They were ready to fight back
Young people hungry for victories, titles and trophies are capable of great things in football. To prepare them, experienced and qualified players, coaches and managers are needed for a while. This is when the ascent to football Olympus is gradual and unstoppable. This was proven by the Labor Reserves from Luhansk in the 1960s.
The striker Oleksandr Gulevskyi, who played in the leading teams of Soviet football (at the age of 22-24 he was three times included in the list of the 33 best players in the country), was invited to Luhansk in 1957, he had a virtuoso technique and a goal-scoring flair, He was a powerful and accurate shot with both feet, a master of standards, organizer and conductor of the team's attacks, in the 1961 season, at the age of 33, in 33 matches he scored 29 goals against opponents (56 goals in total), and the goal record of the Luhansk football club has not been surpassed so far.
Labor reserves in the USSR championship, class B, the second zone of 19 participants, in 1960 - third, 1961 - second, 1962 - first. For the second time in the club's history (the first time in Dzerzhynets, 1938), they won the title of champions of Ukraine! This achievement meant the transition to competitions among elite teams, Class A. But another reform in Soviet football took place, Class A was divided into two parts, the first and second (the modern equivalent of the Premier League and the First League) - TR was moved to the lower one.
During the winning season, they played two stages, the main and the final, 34 matches, 20 wins, 9 draws, 5 defeats, 74 goals scored, 33 conceded. In the final tournament, they were stronger than Chornomorets and SKA from Odesa, Avangard from Simferopol, Polissya from Zhytomyr, and Metallurg from Zaporizhzhia, to whom they never lost. Gold awards went to: O. Kotenko, V. Gureev, V. Galustov (cap), D. Kostenko, I. Balaba, Y. Pryimak, E. Volchenkov, Vyach. Pershin, G. Dzhafarov (goalkeeper, missed 24 out of 28 matches), G. Degtyarev, O. Panfyorov, G. Serednyakov, I. Terletskyi, as well as coaches G. Zonin and G. Balaba.
Luhansk played their 200th match in the club's history on the field of Avangard Kramatorsk on 07.07.1962, winning 3-2, scoring goals by Dm. Dmytro Pershin scored twice and Valerii Halustov scored twice.
On 25.07.1962, the reserves played an international match (the 14th in the club's history) with the Swedish team Haik from Gothenburg at their home stadium Avangard, winning 7-2.
The debut in the second group of Class A of the 1963 USSR football championship was successful, they took 5th place out of 18 participants, lost 8 matches, drew 11, won 15, scored 41, and conceded 26.
But in the hearts of football fans, the international meeting on 09.06.1963 with the Brazilian team Fluminense from Rio de Janeiro, which included several world football champions, was forever remembered. The Brazilians' tour of the USSR took place in six cities, in Ukraine only in Luhansk (even Dynamo Kyiv was not able to pay in foreign currency for one match with the famous foreigners). The day before the match, more than 20,000 Luhansk residents filled the stands of the Avangard stadium to watch the training of the ball wizards, and it was the first time in their lives that the locals had seen black people. They responded to the excessive interest of the local fans by demonstrating feints and excessive juggling, which were magical in their beauty and high ball skills.
The excitement was fierce, and the entrance to the stand was not by tickets but by invitations, which were limitedly printed the day before. Despite the three cordons of police cordon, miraculously, 1.5 times as many spectators as usual got into the stands. Several dozen people were injured in the stampede to the entrance to the north stand, and water from fire truck hoses was used to stem the flow of uninvited people.
The visitors won the first half 2-0, and the home team won the second 1-0. After the break, the reserves switched on the 4th gear, played tirelessly, attacked continuously, beat all the Brazilian goalposts and the visitors' goalkeeper “did such things” that left no doubt that the real champions of Brazil and the world were playing against the Labor Reserves. The author of the goal among the hosts was Igor Balaba (born in 1939), a player of the USSR youth national team, a fan idol, played as a striker on the left edge, fascinated the audience with feints, often left opponents at the fifth point, quickly passed behind the backs of defenders, hit the ball on goal with a twist, played 233 matches for TR and Zorya in 8 years, scored 46 goals.
At the end of the tour, the Brazilian coach and players gave an interview published in the popular central newspaper Sport, answering the question about the most interesting match and the most difficult opponent, they said that it was the Labor Reserves in Luhansk.
In the 1964 season, the Luhansk team took the 4th place (in April of this year it received a new unique name - Zorya), in 1965 - the second, in 1966 - the first, in the final tournament among the three group winners defeated Žalgiris from Vilnius and the Political Department from Tashkent, and won a ticket to the Major League of the All-Union Football Championship.
Zorya played its 300th match in the history of the Luhansk football club against Riga's Daugava on 23.04.1965 in front of 16,000 spectators at the Avangard Stadium. The home team's advantage translated into three goals scored by Balaba, Hrekov, and Prodanets.
In December 1965, at the end of the season, Zorya won an incentive tournament in Italy, where they played three matches against teams from Mantova, Reggio di Calabria and Turin, losing two with a score of 0: 1 and ending the third with a zero draw.
On 08/20/1967, Zorya defeated Racing 3-1 in the Libyan capital. In 1969, Zorya played two matches in Bulgaria against Minor Pernik - 7:2 and 2:2, in East Germany against Helne Halle - 2:1 and in Romania against Critsul Oradeo - 0:0.
Zorya played its 400th match in Yerevan on August 28, 1967 in front of 25 thousand spectators against Ararat and lost 0:2.
Zorya played its 500th match in Luhansk on 13.07.1970 with 21 thousand fans watching the game, in the 67th minute the only winning goal was scored by Viacheslav Semenov (passed away on 12.08. 12, 2022, five days short of his 75th birthday, was an idol of Luhansk football fans, with explosive starting speed, ball skills and an accurate shot, dribbling on the field, he delighted the spectators of the match, tireless and unyielding, for many years he taught young football players in Kyiv).
Another important role was played by the invitation to Luhansk to train Herman Semenovych Zonin, a specialist with a modern view of football. His experience abroad and courage to conduct a scientific experiment with young people convinced us that achievements are possible.
Luhansk fans were among the founders of the fan movement in Soviet football, they hired buses or took transfer trains, several trains to watch away games of TR and later Zorya, recorded everything on film, took down posters, They also kept their travel and entrance tickets, recorded their impressions in albums, gathered at the lieutenant's table near the league standings and told local fans firsthand how the events on the field in away matches took place. The founder of the fan movement was Anatolii Matviiovych Krasnoshchek, an archivist by education and work, who was its leader until 2012.
