The Greatest Of All Football Matches Played Ever - The Death Match
Fans of football who are eager to watch every live broadcasts of UEFA Champions League matches, usually waking up at night in bed, are aware of a Ukrainian football team called Dynamo Kiev, which hails from Kiev the capital city of the country. But only few of them know about the remarkable past of the club , and what happened to the players after they won an impressive victory against the German Army Football Team when Nazis took over the country during the Second World War.
The early days of Dynamo Kiev (Before Nazi Invasion)
The Kiev founded club was established in 1927 as an amateur side as part of Dinamo, a nation wide Soviet Sports Society and later it became officially funded and sponsored by NKVD which was a Soviet Secret Agency. In the 1930's Ukraine suffered terribly under the leadership of Stalin as he always feared the possibility of Ukrainian dissociation to his Soviet Union Empire. Thus, a particular attention was given to suppress any nationalist movements that could have resulted in the deaths of thousands and thousands of inhabitants of Ukraine miserable. Every city was overrun by the Soviet Security Police and they used to look at every movement made by any citizen from an uneasy viewpoint. People who were innocent were detained, deported and often shot dead by them after making mistakes just as easy as being late at work or chatting with foreigners or fighting with their neighbors etc. Even Ukrainian officials and police men were not spared the wrathful action. Furthermore, Stalin's brutal agriculture policy decimated the Ukrainian economy and led to an enormous famine in which 14 million Ukrainians were killed. A sense of fear of terror, hatred, and resentment loomed over the entire country during that time and there was not a light of hope for Ukrainians.
Football was like a breath of fresh air in the days of uncertainty and insecurities. It was a time when football was a very popular sport in the entire Soviet Union and it was easy for a citizen to book a football match ticket and get absorbed by the excitement and incidents of the game, and to take in every moment. It was a moment of relief of a very stressful circumstance and the constant fear of deportation or execution. In the past, the most adored clubs of the Soviet Union were Dynamo Moscow and Spartak Moscow, two clubs located in Moscow and in the world of Football, Ukrainians had something to cheer about - the achievements that were made by Dynamo Kiev. Those fiercely contested matches played against Dynamo Kiev and those two clubs from Moscow were watched by a large amount of supporters and often they defeated those Moscow Clubs to win the Soviet Championship and also to stop the Moscow Dominance on the football field. The matches held by Dynamo Kiev were not just simply games, they also involved National Pride. The team is often thought of as an unofficial Ukrainian National Team by the Ukrainian Government, and the team was supported by the government. It was a participant in the inaugural "Soviet Championship" played in 1936 and became second after fighting hard against the most formidable opponents. In 1937 and 1938, they won the championship in 4th and 3rd spot respectively. In 1938 campaign, they scored a record 75 goals which is quite impressive given the hardships they experienced and the tough conditions they had to endure. But they failed to perform to their potential in the next two seasons (1939, 1940) and in the next year (1941) they played quite well together up to the 4th game , but this was afterwards, the Nazi army encircled the entire Soviet Union on 22nd June in 1941. يلا شوت
Dynamo Kiev during Nazi Invasion
When the Soviet Union's Red Army lost in the conflict with Nazis certain Dynamo Kiev players registered themselves in the army and were sent to battle to fight for their country and protect their homeland from foreign incursion. After 3 months of horrible bloodshed, Nazis gained the full control of Kiev. Kiev. Those Dynamo players who joined the army were arrested by the Nazis as "Prisoner of War" and was sent to Prison Camps. The Prison Camps were deficient in food and water , and prisoners were made to live in a tiny enclosure that was surrounded by barbed wire fences. Following the fall of Kiev, Kiev was captured by the Germans, it witnessed a horrible scenario of devastation, death and destruction over one an entire year (which included the murder of 33,771 Jewish males, females and children in two days on 29th and 30th September. At the conclusion of 1941, over 100000 Ukrainians died either shot by the Nazi army or died of hunger). But some of Dynamo Kiev players were fortunate to be released from the prison camps, and they came back to the Kiev city in search of work. From there onwards, Dynamo's story was re-launched on positive vibes.
Bakery Number 3
Iosif Kordik, who was a huge fan of Dynamo Kiev, was the manager of the enormous Bakery Number 3, in Kiev at the time that Nikolai Trusevich, the tall goalkeeper of the team , came in to town for work and the bakery offered him a sweeper's job in the bakery. In those days, people who were freed from prison camps were not given a work permit to work or live inside an apartment. This is why offering a job to Nikolai was an illegal activity but Iosif the manager had an idea of his own. The passionate soccer fan dreamed of creating a strong Bakery Football Team and gave the task of finding top footballers as well as his old teammates over to Nikolai. The ever enthusiastic goalie, set out to search for his former teammates, by walking the lanes of Kiev and, slowly one by one, he was able to find nine of his former Dynamo Kiev teammates (they were Nikolai Korotkykh, Mikhail Svyridovskiy, Mykola Korotkykh, Oleksiy Kilimenko, Fedir Tyutchev, Mikhail Putistin, Ivan Kuzmenko, Makar Goncharenko, Makar Honcharenko) and several players of Lokomotiv Kiev (Vladimir Balakin, Vasil Sukharev and Mikhail Melnyk). Then, over the next couple of months, during the days of insecurity, all the team members were gradually moved to the Bakery No. 3 where they got much needed food as well as shelter and a jobs. After that all of the workers within the bakeries, many of them suffering from malnutrition, started to train , even though they were exhausted from their 24- hours of work and began to believe that they had the potential to become an effective team. The tall and talented goalie Nikolai has given their team an identity "Football Club Start (F.C Start)" for playing football and landing a employment, shelter and shelter in the Bakery Number 3 brought them a new life which was previously guided mostly by fear, terror and confusion.
