZZAEV …………………. Dynamo Moscow ……… 78-83 ….. 8 ga, 4 go
Alexander MAKSIMENKOV … Dynamo Moscow ………. 77-79 ….. 8 ga, 1 go
Alexander TARAKHANOV ….. CSKA Moscow …………… 76-83 ….. 6 ga, 0 go
Viktor KRUGLOV ………………… Torpedo Moscow ………. 76-77 ….. 4 ga, 0 go
Tamaz KOSTAVA ………………… Dinamo Tbilisi …………… 78-78 ….. 3 ga, 1 go
Otar GABELIA ……………………… Dinamo Tbilisi …………… 79-79 ….. 1 ga
Vyacheslav LESHCHUK ……….. Chernomorets Odessa … 76-76 ….. 1 ga, 0 go

Soviets Salvage Bronze Medal

============================================
The national teams of the SOVIET UNION (left), featuring 1976 Olympic bronze medal winner OLEG BLOKHIN of Dynamo Kiev, and that of BRAZIL, including ’76 Summer Games goal-scorer JUNIOR of CR Flamengo, line-up prior to the start of the 1982 FIFA World Cup first round, Group 6 match at the Estadio Ramon San Sanchez Pizjuan in Seville, Spain.
============================================

According to the official FIFA attendance figures, the Bronze Medal Match refereed by Abraham Klein of Israel at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal between the SOVIET UNION and BRAZIL attracted 55,647 spectators which was, interestingly enough, exactly the third-largest crowd of the 23 football contests at the 1976 Summer Games in Canada.

National aspirations of a first gold medal in twenty years had been shattered by an Eastern Bloc satellite, East Germany, in the Olympic semifinal at the new arena in the iconic French-Canadian city but the U.S.S.R. could still depart the country with a second consecutive set of bronze medals won at the Summer Games. Soviet trainer VALERY LOBANOVSKY reshuffled his line-up yet again for the Bronze Medal Match and benched midfielder VLADIMIR VEREMEYEV of Dynamo Kiev, the 27-year-old who had notched a goal in the first round defeat of North Korea, while including a fifth defender, MIKHAIL FOMENKO, another 27-year-old also from 1975 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup champion Dynamo Kiev. This defense-oriented side, then, to face a youthful Brazilian squad that had been shutout at the ’76 Olympics by both East Germany in the first round as well as Poland in the semifinal at Toronto.

Trainer CLAUDIO COUTINHO, the former army captain who would be chosen to steer the Brazilian World Cup contingent for the 1978 FIFA World Cup and later coached the Los Angeles Aztecs for a season in the old North American Soccer League, made three changes to the South American team that fell to the Polish at Varsity Stadium. The two fullbacks who had scored a goal each against Spain in the first round, CHICO FRAGA of Internacional Porto Alegre and ROSEMIRO of SE Palmeiras, ceded their places. The 22-year-old midfielder JUNIOR of CR Flamengo, who had scored the final goal in the quarterfinal victory over Israel, was re-deployed at left back.

===================================

===================================

Still one more 27-year-old from Dynamo Kiev provided the Soviet Union with a dream start to the Bronze Medal Match in just the fifth minute. VLADIMIR ONISCHENKO, who was in the first team when the U.S.S.R. fell to West Germany in the Final of the 1972 UEFA European Championships at Brussels, scored his third goal of the ’76 Summer Games while giving the Soviet side something to defend. All of a sudden, Lobanovsky’s strategy did not seem so silly, after all.

Onischenko needed to come off five minutes before the break so from the bench arrived LEONID NAZARENKO of army club CSKA Moscow, the 21-year-old who never did appear much (8 caps, 2 goals) for the senior national side of the Soviet Union. But, four minutes into the second half, the inexperienced Nazarenko would net a very big insureance goal in the Bronze Medal Match at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal that was more than enough, as matters turned out. This because Brazil were not doing much to bother Nazarenko’s teammate at CSKA Moscow, the 30-year-old goalkeeper VLADIMIR ASTAPOVSKY.