In the 1960s, the leadership of the Luhansk region, the locomotive plant and demanding fans created the necessary conditions for winning gold medals: an ambitious team of naturally gifted young football players was assembled, the stadium was reconstructed, a country training base was built and equipped, a sports boarding school for young talents from the region's districts and cities was established, financial incentives were provided and support for fans and sports communities was ensured on the ground. Modern transportation infrastructure and new hotels were built. The regional and local authorities were not afraid to go beyond the limits of the White Stone - to break the hegemony of the capitals of the Union and the republics of the Soviet Union for the championship, with a team from the regional center from Ukraine.
The capricious Ms. Fortune turns her face to the young, talented and daring, who have made excessive efforts to achieve seemingly unlikely goals and peaks. Zorya Luhansk was the first of many Ukrainian teams to reach the red flags and win gold medals in the 34th USSR Football Championship. It was the seventh team on the highest podium (for all officially recognized championships).
The 1972 champion team received a gold medal: Vladimir Abramov, Yuri Vasenin, Yuri Eliseev, Alexander Zhuravlev (captain), Viktor and Sergey Kuznetsov, Anatoly Kuksov, Vladimir Malygin, Sergey Morozov, Vladimir Onishchenko, Nikolai Pinchuk, Vyacheslav Semenov, Vladimir Starkov, Alexander Tkachenko (goalkeeper), Mikhail Forkash (goalkeeper), senior coach German Zonin, coach Vladislav Glukharev, and team manager Valery Zavenovich Galustov. Eight of the above, thank God, are in good health.
Zorya football team's ascent to the sports horizon of the USSR began in the early 1960s, when Volodymyr Shevchenko was in charge of the economic, social and cultural development of the Luhansk region, and he paid special attention to the development of sports and physical culture. Today we can define his role as a manager of the sports movement, and Luhansk region was ahead of the capital region in terms of the number of sports arenas, indoor gyms, swimming pools, etc. built per capita. V.V. Shevchenko's competitor in Ukraine was his friend, comrade, and like-minded person, equally unselfish, intelligent, honest, and humane, V.I. Degtyarev, a political leader of Donetsk region, a supporter of sports and physical education. Both were punished for their devotion to sports of the highest achievement, removed from office and sent to oblivion.
The football teams of Shakhtar Donetsk and Zorya Luhansk competed with each other, the former winning the Union Cup and the latter winning the Union championship.
The key to Shakhtar's success was the resources, finances, and influence of the Ministry of Coal Industry of Ukraine, located in Donetsk. Taras Shevchenko did not have such a lever. Perhaps due to this, Donetsk region in independent Ukraine already had a foundation for football development and quickly increased its achievements in big football.
The Luhansk team twice made it to the final of the USSR Cup, but lost the trophy to Ararat Yerevan and Dynamo Kyiv. Nevertheless, Zorya's championship is written in golden letters in the history of the Luhansk club, and the harbingers of the honorary title were the 1962 champions of Ukraine - the Labor Reserves.
Moving forward - look at the heritage
More than half a century ago, for the first time in the history of football competitions in the former Soviet Union, a sports team from a rugged regional center of one of the USSR republics won the championship and gold medals, breaking the hegemony of the capital's teams - Kyiv, Moscow and Tbilisi. This achievement of the players, coaches, and managers of Luhansk (then Voroshylovhrad) Zorya back in 1972 should be of interest to fans with both “experience” and young fans of the game in their millions. Let's recall how it happened.
First of all, it should be noted that before the ascent to the football Olympus, the Luhansk team won the Ukrainian SSR championship twice in 1938 and 1962, the Class A (analogous to the First League) in 1966, i.e., it became an elite Soviet football team in 1967.
Zorya finished its debut season under the leadership of Yevhen Horyansky in 16th place out of 19 (8 wins, 13 draws, 15 defeats, goal difference 27-42). The average attendance at the Avangard home stadium reached 28 thousand.
The following season, with a new coaching staff led by Viktor Hureyev, Zorya finished 13th out of 20 participants in the championship (10 wins, 13 draws, 15 defeats, 23-41 difference), and there was a need to renew the roster in all areas, except for goalkeeping, which was mastered convincingly, reliably and for a long time by 20-year-old Oleksandr Tkachenko, the discovery of Soviet football.
In 1969, a group of players began to form that was capable of achievements, purposeful, sharp and combinational in the middle of the field - Oleksandr Zhuravlev, Viacheslav Semenov, Anatolii Kuksov, Viktor Kuznetsov and Heorhii Musienko.
In the final table, they are on the 11th line. The search for scoring strikers and skillful defenders was an urgent one.
In the 1970 season, Herman Semenovych Zonin, who was appointed head coach, formed and played a significantly renewed line of Zorya defenders - Anatolii Shulzhenko (the first Luhansk player to wear the USSR national team shirt), Mykhailo Fomenko, Volodymyr Abramov, Mykola Pinchuk, and Volodymyr Malyhin.
An experienced midfielder Jozsef Szabo, who was invited to Luhansk from Kyiv, set an example of the ability to wage a bold offensive struggle on the opponent's fields, not to give in in martial arts and to observe a sports regimen outside the game. The average age of the players was 23 years, the youngest age among all the opponents. At the start of the championship, three wins and draws, then four defeats, the second round began with a convincing victory over Shakhtar Donetsk - 5: 1, followed by 12 matches without defeat, eventually 5th place out of 17 (10 wins, 14 draws, 8 defeats, goal difference 27-25).
In 1971, Zorya's top scorer and undisputed team leader Jozsef Szabo left the team, while forwards Yurii Yelisieiev (from the understudies), Volodymyr Starkov (transferred from CSKA Moscow), Volodymyr Onyshchenko and Serhii Morozov (both from Dynamo Kyiv) joined the squad and established themselves in their roles. The most valuable acquisition is midfielder Yuriy Vasenin (transferred from Baltika Kaliningrad), a man with two hearts, tireless, ubiquitous, mobile and unyielding on the field and in the game.
Thanks to him, the manager of the Moscow Army, the undisputed football authority Vladimir Fedotov, was “taken out of the game” in the decisive game against the reigning national champion CSKA (they won 2-1 on his field, earlier 2-0 at home, with Zorya midfielders Vyacheslav Semenov and Viktor Kuznetsov scoring two goals each).
The team finished the pre-championship season in 4th place out of 16 (11 wins, 11 draws, 8 defeats, 29-23 difference, average attendance of 31,200 spectators).
Thus, the Luhansk team gradually improved to the main achievement, both in the quality and intensity of the game, the growth of team and individual skills, aggressive offense and reliability in defense, and the tournament standings of the Union Championship.
