Hope's the Last to Die



Hope's the last to die the buffoon with the microphone said before Dynamo's match with Vorskla on Sunday and for once his words seemed apt.


Dynamo on the previous Wednesday had lost the cup final to shakhtar and with 2 games left were a point behind Shakhtar. Dynamo faced Vorskla at home and then this week have a tricky game away to third place Metalist, whereas Shakhtar faced the truly pathetic FK Kharkiv away followed by a home game against Metalurh Donetsk this week. To put it politely Metalurh are less than adverse to helping their neighbours out. Elsewhere I was waiting to see if Villa could pull of a miraculous entry into Europe - they didn't, but got an intertoto place and was sweating to see if this computer could be brought back to life.


Dynamo managed to win this game, although they made heavy work of it and Shakhtar managed to beat FK Kharkiv without breaking a sweat, so it's all down to the wire on Sunday.


This was one of the best games I've seen this season. Dynamo went ahead early on, and there was a feeling of inevitability about what was going to happen. However the ubiquitous Vorskla, who looked so weak against Metalist, and who put up a reasonable fight against Arsenal played this game like their lives depended on it and put in one of the most spirited performances of the season. Vorskla managed to get back into the game just before half-time and dug their heels in during the second half.


Semin, the Dynamo coach, was celebrating his birthday and it looked like he wasn't going to have much to celebrate. He has really turned the club around after a lacklustre first half of the season and cleared out a lot of the older players, however on this occassion a few older heads might have mad lighter work of it.


In the second half Dynamo were on fire and Ghioane was particularly impressive, whereas Milevskiy and Shatskih were not. However, most impressive of all was the Vorskla captain and keeper, who on this performance should be in the national team. His defining moment came on 77 minutes when he saved a Carlos korrea penalty. However, Dynamo managed to bundle a goal in with the last kick of the game and keep their slender championship hopes alive.
Notes on photos:
Top: Dynamo fans
Bottom: Heads down as Dynamo prepare to take the centre after Vorskla draw level

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boca Juniors shirt history

Image
The first game that I will be at on Sunday sees Boca Juniors take on Paris Saint Germain. I have always wanted to go and see Boca Juniors and I can't see me getting over to Argentina any time in the near future, so I am going to have to make do with seeing them in North London. On my travels I have met plenty of Boca fans, but funnily enough they have all been Russian or Ukrainian. I am a bit disappointed that Martin Palermo has now retired, but I am still looking forward to it. Obviously to do justice to the club history of Boca Juniors I'd probably have to write a book, so here's a quick history of their kit and colours instead. When Boca were formed in 1905 they originally played in pink, but obviously came round to thinking that this was a bad idea and changed to a light blue colour later in the year. They didn't stick with this shirt for very long either and for the 3rd time in a year decided to change the shirt colour, this time to black and white stripes. The fol
Read more

shirt history AS Roma

Image
Roma were the club that I followed in Italy and although they are most famous for wearing red and yellow, hence the nickname giallo rosso the club didn't always wear those colours. AS Roma were formed in 1927 by a merger between SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS with Italo Foschi being the driving force behind the merger. AS Roma could also trace their lineage back to FBC Roma who were formed in 1901 and who wore red and yellow, but the first shirts they wore took the red, white and blue of Fortitudo-Pro Roma. Roma soon established themselves at the top table of Italian football and in 1931 finished runners up to Juventus and by now had settled on red and yellow as their colours. However, you'll have to take my word for it because the picture below shows Attilio Ferraris in black and white. In 1942 Roma went one better and won their first Scudetto with Amadeo Amadei scoring 18 goals to help them secure the title. Pictured below he is wearing the change shirt with a repl
Read more

Sud Tribune, Dortmund

Image
The Sud Tribune at Westfalen is famed for the noise and support that it gives the BVB team. They started up early and carried on until well after the match had finished despite the poor result. At the end the team looked suitably disappointed when they thanked the fans. Nobody apart from the Hannover fans probably expected 96 to win. Hopefully better times for the Sud Tribune are just around the corner.
Read more