The Brazilians did have some considerable young talent but the team only ever did score six goals in five Olympic matches in Canada and, therefore, probably never really did deserve higher than a fourth place finish. The Soviets, for whom 1975 European Player of the Year OLEG BLOKHIN of Dynamo Kiev never did find consistent goal-scoring form in North America, could be somewhat content with a bronze medal from the ’76 Summer Games. Brazil and the U.S.S.R. would collide again in the first round at the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain, but that would be another story.

==================================================

==================================================
The Dynamo Kiev pair of striker OLEG BLOKHIN (left), who scored six goals at the 1972 Olympics in West Germany but managed just one goal at the 1976 Summer Games in Canada, and midfielder LEONID BURYAK would both be included in the Soviet Union’s 22-man squad for the 1982 FIFA World Cup final tournament held in Spain.

’76 Olympic Semifinal : East Germany v Soviet Union

=======================================================
U.S.S.R. striker OLEG BLOKHIN of Dynamo Kiev shoots past East Germany goalkeeper JUERGEN CROY (1) of FC Sachsenring Zwickau to give the Soviet Union a quick 2-0 lead in the 30th minute of the 1972 Summer Olympic Games Bronze Medal Match at the Olympiastadion in Munich, West Germany.
=======================================================

There had been an Olympic medal at stake for the contest in the Olympiastadion at Munich, but it had really ‘only’ been for the bronze. There was even more on the line however, at the Montreal Summer Games in 1976. Indeed, this particular match between EAST GERMANY and the SOVIET UNION would directly decide which nation would advance to the Gold Medal Game, itself.

The Soviet Union, twenty years later, were still looking for another Olympic football crown to go with the title won at the 1956 Summer Games held in Melbourne, Australia. The U.S.S.R., who had lost experienced defender ANATOLI KONKOV of Dynamo Kiev to injury earlier in the tournament, had conceded a late penalty in the quarterfinal at Sherbrooke but still managed to eliminate Iran 2-1. Trainer VALERY LOBANOVSKY of Dynamo Kiev continued to tinker with the Soviet Startelf and restored the seasoned Dynamo Kiev pair of 29-year-old defender STEFAN RESHKO and 26-year-old VLADIMIR ONISCHENKO, who had scored both goals in the 2-1 victory over host nation Canada to open the Olympic campaign, to the U.S.S.R. line-up for the semifinal at Montreal.

East Germany, especially considering the influential Leistungsportbeschluss declaration of 1969, were eager to reach the Final of the football tournament at the Summer Games for the very first time, ever. Twice before, in 1964 and 1972, the D.D.R. had been able to add the bronze medal to their ‘important’ Olympic medal count, though, and were anxious to do even better in Canada. To face the Soviets in the semifinal at the Games of 1976, the East German trainer GEORG BUSCHNER sent out exactly the same Startelf that had flattened France 4-0 in the quarterfinal at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

=================

=================
Soviet Union midfielder ALEXANDER MINAYEV of Dynamo Moscow, on of only two regular players in the U.S.S.R. Olympic first team to not originate from trainer Valery Lobanovsky’s Dynamo Kiev club side, attempts to put a move on experienced East Germany defender KONRAD WEISE (4) of FC Carl Zeiss Jena during the ’76 Summer Games semifinal match at the brand new Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada.
=================

The U.S.S.R. attack in Montreal was spearheaded by the prolific OLEG BLOKHIN, the reigning award Balon d’Or recipient given annually to the most outstanding football player in all of Europe at that time. The 23-year-old striker, who had helped Dynamo Kiev capture the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1975, had scored six goals at the 1972 Olympic Games including his strike against East Germany in the Bronze Medal Match (which the D.D.R. rallied to draw 2-2) at Munich. Blokhin, much to the dismay of Soviet supporters, never did get on track at the Montreal Games in 1976 and never did add to a solitary goal notched in the opening round against the North Koreans.