To reach the stars
Prior to the highest sporting take-off in the history of the Luhansk club, football club Zorya had been training for three years with intense loads both in its hometown and at training camps in the south. This allowed the players to restore their overall performance in a short time, develop special skills, and improve their ball handling techniques. Such training accustomed the 22-25-year-olds' bodies to performing a large amount of work in any match, both in attack and defense. Everyone knew how and what to do on the field of play.
The highlight of the coach's innovation was to make the game automatic, when the strikers and midfielders fight for the ball in all areas of the field, do not give the opponent a single moment to breathe and attack the defenders, depriving them of the opportunity to pass sharp passes forward.
The middle line plays the main role in a team that plays a tense, intense game, ensuring an advantage over the opponent and ultimately victory. Zorya coach Herman Semenovych Zonin managed to forge excellent midfielders through trial and error. Of these, two are unchanged on the edges: on the right - Yuriy Vasenin, tireless, in time everywhere, constantly free to pass to partners, tenacious and skillful in selection; on the left - Viktor Kuznetsov, tireless, accurately passing even in a very difficult game situation, swift in attack, able to anticipate the development of the game, with two kicking legs, the ability to jump high, punch with his head and score from the second floor.
In the center of the midfield: unchanged - Vyacheslav Semenov (Turkish by father), a virtuoso in taming the ball, a master of gracefully beating the opponent, acted on the field both as a conductor and as a soloist, ignited the fans in the stands with successful various techniques of circling; Anatoliy Kuksov - skillfully supported the team's attack, with the ability to give a “vertical” pass to the free zone, convenient for partners and hidden for opponents, a player with a well-placed shot, in the penalty area of the opponents, his appearance led to unpleasant consequences for them.
Oleksandr Zhuravlev, a reliable central defender with experience as a forward, sportsmanship and dedication on the field, football intelligence, the ability to “read the game” and predict the development of events in each episode of the match, was always ready to join this quartet if necessary and benefit the team in attack.
In the Zorya camp, there were two equally skilled, experienced and proven goalkeepers.
The main goalkeeper, Oleksandr Tkachenko, was brought up as a striker in the Kupyansk Children and Youth Sports School, and after entering the Lysychansk Mining College, he wanted to join the local football team, which lacked only a goalkeeper, so he volunteered, passed the test, received an invitation to the main team of Luhansk region and thus drew a lucky ticket - revealed his natural talent for skillfully and reliably defending the goal. During goal-kicking drills, he deliberately deflected his teammates' shots in front of him, forcing the scorers to finish the ball with all their might, each time from a closer distance, thus improving his ability to “keep the goal dry.”
His understudy, Mykhailo Forkash (Hungarian by birth), invited to Luhansk from Avtomobilist Zhytomyr, the opening team of the second group A football championship, always emotionally untouched, skillfully chose his position on the goal line when the opponent's attack approached him, predicted the direction and force of the attackers' kick based on their kick at the ball. From his penalty area, he would take the ball to the opposing team's half, hitting it “from the double” (after bouncing off the lawn), so the ball would reach the addressee in a low trajectory very quickly.
The task of the coaching staff at the beginning of 1972 was to find and select additional players for the offensive and defensive lines with the ability to qualitatively strengthen the team.
Because simple fate was as boring as rain in the fall
All the coaches who worked in Luhansk (among them are well-known Hryhorii Balaba, 1961, Konstantin Beskov, 1965), and especially Herman Zonin, noted that local footballers perceive training work professionally, seriously, creatively, habitually, and take heavy loads for granted.
It was Herman Semenovych Zonin who managed to develop a team character in his players, and the main thing in it is a combination of two traits - selfless love for football and greedy diligence. The team agreed to a reduction in rest after the end of the 1971 championship season and continued physical and technical training in the amounts set for each individual and under proper medical supervision.
Already in January 1972, Zorya players traveled south, settled in a hotel on the waterfront of Sukhumi. Sukhumi, and trained in Esheri, at the local stadium. Since the training sessions were conducted by more than one team, daily, on the clock and in turn, in two weeks the green lawn became completely dirt, and in rainy weather the athletes ran in the mud. The schedule for the day was as follows: exercise for 30 minutes in the morning, breakfast, studying football theory and familiarization with modern trends in the game for 30-40 minutes, the first training session from 11 to 12, lunch, rest, the second training session from 17.00, dinner, free time and sleep.
Immediately after the vacation, for 2-3 weeks, we ran 5 and 10 km cross-country runs, exercises for starting jerk, sprint and distance speed, smooth running, jogging, interval, tempo and shuttle running, which taught the body to save strength and energy.
Tactical training on the field alternated with control matches, about once a week. The sparring partners were teams from Kazakhstan, Kuzbass and the North Korean national team. The latter went to exercise, train, and even go for walks, to the beach, and to the dining room in formation, while they played tirelessly, aggressively, and in bulk.
Zorya's coaches wanted and willingly invited such an opponent. they lost to CSKA Moscow with a score of 0:5. At that time, a special correspondent from Sportivna Gazeta, who was present at the match in Eszery and had come from Kyiv, asked the head coach about Zorya's chances in the upcoming championship: - “Hopefully, we'll be in the top ten, but we'll see.” Zonin added nothing more.
The team spent February at home. Luhansk fans, who met their favorites at the stadium when they arrived from the country base, were surprised by the players' appearance - exhausted, emaciated, bags in their sagging hands almost dragged on the asphalt. It seemed that at home they were “neither happy with borsch nor happy with tea.”
In the matches for the USSR Cup, 1/16 finals, with Odesa's Chornomorets on February 29 in Sukhumi 0:0 and on March 4 in Odesa 0:0 (penalties 3:5). They did not win a single game out of five control games or the cup.
In addition, on the eve of the start of the championship, two players of the main squad were lost, with striker Kuksov and fullback Shulzhenko suffering serious injuries. With the promise of a gold medal, central defender Mykhailo Fomenko was invited to Dynamo Kyiv. In the winter, the team parted ways with power-style defender S. Shklyar and striker Lysakovsky (2 goals). In addition, on August 13, 1971, in a match against Zenit, the first Zorya goalkeeper O. Tkachenko was hit in the head by a forward and sustained a serious injury (according to doctors' instructions, the recovery period was not earlier than the beginning of the second round).
His understudy Mykhailo Forkash conceded only 10 goals in the final 12 matches of last season, and in 4 of them he kept the goal dry.
The ambitious regional management, with the best of intentions, invited several newcomers to Luhansk to fill vacant positions in the first team, “imposing” them on the coaching staff, but Zonin assured that the understudies tested at the training camp are the best so far.
Four players gained the trust of the head coach as regular players in the first team.
Volodymyr Malyhin - the position of the front center back, you can't run away from him, skillfully took the ball from a speedy striker in the run-up, could hang on the “second floor” and prevent the opponent from scoring a header, tenacious in the selection, on standards, all the leather canopies intercepted on the goal post closest to the ball, played well in the pass, boldly ran out on the attack, acting useful.
