Very special is the year 1961, when Dynamo won the first Soviet Top League title!
Now let’s recall the White-Blues pre-season training camp in Abkhazia, where they did groundwork for unique achievement. They were the first non-Moscow team to win the domestic league.
Our team was training in Gagra and living at Ukraine resort. On March 7 Kyivans played their first sparrings against FC Dinamo Moscow.
They lost the first one – 2:1 – and won the second one – 3:1. Head coach Viacheslav Soloviov used two lineups in those games. Valeriy Lobanovskyi was at the USSR national team camp at that time.
On March 12 Kyivans flattened Soviet Top League winners FC Torpedo Moscow – 3:0. Goals were scored by Voinov, Zaitsev and Ostrovskiy (own goal).
In two days the White-Blues won two sparrings against FC Neftchi Baku – 3:1 and 4:2.
On March 19 Soloviov’s men went to Tbilisi to defeat local Dinamo in front of 40,000 (!) fans – 1:0. The only goal of the game was netted by Oleh Bazylevych.
In the final match of the training campKyivans were victorious over Admiralteets from St. Petersburg – 2:0.
After that our team left for Poland. At first the White-Blues won against KS Cracovia – 2:1 – and then drew against Gornik Zabrze – 3:3.
In six days Dynamo under the charge of Viacheslav Soloviov started domestic league season in Kyiv and defeated FC Zenit ST.Petersburg. Thus they started their way to triumph.
We’ll tell about that in more detail in following “MILESTONE ANNIVERSARIES” project articles.
Oleh Zadernovskyi
Copyright © 2016 FC Dynamo Kyiv
* photo and video from Olexiy Novik’s media library