=======================================================

=======================================================
OLEG BLOKHIN of Dynamo Kiev, the Ukrainian all-time leading goal-scorer for the national football team of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
=======================================================

The strength of the East German team was its staunch defensive wall fortified by JUERGEN CROY, the FC Sachsenring Zwickau goalkeeper who was chosen as the D.D.R.’s Football of the Year three times over the course of his distinguished career. The five players deployed at the back by East Germany, who had yet to concede at these ’76 Olympics, would all eventually earn an impressive 378 international caps, collectively, and their presence in the semifinal at Montreal really made life difficult for the exploisve Blokhin up front. And so, when the halftime whistle sounded at the Olympic Stadium, both sides went to their respective changing rooms to discuss a scoreless draw.

The Soviet defense, in direct comparison to its Eastern Bloc counterparts in the semifinals, were rather inexperienced as a unit at the Montreal Games even before the loss of Konkov and, fatefully, gave a penalty to the East Germans shortly before the hour. Spielfuehrer and sweeper HANS-JUERGEN DOERNER of Dynamo Dresden then beat U.S.S.R. goalkeeper VLADIMIR ASTAPOVSKY of army club CSKA Moscow to provide the D.D.R. with an all-important first strike in the 59th minute. The goal was a team-leading fourth of these 1976 Summer Olympic Games, three of which had been scored from spot kicks, for the productive 25-year-old defender.

============================================

============================================
LOTHAR KURBJUWEIT of FC Carl Zeiss Jena
============================================

The East Germans then struck again just seven minutes later to really leave the Soviets chasing the game. Considering the overall nature of the D.D.R. Olympische Auswahl, it was, perhaps, fitting another defender to find the back of the net against the U.S.S.R. in Montreal. 26-year-old LOTHAR KURJUWEIT of FC Carl Zeiss Jena stepped up in the 66th minute for what proved to be the biggest goal, by far, of a long international career which spanned from 1968 until 1980 and included 59 ‘full’ caps for the German Democratic Republic.

With less than twenty minutes remaining, Lobanovsky made a most curious double switch for the Soviet Union. VIKTOR ZVYAGINTSEV, the Dynamo Kiev rearguard who recorded the match-winning goal for the U.S.S.R. against Iran in the quarterfinals, was replaced with yet another defender while the attacking Onischenko gave way to VLADIMIR FEDOROV, the 20-year-old midfielder from FC Pakhtakor Tashkent. Meanwhile, the talented 24-year-old Georgian DAVID KIPIANI of Dinamo Tbilisi, who went on to earn the title of domestic Footballer of the Year for 1977, was yet again left on the bench by the Soviets.

Match referee MARIO DORANTES GARCIA of Mexico pointed to the penalty spot for the second time at the Olympic Stadium with less than twenty minutes remaining in the semifinal at Montreal. Veteran U.S.S.R. midfielder VIKTOR KOLOTOV of Dynamo Kiev converted to register his second goal of the Montreal Games in the 84th minute and offer the Soviets hope. But the East Germans would have nothing to do with an equalizer and, thus, triumphantly marched into the Final at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Canada.

========================================================

========================================================
East Germany netminder JUERGEN CROY of FC Sachsenring Zwickau conceded only one goal — that being from the penalty spot — through the Deutsche Demokratische Republik’s first four Olympic matches at the football tournament of the 1976 Summer Games in Canada.

German Football At The Olympics : D.D.R. and C.C.C.P. – Round Three Team Sheet

=======================================================

The semifinal of the 1976 Summer Games football competition between EAST GERMANY and the SOVIET UNION contested in the host city of Montreal brought a noteworthy crowd of 57,182 out to the newly-constructed Olympic Stadium in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district; a rather large audience, then, still to this day by North American standards, to see two Warsaw Pact nations renew their Eastern Bloc football rivalry on the pitch. This was at this point, in fact, the largest attendance in history for a football match of any kind in Canada.

As regular readers of the “German Football At The Olympics” series here already know, this meeting in Montreal of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics also marked the third occasion in which the D.D.R. and the U.S.S.R. had clashed in the realm of Olympic football.