Serhii Kuznetsov (Viktor's brother) - right-back, with the makings of an attacking midfielder, fast, accurate in tackling and passing, skillfully joined the middle line, and when necessary and appropriate, was able to hit the goal with a long-range shot from both feet.
Yuriy Yeliseyev - the center forward played with passion, inventive in choosing a position for a one-touch shot, with a cut, both foot and head after flank shots from partners.
Serhii Morozov was a midfielder prone to creative play, a good passer, a clever passer from one end to the other, a master at creating acute situations in the attack that were beneficial to his teammates.
Two or three weeks before the championship, the fans were surprised for the second time. The training sessions, which were also full of physical exertion, no longer resembled the brutal “self-torture” that the demanding Zorya supporters had witnessed last season. In the running, which looked like a light fluttering over the field, in the soft stealth of movements with the ball, in the reckless generosity with which the players spent their energy on high-speed jerks and martial arts, one could guess an unusual charge of game power.
Not everything happens as fast as fairy tales tell us
The decisive season in the sporting growth of the main football team of the industrial region was preceded by ten years of building and developing an extensive transport and socio-cultural infrastructure, massive construction of various sports grounds, swimming pools, athletics arenas, stadiums, bicycle tracks, gyms for summer and winter training, and popularization of a healthy lifestyle among workers, peasants, youth and children.
In 1961, when Volodymyr Vasylovych Shevchenko (born in 1918 in the Luhansk region, a veteran of the war) was appointed head of the political leadership of Luhansk Oblast, the only interregional transportation in the region was bus service. It was possible to get to other regions from Luhansk by rail only to the stations of Ilovaysk and Yasynovata, where cars were attached to trains heading for Kyiv and other regional centers of Ukraine and the Soviet Union. The joint efforts of the workers in the regional center built a modern railway station (with an overpass similar to those in Western countries), a bus station (the second in Europe at the time in terms of design and passenger capacity) and an airport (the runway could even accommodate a TU-144 jet airliner).
In 1970, the Luhansk region was ahead of Moscow and Leningrad regions in terms of the number of newly built sports facilities per 100,000 people, and was the first in the USSR to build a swimming pool with water that was not purified with chlorine, (with lanes of 50 meters), an indoor track and field arena, dozens of gyms with heating, hot water and spectator stands for training and competitions in volleyball, basketball, handball, boxing, wrestling and gymnastics.
The football arena reconstructed in Luhansk, the Avangard Stadium, had stands for more than 40,000 spectators, and the football field was covered not with tarpaulin but with PVC film in the cold season (which was actually stolen from us and installed at the main arena of the USSR, Luzhniki Stadium, by a strong-willed decision from Moscow).
In addition to football, Luhansk was represented in sports competitions by volleyball (women's Iskra and men's Avtomobilist), basketball (men's Spartak), handball (men's Burevestnik) and motorcycle teams.
The rapid development of machine-building industries, coal mining and processing, metal and glass smelting, chemical enterprises, knitwear, footwear, underwear, and confectionery production (Planeta, Ryaba Chicken, Shakhtarsky cake are known on 1/6 of the world's landmass) has helped the city to gain unprecedented scale.
The construction of water supply systems for growing vegetables, fruits, potatoes, and cereals, as well as numerous facilities for cattle and dairy breeds, was gaining unprecedented momentum.
In the regional center, cities and districts, a massive program of housing construction, commercial, educational, cultural, medical and social institutions, and street improvements was carried out at a high pace.
The regional theater, circus and philharmonic (with an organ) were built. Luhansk region has become attractive to citizens from other regions of the country. This has helped to attract the best teachers, scientists, cultural and sports figures.
The Luhansk Diesel Locomotive Production Association employed 45,000 workers, engineers and other specialists, all of whom paid monthly trade union dues from their salaries, part of which was used to develop physical culture and sports. This included the maintenance of the plant's sports club, Avangard stadium, suburban sports and tourist centers, children's camps, health and medical facilities, and the provision and financing of the plant's physical education and football teams, including the Zorya team.
It was the sponsoring enterprise that the players and coaches visited to report to the public in the spring of 1972. Workers and numerous fans demanded that the team finally win medals.
The silver medalists of the all-Union volleyball championship, the Iskra team, urged the players to follow their example.
There are no great achievements out of nothing, and it was up to the players and coaches of the main football team from Luhansk to prove this truth.
Going on a union run
Zorya's 3-0 victory over Dynamo Kyiv in the opening round of the 1972 USSR football championship was the first in eight previous attempts, and the 29-year-old forward of the current national champion, Vitalii Khmelnytskyi, was “appointed” the culprit for the loss, as he was “supposed” to score (the Luhansk goalkeeper's skill saved the team from a goal).
Three days later, Luhansk was visited by the reigning winner of the Soviet Union Cup, Spartak Moscow, the vast majority of whose players held the title of masters of sports and international class.
On Saturday afternoon, April 08, the Avangard stadium was packed with 37,000 fans, at least half of whom came from all the district centers, mining towns and villages of Luhansk Oblast on departmental buses of trade unions of enterprises, collective and state farms.
Those in the know knew that the leader of the country, Leonid Brezhnev, was rooting for the visiting team. The head of the Luhansk region was on friendly terms with him, but he carefully developed sports in his native land.
The Spartak team was defeated in the first round by the Rostov Army, hoping to please their fans in a match against the team that created a sensation by beating the gold medal winners.
The Spartak team consisted of players from the Soviet Union's national team: goalkeeper O. Prokhorov, defenders M. Abramov, S. Olshansky, G. Logofet, E. Lovchev, and midfielder V. Papaev. Their coach was Mykyta Symonyan, a well-known player and coach in the country and abroad.
His counterpart, Luhansk coach Herman Zonin, recognized the opponent's weak link - the offense and strong link - the defense, as well as the midfield play of Viktor Papaev, number 2 in the list of the 33 best players in the Union.
Zorya midfielder Serhii Kuznetsov was given the task of playing personally against Papaev, preventing him from receiving the ball freely, directing the game, and passing freely to his teammates.
Having broken the connection between defense and offense, Zorya players ran into the attack every 2-3 minutes with a final blow on the Spartak goal, they fought back steadfastly and desperately, but it was noticeable that they often chaotically did not have time to cover the attackers.
The result of the hosts' game advantage, who acted purposefully, intensely, quickly and tirelessly, was three goals scored by Yuriy Yelisieiev (twice) and Volodymyr Onyshchenko. Zorya's middle line dominated the field, and only the experience and skill of Oleksandr Prokhorov saved them from a shameful defeat with a bigger score.