F.C.'s Journey to F.C Start
The team first played in the local league run by Georgi Shvetsov, who was a former player and sports instructor and The first opponents of Start were Rukh Shvetsov's side. They won the match by 7-2 even though they didn't have proper shoes, and football uniforms. Shvetsov was extremely embarrassed and went to the German authority and asked them to disallow F.C Start from training at Rukh's Stadium. With no training facilities, they won all games by massive margins.
They beat the Hungarian Garrison with a score of 6-2, on the 21st day of June 1942. They beat the Romanian Garrison by a huge advantage of 11-1 on 5th July. This win sequence lifted the morale of all the Ukrainians who felt low in morals and disappointed for all what happened to them. They would show up in large numbers to witness their team of choice slaying the other teams coming from the regiments of ruling power.
Their winning streak continued , as they won again by a margin of 9-1. This time, they beat the military railroad workers' team on 12th July and on 17th July, they beat PSG (a German unit) by the score of 6-0. But gradually, the German authorities were becoming annoyed at the dominance of Ukrainians on the soccer field. They could also see the excitement caused by the soccer team in the general population and realized that this enthusiasm could pose an immense threat to the basic principles of German dominance. The enthusiasm could also trigger a sudden freedom movement. On the 19th of July FC Start won against MSG.Wal an Hungarian team by the margin 5-1. They beat MSG.Wal in a rematch on the 21st July by a narrow margin of 3-1. To prevent the joyous adventure for FC Start in the football field however, the German Authorities formed the team known as Flakelf to compete in the same league and the players from the team were physically superior to players from or other squad. The time FC Start was playing their last match in the MSG Wal league MSG Wal, the Flakelf team was playing against Rukh (against which team FC Start started their incredible journey) and Flakelf almost demolished Rukh and there were rumors that Flakelf team had never lost previous matches.
So on 6th August, 1942, FC Start met Flakelf in the football field and to the astonishment of German Authorities, FC Start won the match with a convincing difference of 5-1. The German Authorities took the incident seriously and declared a rematch between the same two teams on the 9th August at Zenith Stadium. The posters were put up in these walls in order to promote the match against the same rivals.
Finally:- the Game of Death
On the 9th of August, Sunday people gathered in large numbers on the Zenith Stadium to watch the game between the rejuvenated FC Start and the yet undefeated Flakelf football squad. The atmosphere was anxious and it required a very considerable effort for those in the Ukrainian and German police to manage the crowd of thousands. The moment before the match began at the beginning of the game, a SS officer arrived at FC Start's clubhouse and instructed them to welcome the German team in the same manner as they do by saluting them and calling out "Heil Hitler". It was clear that the FC Start footballers already sensed that the person who was referring the match would be biased towards the team. After the referee left the locker room, the players were in an uncontrollable commotion. They knew that the authorities had planned the game in such a manner that if somehow they managed to win the match, they'll face dire consequences. Some thought of losing the match, while others suggested to play a clear game. One Romanian delegate also walked into the dressing room and congratulated them for their successful journey in the league and wishes them luck. Following that, the players decided on their own to go to the field to play football.
In the minutes before kick-off the sturdy and strong Flakelf team formed a line at the half-line, and they gave the Nazi salute "Heil Hitler". Then , it was the turn of the Start players and they decided not to perform a Nazi Salute and instead of that, brought their arms back to chests and shouted the Soviet slogan , 'FizcultHura!' which means "Physical Music Hooray!". The chant received a enthusiastic response from every corner of the stadium, which angered the German Authorities to a larger extent. yallashoot
As it was believed that the official did not even consider any offence that was committed to the Flakelf team and they focused on Start goalie Nikolai to attack physically. After suffering blow after blast at the start of the game, an Flakelf forward struck Nikolai in the head leaving Nikolai in a state of near-consciousness. While he was recuperating from his injury Flakelf was 1-0 up. The Flakelf team was pulling the jerseys, playing dangerously, and when they tackled, they were targeting players, not the ball, but they were unable to be noticed by the official. In spite of this, FC Start scored a wonderful equalizer from an unintentional kick from the forward, Kuzmenko. This goal got a huge applause from the huge crowd of fans who were previously throwing abuse at the Flakelf team for their ugly behavior. Just a few minutes after the equalizer, Goncharenko Another Start forward, while dribbling through the vicious Flakelf defence , scored another fantastic goal, and they took the lead. Just minutes before the half time they again scored a second goal and the score read 3-1.
During the halftime the team was thrilled to have over come the tough challenges posed by them in the match and the scoreline was also in their favour. But, Shvetsov, a former footballer, appeared to the locker room and advised the players to guard themselves from being beaten by their opponents. Then, shortly after, another SS Officer arrived and informed them politely that although they're an excellent team, they should not lose the game or else they'll be given a harsh punishment by the Authority.
In an uneasy state The Start players began the second half of the game . However, this time, the Flakelf team, worried about crowd trouble was less aggressive. Start as well as Flakelf both scored two goals and Start was leading at the moment by 5-3. Then, Klimenko, a Start player, landed the ball in midfield, and he fought off the entire German defense and walked into the penalty area. Then, instead of pushing the ball toward the an goalline, the player turned and kicked it back towards the center circle. It was a complete humiliation to the Flakelf team, since the defensive player himself took the decision not to score against them. After that the official blew the final whistle.