GERMAN DEMOCROTIC REPUBLIK
===========================

GK – Juergen CROY ——————— (Sachsenring Zwickau : 86 caps)
DF – Hans Juergen DOERNER —— (Dynamo Dresden : 96 caps, 8 go)
DF – Gerd KISCHE ———————– (Hansa Rostock : 59 caps, 0 go)
DF – Konrad WEISE ——————— (FC Carl Zeiss Jena : 78 caps, 1 go)
DF – Lothar KURBJUWEIT ——— (FC Carl Zeiss Jena : 59 caps, 3 go)
MF – Hartmut SCHADE ————— (Dynamo Dresden : 28 caps, 4 go)
MF – Reinhard HAEFNER ———– (Dynamo Dresden : 54 caps, 4 go)
MF – Renhard LAUCK —————– (Dynamo Berlin : 30 caps, 3 go)
FW – Martin HOFFMANN ———— (FC Magdeburg : 62 caps, 15 go)
FW – Gert HEIDLER ——————— (Dynamo Dresden : 9 caps, 2 go)
FW – Wolfram LOEWE —————– (Lokomotive Leipzig : 42 caps, 12 go)

substitutes
——————
none

=======================================================

=======================================================

UNION of SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
================================

GK – Vladimir ASTAPOVSKY ——– (CSKA Moscow : 11 caps)
DF – Viktor MATVIYENKO ———– (Dynamo Kiev : 21 caps, 0 go)
DF – Stefan RESHKO ———————- (Dynamo Kiev : 15 caps, 0 go)
DF – Viktor ZVYAGINTSEV ———- (Dynamo Kiev : 13 caps, 1 go)
DF – Vladimir TROSHKIN ————- (Dynamo Kiev : 31 caps, 1 go)
MF – Vladimir VEREMEYEV ——— (Dynamo Kiev : 26 caps, 2 go)
MF – Leonid BURYAK ——————- (Dynamo Kiev : 49 caps, 8 go)
MF – Viktor KOLOTOV —————— (Dynamo Kiev : 55 caps, 22 go)
MF – Alexander MINAYEV ———— (Dynamo Moscow : 22 caps, 4 go)
FW – Oleg BLOKHIN ———————- (Dynamo Kiev : 112 caps, 42 go)
FW – Vladimir ONISCHENKO ——– (Dynamo Kiev : 44 caps, 11 go)

substitutes
——————
MF – Vladimir FEDOROV ————— (FC Pakhtakor Tashkent : 18 caps, 0 go)
for Onischenko – 71st min
DF – Mikhail FOMENKO —————– (Dynamo Kiev : 24 caps, 0 go)
for Zvyagintsev – 71st min

=======================================================

=======================================================

The Olympic semifinal in the iconic French-Canadien city at the 1976 Summer Games was the eleventh time in which the East Germany and the Soviet Union had met in international football competition. FIFA used to count some Olympic qualification and final tournament as “full” international matches for their records but reversed what was always something of a confusing policy, anyway, and does no longer. That, however, is a story for another day.

Heading into the match at the Montreal’s brand new Olympic Stadium in Montreal, the Soviets had not defeated the East Germans in football since May of 1962, just a few months before construction work began on what became the notorious Berlin Wall.

07/60 … USSR 1 DDR 0 … Leipzig (70,000) …. friendly
05/62 … USSR 2 DDR 1 … Moscow (70,000) … friendly
05/64 … DDR 1 USSR 1 … Leipzig (80,000) ….. Olympic qualifier
06/64 … DDR 1 USSR 1 … Moscow (85,000) … Olympic qualifier
06/64 … DDR 4 USSR 1 … Warsaw (20,000) … Olympic qualifier
10/66 … DDR 2 USSR 2 … Moscow (50,000) … friendly
07/69 … DDR 2 USSR 2 … Leipzig (90,000) ….. friendly
09/72 … DDR 2 USSR 2 … Munich (80,000) …. Olympic Bronze Medal Match
10/73 … DDR 1 USSR 0 … Leipzig (40,000) ….. friendly
09/75 … DDR 0 USSR 0 … Moscow (25,000) … friendly

Montreal ’76 : Iran v Soviet Union

========================================================================

Twenty years had passed since the SOVIET UNION last won the Olympic gold medal for football at the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne, Australia, although the U.S.R.R. did earn a share of the bronze medal at Munich in 1972. IRAN did not get past the first round at the ’72 Olympics after suffering heavy losses to Denmark and silver medalists Hungary but did manage to upset always-skillful Brazil before bowing out. This was the historical scenario casting its shadow over the Olympic quarterfinal match to be played at the tiny Municipal Stadium in Sherbrooke.