Mykola Kyselov, who played for Zorya until 1967, fought passionately in the midfield for Spartak as if for the last time in his life, and he scored the only goal for the hosts. In addition to him, 22-year-old defender Yevhen Lovchev should be singled out, who was recognized as the best football player in the USSR in 1972.
The final whistle of the referee's match recorded Zorya's 3-1 victory.
For several years in a row, the leadership of the Luhansk region noted a significant overfulfillment of plans for the production of industrial and agricultural products and consumer goods, coal mining and metal smelting after the match victories of local sports teams at all-Union competitions. These were the realities of union life.
Do not spare the sides of others
Most football players tend to give their all when playing in their “home” stadium, believing that a large part of their diligence on the field depends on their location, as if it were their own body
In the early 1970s, coaches in Soviet football were tempted by the strategy of winning a prize: win at home (and you will have two points in the standings) and draw away (one point), then you will score 75% of the points and be guaranteed the title of “champion team.”
Zorya's coach Herman Zonin proved to his players and instilled in them the idea that in order to move the competitors who want to take the first place, they need to win on the opponents' fields, and not just ordinary, random ones, but convincing ones, excluding the possible factor of influence on the result by biased refereeing or mistakes by the match referee.
In the 1970 season, an ambitious team from Luhansk claimed a prize, but missed the chance (in the final 4 matches, they scored only two points). The referee V. Tolchinsky from Alma-Ata was somewhat to blame for the match with Spartak on his field, the outcome of the fundamental game was affected by gross mistakes of the referee, Zorya lost (1-2), and Spartak won the bronze medal.
Luhansk's opponent in the 3rd round of the 1972 USSR football championship, according to the competition calendar, was Dynamo Moscow. At that time, this team, led by the eminent coach Konstantin Beskov (seven years ago he coached Zorya, since then two of the current team - Oleksandr Zhuravlev and Anatoliy Shulzhenko - have successfully overcome three stages in the UEFA Cup tournament, started the season in March (won a match against Red Star Belgrade) and on April 05 drew with German Dynamo Berlin in East Berlin.
The return match for the European Cup final was expected to take place on April 19, three days before the Soviet Union championship match between Dynamo and Zorya.
Nominally, the Moscow team was the host, but for reasons of preserving the quality of the field in Bilokamianna on the eve of the UEFA game, it chose the stadium of the city of Lviv as the venue for the meeting with Zorya.
On April 15, 24,000 spectators gathered in the stands of the Lviv arena. They see Jozsef Szabo, one of the leading former players of Dynamo Kyiv, Zorya, and the Soviet Union national team, and they greet him on the field with whistles and shouts of discontent. He understands everything, the game didn't start right away, he was fussing, the ball didn't stay in his feet, the passes didn't reach his teammates, and he asked for a replacement. Konstantin Ivanovich Beskov responded and put another player on the field.
“Zorya seized the initiative, imposed its own game, did not yield in combat in all areas of the field, changed directions of attack from one edge to the opposite, using long passes. It was the accelerating game that was the hallmark of Dynamo Moscow, and Zonin's team deprived the opponent of this trump card. His team included the leading players in union football: goalkeeper Pilguy, defenders Yevryuzhikhin, Dolmatov, Basalaev, and Makhovikov, midfielders Estrekov, Jakubik, and Gershkovich, and strikers Kozlov, Zhukov, and Baidachny.
Even in the short and medium passing game, Luhansk outperformed their experienced and skillful opponents.
The confrontation between the ambitious teams kept the spectators in suspense, but they enthusiastically, with a standing ovation, greeted the team from Ukraine when Zorya striker Volodymyr Onyshchenko managed to put the ball into the net of the hosts' goal from Moscow.
Beskow's team proved its skill and strength in three days when it defeated teammates from the capital of the GDR (1:1 at home and 1:1 there) in a penalty shootout (4:1) and reached the UEFA Cup final with Scottish Rangers.
Jozsef Szabo, who spent the 1970-1971 season in Luhansk, played a significant and decisive role in Dynamo's victorious run in international competitions, inspiring Zorya's youth to be unyielding in home and away games, to continuously improve their skills, to see the field and read the game. He will return to Zorya as a senior coach in five years, discovering and bringing future football stars from among the pupils of Luhansk football to the main team.
Some are ahead of others
“Thousands try not to lose, hundreds hope to win, but only a few become champions.” - Herman Zonin.
Zorya's second away match on Lokomotiv's pitch, which was unsuitable for playing, with gaps and bumps, waterlogged and viscous, ended in a 0-0 draw on April 24, 1972.
Upon returning to Luhansk, the players attended a regular meeting at the locomotive builders' union during the May holidays, where they reported on the results of the first month of the competition (four wins and one draw). We learned that if the winning march continues, the bosses will take care of more significant incentives for players, coaches and employees (apartments, provision of consumer goods, additional bonuses, etc.).
On the eve of May 3, the team of the Central Army Sports Club arrived in the regional center from Moscow in advance. Since the stadium hosted traditional athletics competitions, the guests were offered a field on the outskirts of Luhansk, at the children's and youth football school.
The national champions of the 1970 season, players of various national teams were surprised to see three fields covered with thick and already green grass, and around them original homemade simulators for the development of ball handling techniques, with tall wooden boards with the contours of a regular-sized goal (marking squares from one to nine) for practicing an accurate, aimed shot. There are also houses for permanent residence, with showers and heated water, a power supply unit, etc. And all for the kids!
One of the indigenous residents of Bilokamyana said: “We have seen with our own eyes how Zorya recruits technically gifted original reservists year after year.” If only they knew that future masters of sports Zavarov, Malyshenko, Hrytsenko, Polukarov, Sorokalet and others were closely watching their training. The boys were trained by Boris Fomichev and Yevhen Dvurechensky.
Prior to that, a sports boarding school for gifted boys and girls was established and operated in Luhansk two years ago, combining secondary school education with sports training and accommodation at the expense of the local budget. Vadym Dmytrovych Dobizhu, a graduate of the Lesgaft Physical Education Institute, was appointed director of the sports boarding school, and he gave a ticket to big football to many young talents from all cities, district centers and villages of Luhansk region.
On May 3, it was a Wednesday, and in the evening, after completing their work shifts, 33 thousand fans came from different parts of the region, visited the main football arena and filled the stands. They saw a tense match between two unyielding teams. The events on the field showed a hard game, as they say, a scythe found a stone, the opponents studied each other well, knew what to expect, where and from whom the threat to the goal would come, and diligently blocked the attackers, leaving them no opportunity to strike. Interestingly, the opponents were well prepared physically, managing to extinguish each other's attacks.
Nevertheless, the hosts, represented by Volodymyr Onyshchenko, who successfully played ahead of the game, achieved the desired result - a 1-0 victory.
On May 7, a Sunday, the apple did not fall where it might at Avangard, 40 thousand spectators were eagerly awaiting another victory for their favorite team over the team from the banks of the Neva.
It was in a match last season that Zenit striker V. Golubev severely injured Luhansk's main goalkeeper Oleksandr Tkachenko, who had been undergoing treatment and recovery since August 13 of that year. Zenit knew that revenge on the field could not be avoided and prepared for a tough match.
In the first half of the first half, a diagonal long pass was made from the right side of Zorya's left to the defender Serhiy Kuznetsov. Since he broke through at high speed to the corner of the Zenit penalty area and was already being “covered” by the opponents, he shot the ball from the top of the goal line. And from the opposite flank, attacking partners Eliseev and Onishchenko ran to close the pass, but the first to get to the leather was the guest defender A. Lokhov. The shot was so strong and slightly angled for receiving and handling the ball, he could only knock it out, but it was cut into his own net - and an automatic goal.
Minutes before the break, Serhiy's brother Viktor Kuznetsov scored again. The visitors got lucky in the second half and reduced the score.
Thus, the match ended with a 2-1 victory for Zorya. There seemed to be no end to the joy in the stands. Once again, production and mining targets were being exceeded, and the political authorities were reporting successes.
Waving at the whirlwind
Gifted people, and athletes in particular, are too prone to think that work should be easy for them. However, you need to exert yourself constantly if you want to achieve something great.
On the eve of the 7th round of the 34th USSR football championship, the locomotive builders had 11 points out of 12 possible and were solely in first place in the table.
On May 16, 1972, on a Tuesday evening, Zorya came out to play with the silver medalist of the previous season on the Razdan field, which had a capacity of 36 thousand spectators. During the teams' warm-up, one of the fans who had come from Luhansk shouted a chant that was common at away stadiums at the time: “Whoever supports Ararat is hungry for other people's grapes!” with the intention of knocking the hosts out of psychological balance.
It is not known whether the players from Yerevan were affected by this provocation, but they started off hesitantly, unable to immediately master the high-speed breakthroughs from both flanks and in the center of Zorya's midfielders and strikers. From the outside, it was obvious that the combination play of the Luhansk team was making the Caucasian players dizzy, they were constantly late, not in time everywhere, and were surprised by the actions of the opponent.
They fought back desperately, with goalkeeper Alyosha Abramyan rushing like a lion to intercept balls at the top and bottom corners of the goal. But he was also caught off guard in the first half by a stunning solo pass to a “killer” position for a shot by Zorya's black midfielder Vyacheslav Semenov (of Turkish descent), who passed through several Ararat defenders.
After the break, another Zorya midfielder, Yuriy Vasenin, entertained the spectators. He covered the left edge from his own penalty area to the corner of the opponent's field, from the word “completely”. Moreover, he skillfully took the ball away from the visitors' strikers, and when he lost it, he chased the opponent until he got it back, and before that, he made sharp passes to his teammates. The spectators jumped to their feet when he responded to O. Zanazanyan's goal with a personal winner for the visitors - 2: 1!
On May 21, in Tbilisi, the local Dynamo players had a chance to catch up with the championship leader, as they were two points behind Zorya, they carefully and repeatedly watched the opponent's game against the Armenian team, received instructions on how to play against opponents, and most importantly, the promise of increased bonuses for a victory at home. After all, it was not for nothing that they had the status of bronze medalists last year, playing in front of 40,000 Georgian football fans. And they did not disappoint - they responded to Viktor Kuznetsov's goal with two - Givi Nodia and Asatiani. Zorya's first defeat was in the 8th round, and they were tied for the championship with the Georgians, with 13 points each.
The next match was played in 9 days and was the third in a row on the road. It was in Baku. The guests looked tired, perhaps eager to be back in their native Luhansk. There was a shortage of leading defenders, with Serhiy Kuznetsov and Volodymyr Abramov unable to play due to injuries. Anatoliy Shulzhenko had just returned from the hospital after not playing for two months and entered the game in a forced and premature manner. V. Semenov was injured the day before.
Zorya striker Volodymyr Starkov, who came on the field for the first time since the beginning of the season, scored three goals to Neftchi's three.
Dynamo Tbilisi also lost in Round 9, and drew in Round 10, as did Zorya at home with Rostov Army (1-1, V. Onishchenko).
Thus, there were two competitors for the first place, and it turned out that in June the two leaders would have to decide which of them was stronger.
How fierce the waters are in the rapids when they want to break through
In 1970 and 1971, as Herman Zonin admitted, Luhansk lost their chance to win a place in the Premier League because, “I hadn't studied my players enough yet, my Zorya went through a deep recession twice in a row in June, so that by 1972 I could figure out what the reason was.”
Indeed, this was the case: in the June matches of 1970, there were two draws and a defeat, and in 1971, two draws and two defeats.
Herman Semenovych's teaching skills at the Lesgaft Institute of Physical Education in Leningrad and his experience in exotic Burma came in handy. On the one hand, the coach tried to instill endurance in the players, “so that they would last for three halves.” On the other hand, he added variety to the training process.
An hour before the match at Luhansk's Avangard, Zorya's players would move from the locker room to the wrestling room located in the room under the stands. Several high couches were set up there, and the club's masseurs were professionally and thoroughly kneading the players' muscles on each one, intensively performing various physical exercises prescribed by the coaches. Half an hour before the start of the match, the players, already warmed up enough, took to the field to practice upward, downward, short, medium and long passes, as well as shots on goal.
Fans with experience will not let you lie, if you compare the pre-match shots on goal from outside the penalty area by Zorya players half a century ago and now, then 11 players of the main squad scored 7, twice the ball was deflected by the goalkeeper, one hit the post/crossbar and only one past the goal, while today's shots on target with the indicators on the contrary, half are unable to score.
“I developed a scientific method of training and pre-game warm-ups,” Zonin said later, ”I focused on speed and exciting exercises. I believed that each of the exercises made sense if it ended with a shot and a goal, that is, it worked “for the goal”...
According to the competition calendar, there were four decisive matches to be played in June 1972. Unexpectedly pleasant difficulties were added, two Zorya strikers V. Onyshchenko and S. Morozov were invited to the camp of the USSR national team to prepare for the European Championship, on June 14 in the semifinals they defeated the Hungarians 2: 0, and on June 18 in the final with a score of 0: 3 they lost to the German team, Luhansk did not take part in any game.