After sticking with the Startelf for the Soviets’ first two matches, trainer VALERY LOBANOVSKY made four changes to the U.S.S.R. first team for the quarterfinal with the Iranians. One of those was injury-enforced as Dynamo Kiev defender and experienced international ANATOLI KONKOV had gone out early in the final Group D match against North Korea while Dynamo Kiev rearguard STEFAN RESHKO, the oldest field player for the Soviet Union at 29 years of age, was outright dropped. Their replacements were yet two more Dynamo Kiev men in MIKHAIL FOMENKO, who had finished the previous contest in place of Konkov, and 25-year-old centerback VIKTOR ZVYAGINTSEV.

VLADIMIR VEREMEYEV of Dynamo Kiev, who grabbed the second Soviet goal in the 3-0 triumph over the North Koreans, was sat down in favor of FC Pakhtakor Tashkent midfielder VLADIMIR FEDOROV, the 20-year-old who had already appeared in the Soviets’ first two Olympic games as a substitute. And, veteran U.S.S.R. international VLADIMIR ONISCHENKO, the Dynamo Kiev attacker who scored both goals against host nation Canada in the Soviets’ opener at Montreal, lost his spot to 21-year-old forward LEONID NAZARENKO of army club CSKA Moscow. Both Onischenko and Veremeyev would be called off the bench and sent out onto the pitch by Lobanovsky inside the final half hour against Iran, however.

========================================================================

========================================================================
Iran ’76 Olympic and ’78 World Cup defender ANDRANIK ESKANDARIAN (2) of the New York Cosmos runs with the North American Soccer League championship trophy after the New York Cosmos defeated the Seattle Sounders 1-0 to win the 1982 Soccer Bowl at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.
========================================================================

Iran had put up the proverbial good fight against defending Olympic gold medalist Poland earlier in Group C play and had even initially gone to the lead against the 3rd place team from the 1974 FIFA World Cup. The Iranians fielded a Startelf for the quarterfinal opposite the Soviets which featured three veterans from the ’72 Olympic squad including competent goalkeeper NACER HEJAZI of FC Taj Tehran, the 26-year-old who had kept the sheet clean against Brazil at the Munich Games. Perhaps more importantly, eight of the eleven in the Iranian first team were destined to appear at the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina.

The Iranian backline was able to keep Dynamo Kiev superstar striker OLEG BLOKHIN, the current European Footballer of the Year selection, at bay throughout the entire contest. But 21-year-old midfielder ALEXANDER MINAYEV of Dynamo Moscow managed to break the ice for the Soviet Union five minutes for the halftime break. Then the in-coming Zvyagintsev, who scored exactly one goal in 13 ‘full’ internationals for the U.S.S.R. in his career, provided a pivotal second strike against Iran in Sherbrooke with a little over twenty minutes to play.

Iran pulled out all the stops and sent on an extra attacker in striker GHOLAM HOSSAN MAZLOUMI of FC Shahin Tehran, the 27-year-old who had shot the game-winning goal against Cuba in the first round. Soviet nerve buckled a bit when the Persians were awarded a penalty kick in the 82nd minute and Iran captain PARVIZ GELICHKHANI, the three-time Olympic veteran who later signed to play for the San Jose Earthquakes in the North American Soccer League in 1978, was able to shoot past Soviet goalkeeper VLADIMIR ASTAPOVSKY of army club CSKA Moscow from the spot to set up a frantic finish. But an equalizer never did materialize for the miniscule crowd of 5,855 on hand at the Municipal Stadium and so it was the U.S.S.R. who marched into the semifinals of the ’76 Summer Games with the 2-1 defeat of Iran.