On June 11, in Alma-Ata, instead of the national team, Zorya's squad against Kairat included understudies - forwards Vyach. Izvekov and V. Kopiya (they came on after the break and did not disappoint), and in the protocol of the starting lineup, the duties of the strikers were assigned to V. Starkov, Y. Eliseev and A. Kuksov.
Already in the 15th minute, a swift attack by six attackers from the visiting team ended in a beautiful goal by Yuriy Yeliseyev. The home team's expectation of a pile-up with a leather top into the penalty area did not materialize. Zorya defender V. Malygin fully applied the skills of basketball under the ring, acquired in school years, jumping high, he got the ball with his head at the highest point, and, ahead of the Kairat team, knocked the leather into the field away from his goal.
Yuriy Semin, a player of Moscow teams, was finishing his career as a footballer for the hosts, he acted tough in single combat, unnoticed by the referee, pushed his opponents with his hands, tripped them up, constantly swore, provoked, caused a lot of trouble and forced the opponents to pass the endurance test. The result was a hard-fought 1-0 victory away from home.
On June 20, a Tuesday at home, 35 thousand Luhansk fans were waiting for a confrontation with the debutants of the 34th Soviet Union Championship, the Dnipro team and its coach Valerii Lobanovskyi. Together, they managed to surprise experts with unexpected results from the start and a reputation as a storm of authority.
It was in this match that Zorya players used the so-called arrhythmia - a controlled change in the rhythm of action, having practiced it “until the seventh sweat” the day before. In addition, Herman Zonin assigned defender Serhiy Kuznetsov to play as a striker. The “home-made preparation” worked 100% and came as a surprise to the novice coach and the opposing team.
In the 9th minute of the match, Serhiy Kuznetsov scored a low shot from outside the penalty area between two defenders, and Dnipro goalkeeper Kovtun was not expecting it, reacting late and scoring 1-0. Immediately after the break, Vyacheslav Semenov, having played with Viktor Kuznetsov and S. Morozov, ran behind the guardians, got into a striking position and made no mistake - 2: 0. The coach replaced the unsuccessful goalkeeper with Sobetskyi. In the 77th minute of the match, the referee awarded a free kick for a foul against A. Kuksov near and slightly to the left of the halfway line. Usually, either Viktor Kuznetsov or V. Onyshchenko (both of whom were skillful and whippy with two feet) would take a shot from this position. They were standing against the ball, but Semenov, after consulting with them, gave Serhiy Kuznetsov an “instruction” with his eyes to get ready. Two players ran past, and the third in line, taking no more than three steps, “put” the leather in the bottom corner - and 3-0. It was in this game that the future legendary coach of Dynamo Kyiv, the USSR and Ukraine national teams V.V. Lobanovsky “set his eyes” on Serhiy Kuznetsov, who later invited him to Dynamo, and he would become the winner of the UEFA Cup.
Two days later, on June 23, on the last working day of the week, 37 thousand spectators in the stands of the Luhansk football arena were in high spirits at the match of the 13th round with Karpaty, who, without giving in to Tbilisi Dynamo in Lviv, knocked out the latter from among Zorya's competitors for the championship.
Already in the 7th minute, the Galician Kozynkevych left the home goalkeeper Oleksandr Tkachenko powerless and scored - 0: 1. Less than half an hour later, Zorya captain O. Zhuravlev equalized from the penalty spot. After the break, V. Onyshchenko came on instead of S. Morozov, his jerks and attempts to outrun the defenders gave the Luhansk midfield a little more freedom.
In the 51st minute, V. Semenov delighted the stands with his individual skill, bypassing two opponents, made a pass to his partner, who scooped up the ball and struck a well-aimed header into the free corner of the visitors' goal. And already 2: 1.
In the 70th minute, V. Semenov, catching the goalkeeper in a backward move, scores a double - 3:1. The fans go wild, chanting the name of their idol in a chorus of ten thousand. It is not yet evening. Five minutes before the referee's whistle, Yurii Yelisieiev, completing a fast combination that was amazing in its clarity of interaction between Zorya players, brings the score to a crushing one for Karpaty. A great game brings a 4-1 victory!
And it's not even June evening yet!!! A week later, on June 3, 1972, with the participation of almost the full team, Zorya will play its first official match, in fact, as the national team of Ukraine, at the unofficial World Cup in Brazil against Uruguay and win ...
Already the world's star was in the sky like a nickel, and the sky rejoiced like a poppy
In 1972, big football was scheduled to host the European Championship (June 14-18), the Olympic Games (26.08-10.09) and World Cup qualifiers (October 13 and 18), as well as numerous friendly matches. However, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Brazil's existence, its national football federation organized an international tournament, the Independence Cup, to which it invited the world's leading teams, including all the world champions, Uruguay agreed, while representatives of Europe, England, Italy, and Germany refused, and instead invited the teams of Czechoslovakia, the USSR, and Scotland. Argentina, Portugal, and Yugoslavia made it through the qualifiers.
Offended by the impudent upstart from the Ukrainian regional center, the Moscow leaders of Soviet football decided to send the leader of the championship overseas in the USSR T-shirts, adding A. Byshchovets, E. Lovchev, and K. Asatiani to Zorya, with the expectation of exhausting the diesel locomotive team and stopping its victorious march.
The head of the Football Department of the USSR Sports Committee, Lev Zenchenko, expressed his “approval” of Herman Zonin on the pages of the weekly Football-Hockey magazine as “the introducer of modern football into the training process and tactics of the team.”
The coach later recalled: “I recognized this maneuver. But refusing the mission of the Union's sports ambassadors would have been assessed as a political action... We didn't fall in the mud. In the tournament with traveling, after which the body seems to be broken into pieces, we performed well. They beat the Uruguayans, whom the USSR national team had never beaten before. Against Argentina and Portugal, we attacked for almost all 90 minutes and created a lot of chances. What Onishchenko did on the flanks then! And Malygin literally “ate” Eusebio himself! The Brazilians took notes on our training sessions. I was even invited to conduct a demonstration session with the famous Fluminense - they wanted to check whether their filigree technique would be in action after heavy physical exertion. After I offered the wizards of the ball our usual exercises, the Brazilians could neither accept nor handle the ball...” (with Fluminense 1-2 in Luhansk in May 1963).
At the end of the match in São Paulo with the Uruguayans (1-0, Onyshchenko), local journalists demanded that Y. Vasyenin, V. Semenov and V. Onyshchenko be sent for doping tests, and they were reproached for not stopping for rest for 90 minutes. Responding to the media, Yuriy Vasyenin said: “You have noticed that at the end of each attack on the opponent's goal, I return to my half of the field jogging, running and resting.” Brazilian experts, commenting on the strong-willed attacking and tireless play of Zonin's team, noted that it lacked only experience in international tournaments (spot rotation in the lineup, acclimatization, etc.). Indeed, had there not been an unfortunate mistake in defense in the third match against Portugal, Zorya would have played Brazil in the final instead.