=========================================================================

========================================================================
U.S.S.R. striker OLEG BLOKHIN of Dynamo Kiev, who netted six goals when the Soviets earned a share of the bronze medal at the 1972 Munich Games, was kept off the scoresheet by Iran in the ’76 Olympic quarterfinal match at the tiny Municipal Stadium in Sherbrooke but, nevertheless, did advance to the medal round for the second time in as many tournaments at the Summer Games.

Montreal ’76 : Games of Group D

======================================
Striker OLEG BLOKHIN of Dynamo Kiev, the all-time goal-scoring king for the senior national team of the UNION of SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, scored the seventh and final goal of his career at the Summer Olympic Games in the final Group D match of the ’76 Montreal Games opposite the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa.
======================================

As we have already discussed here at the blog, host nation CANADA dropped both of its first round Olympic football matches to the communist pair of the SOVIET UNION and NORTH KOREA.

This arranged a winner-take-all affair between the U.S.S.R. and the upstart North Koreans, still only ten years removed from a most famous upset of Italy at the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England, at modest Lansdowne Park in Ottawa. North Korea, by virtue of goal-differential, could be content with a draw in the Canadian capital city. Neither side would be happy with second place in the group, though, and the expected corresponding quarterfinal match with defending Olympic champion Poland that would bring.

Soviet trainer VLADIMIR LOBANOVSKY, who steered Ukranian club Dynamo Kiev to the 1975 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup title, sent out the same side to confront North Korea that had downed Canada 2-1 on the strength of two goals from VLADIMIR ONISCHENKO, one of nine Dynamo Kiev players in the Startelf. Only twelve minutes into the match at Lansdowne Park, the reliable ANATOLI KONKOV was injured and would miss the rest of the tournament. This development would deprive the Soviets of an experienced defender (47 caps) who could get forward and score (eight goals).

=============================

=============================
Czechoslovakia captain KAROL DOBIAS (left) of Spartak Trnava watches as Soviet Union defender ANATOLI KONKOV of Dynamo Kiev jumps up to avoid the sliding challenge of Czechoslovakia midfielder JOZEF SAJANEK of Inter Bratislava during the international friendly in Kosice which resulted in a 2-2 tie on March 10, 1976.
=============================

Konkov’s place would be taken by Dynamo Kiev teammate MIKHAIL FOMENKO, the 27-year-old who earned 24 ‘full’ caps for the U.S.S.R. in his career; of the fifteen field players on the ’76 Olympic squad, no less than eleven were also under the direction of Lobanovsky at Dynamo Kiev, the reigning domestic champion in the Soviet Union.

Soon after Kolotov went down, the Soviets received a lift from another of the U.S.S.R. Startelf that had lost the 1972 UEFA European Championships 3-0 to West Germany. VIKTOR KOLOTOV, the 27-year-old Dynamo Kiev attacking midfielder who also collected a bronze medal at the ’72 Munich Games, notched his fourth career goal for the Soviet Union at the Summer Olympics from the penalty spot in the 16th minute. The North Koreans never really did recover.

The Soviets applied the coup de grace with a pair of strikes in the closing stages. Midfielder VLADIMIR VEREMEYEV, yet another Dynamo Kiev man, doubled the score with just under ten minutes remaining in the match. Star striker OLEG BLOKHIN, the current European Player of the Year from Dynamo Kiev who registered six goals for the U.S.S.R. at the Munich Games four years earlier, tacked on a third for the Soviet Union in the 89th minute.

=================================

=================================
Midfielder VIKTOR KOLOTOV of Dynamo Kiev, who scored the first goal for the U.S.S.R. in the group-winning 3-0 victory over North Korea at the 1976 Summer Olympics, ranks as the fifth leading goal-scorer on the all-time chart for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
=================================

1976 Summer Olympic Games
First Round, Group D
=====================

7/19 … 24,591 … Olympic Stadium, Montreal …. Soviet Union 2 – Canada 1
7/21 … 12,638 … Varsity Stadium, Toronto ……. North Korea 3 – Canada 1
7/23 … 15,233 … Lansdowne Park, Ottawa ……… Soviet Union 3 – North Korea 0