By July 14, the date of the Moscow match between Torpedo and Zorya, Zorya, having returned from the Brazilian “carnival,” was still leading the Union championship. The Luhansk team had to finish the first round a day after a 12-hour flight. This is where the foundation laid in the preseason came in handy - “for three halves”. “Torpedo Moscow - Zorya 2:4 (Smirnov, 64, 71 - Kuksov, 20, Eliseev, 51, Onishchenko, 59, 89).
Later on, acclimatization and its impact on travelers made themselves felt again. On July 20, the team lost to CSKA on their home field 1-2 (Onyshchenko), on July 24 with Zenit away and on July 28 in Minsk with Dynamo 0-0. Finally, at home, on August 01 - with Neftchi 3:0 (Kuksov, Eliseev, Vasenin), on August 09 - with Lokomotiv 1:1 (Onishchenko), on September 18 - with Ararat 4:0 (Eliseev, V. Kuznetsov, Zhuravlev, Semenov), on 22.09 - with Dynamo Tbilisi 2:2 (Onishchenko, Vasenin), on 26.09 Dynamo Moscow 2:0 (V. Kuznetsov, Starkov). In Rostov, on October 01, a 1-3 defeat against the Army team (Kuksov - penalty). At home on October 06, 2:1 against Kairat (Kuksov, twice). In Lviv with Karpaty 2:2 (Kuksov, Onyshchenko). Away with Dnipro 2-1 (Starkov, V. Kuznetsov).
On the eve of the 26th round, Zorya's lead (4 games before the end of the championship) over its closest competitors was six points, i.e. three wins. Since other teams played a different number of matches in the championship (they missed rounds due to the participation of their players in different national teams of the Union), some, such as CSKA and Zenit, had 2 matches and a chance of 4 points, and the other, Dnipro and Dynamo Tbilisi, had 3 matches in hand and were 6 and 7 points behind, only Ararat and Dynamo Kyiv could catch up with Zorya in terms of lost points (because they had four games ahead). Thus, they avoided interference due to biased refereeing. The team from Yerevan failed to defeat Spartak.
On October 29, the match in Tbilisi with Kyiv teammates ended in a draw within minutes of the start of the match between Zorya and Torpedo in Luhansk. Fans (who had radios) from the stands of the Avangard stadium loudly informed the players on the field that it was enough not to lose to become unattainable for any of the competitors for the championship. In the 22nd minute, despite the fierce resistance of the guests, a rapid combination took place, the partners in the center and on the edges deceived the Torpedo defenders with runs and contributed to Viktor Kuznetsov's breakthrough behind their backs, and the Zorya midfielder made no mistake and made it -1-0. The guests counterattacked persistently and sharply, ending with shots on goal.
At halftime, Zorya goalkeeper Oleksandr Tkachenko, coming into the locker room, said that someone from Torpedo whispered in his ear that they agreed to a draw. The whole team immediately started cheering. Zorya's captain Oleksandr Zhuravlev stood up and said that he had been working towards the goal of winning gold medals for 12 long years, had suffered many injuries, and did not want to lose the pleasure of an honest championship one step away from the dream, by the wrong way, by some humiliating backstage agreement, with three rounds ahead, and if he saw his teammates playing not to win in the second half, he would leave the field forever.
The Zorya coaching staff replaced Yurii Yelisieiev with striker Volodymyr Starkov (who in 1970 moved from the champion CSKA team to the ambitious provincials) after the break to give him the opportunity to play half of the matches (to win a medal and the title of winner) before the end of the successful championship.
The guests, sensing the mood of the opponents, significantly intensified the game, moved it to Zorya's half of the field, continuing to look for opportunities to score a goal. And they managed to equalize in the 73rd minute. The fight on the field did not stop until the final whistle of the referee.
The 1-1 draw meant that a new national champion was crowned ahead of schedule, in three rounds! In the history of Soviet football, Zorya became the seventh football team to win gold medals on 1/6 of the planet Earth.
The fans greeted the freshly baked champions with applause, chants of gratitude and lit torches made of rolled-up newspapers. The players picked up their coach, lifted him above their heads, and carried him in a circle along the stands.
Since it was Friday, there was no need to go to the day shift tomorrow, Luhansk residents celebrated throughout the night. With the consent of the local authorities, the gastronomes did not stop working at 10 p.m. as usual, but extended their work until midnight, providing workers with drinks and food for the feast.
In the next three matches, which could not change anything, the champions lost at home on November 3, Tuesday, to Dynamo Minsk 0:1, on November 18, Wednesday, in front of 18,000 spectators, they drew with Spartak 1:1, and ended the championship in Kyiv, pleasing 50,000 Ukrainian fans with an effective, interesting and unyielding game. In the 3rd min. Zhuravlev missed an 11-meter penalty, in the 22nd minute Blokhin opened the scoring, in the 30th minute Kuksov equalized, in the 43rd minute Zhuravlev missed a penalty again, in the 55th minute. Kolotov makes it 2-1 and 3-1 in the 71st minute. After the break, Zorya reduced the score, Semenov scored in the 76th minute, and four minutes before the whistle, Volodymyr Onyshchenko scored the final goal of the 30th round - 3:3. Due to the majority of goals scored, Dynamo Kyiv outscored their Tbilisi teammates, although the teams were equal in terms of points scored. The Ukrainian team wins silver medals, while the Georgian team wins bronze.
“Zorya, despite winning gold medals, receives the championship cup (a crystal vase) and five other prizes based on their sports performance: “For the most points for the main (40) and reserve teams“, ‘For the best goal difference (52-30), ’For the most victories with a margin of three or more goals” (5), “The Big Score Prize” and “The Progress Cup”.
It should be recalled that four Zorya players won bronze medals in the Olympic team - Yelisieiev, Kuksov, Semenov and Onishchenko, the latter won a silver medal at the European Championships, Onishchenko and Semenov were the leading players of the USSR national team in the selection for the World Cup and in friendly matches in 1972.
What was the highlight of Zorya Luhansk half a century ago? Athleticism. A high-speed combinational, diverse, attack-oriented team game. Individual skill, skillful possession of the ball, a qualitative advantage in selections, passes and decision-making on the field, and intransigence in one-on-one combat. Zorya's tactical motto is attack. Nominally, Luhansk had three players in the midfield and attack. In fact, and by the nature of the game, it was six strikers. Everyone had a taste for shelling the opponents' goal, constantly looking for sharp attacking development and the best position for a goal. In addition, they excelled in changing tactical moves, confusing opponents, leading them astray from the correct choice of position on the field.
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