1969. The Game That Changed Everything

1969 is known as the year of Woodstock, the Beatles' rooftop concert and Neil Armstrong, who made his "giant leap for mankind". That year was really eventful and, probably, changed our world forever. One way or another, there is one city in the world that will remember 1969 forever. This city is Lviv.

photo: FC Karpaty Lviv

Lviv has always been a special city. One of the oldest Ukrainian cities, Lviv suffered a lot of troubles in its history. Many invaders tried (sometimes successfully) to conquer Lviv, leaving their footprints in the city's memory. Amazingly, Lviv became a multicultural city where all the nations tried to live in peace. This unique spirit helped the city to survive in the dark Soviet era. Being an ordinary Soviet city, Lviv still had its unique spirit. Local people knew some secret methods of listening to forbidden radio stations, such as "Voice of America" or "Radio Liberty". Later, Lviv became known as the city of hippies. So many things were forbidden in USSR, but Lviv was a truly unique city, so nothing could change this.

In early 1960s, Lviv had an army football club called SKA (Sports Club of Army). At the time, all bigger cities had such clubs, including Moscow with its "central" army club - CSKA. In 1963, Lviv had been given a place for a second team in the Soviet league system. Thus, a new football club, Karpaty (named after Carpathian mountains) were born. In its first few seasons, Karpaty played some good football and became one of the strongest teams of the second tier of Soviet football. The club became an integral part of the city's life. People were happy to have their own club; it was much easier to support Karpaty, "our own boys", than that weird army club. Karpaty had a great support, with 40,000 of fans attending their home matches on a newly built stadium. In 1968, Karpaty nearly won promotion to the Highest League, missing their chance in the final group stage. The team was good enough to fight for promotion once more in 1969, but no one could predict that famous Cup run...

In the first round of 1969 USSR Cup, Karpaty played an away match against Azovets Zhdanov (today it's FC Mariupol, one of the best Ukrainian teams). Few minutes before the final whistle, the score was 0:0. Replay match (that should had been played next day) was really unwanted as our team had already bought tickets for the evening train to Lviv. Our players even had a plan to lose that game! But, eventually, they decided to play it fair and won the replay match 2:1.

After this match, Karpaty began their road to the final. At home, they defeated SKA Odessa (1:0), Ararat Yerevan (2:1) and Chornomorets Odessa (2:0). The last two were top division teams at the moment, so Karpaty became a proper giant-killers. In quarter-finals away match, Karpaty defeated Trud Voronezh (1:0). The last step to the final were made in Lviv. Sudnobudivnyk from Mykolaiv couldn't do anything with brilliant Karpaty team - 2:0 for the green and white team.

Reaching the Cup final was an unbelievable achievement, so Karpaty players became local legends. All the fans, all the journalists, everyone were discussing team's chances against SKA (this time from Rostov-on-Don). SKA, being a top division team, were considered as a final favourite. On their road to the final, they even beat CSKA Moscow. Moreover, they had some really great players, like Lev Kudasov, who was second best goalkeeper in the USSR after legendary Lev Yashin. That final game in Moscow was highly anticipated, as it should have been one of these "favourite vs underdog" battles.

"Before the final match, we lived in the same hotel as SKA," says Ihor Kulchytskyi, the captain of Karpaty in 1969. "We saw their attitude. They were trying to show their supremacy all the time. They even offered us to buy their second-hand football boots after the match."

Pre-match excitement was truly amazing. People were desperate to buy a ticket to Moscow, and those less fortunate fans who couldn't get to the match were trying to find neighbours who had TV set to watch the final match with them. One of the most passionate fans spent one month to get to Moscow by his own feet! 1,200 kilometres had ruined three pairs of his shoes!

Probably, that matchday excitement was the most difficult thing for Karpaty players. Lev Brovarsky, Karpaty midfielder in that match, said it was incredibly difficult to make the first step on the Luzhniki pitchside. "I was so nervous. Then I looked at the boys, at their pale faces, and began to cry. I just couldn't cope with this."

57,000 of fans came that day to the main Soviet stadium to watch the final game.

...On the 20th minute, SKA scored their first goal. After that, Karpaty started to create their chances. Before the halftime whistle our midfielder Volodymyr Danylyuk hit the woodwork with his good middle-range attempt. Despite all the chances, the score was 0-1 at half time.

Volodymyr Danylyuk remembers that half-time break very well. He came out of the changing room a bit earlier and sat near the pitch to wait for others. Suddenly, someone cried out in Russian: "Hey, villagers, it's second half!"

"We were furious," says Volodymyr. This lack of respect, together with singing fans that came from Lviv to support their team, led to brilliant second half for Karpaty. On the 62nd minute our forward Gennadiy Lykhachov scored an equaliser, with Volodymyr Bulgakov scoring the second goal after just four minutes! No one could believe what happened.

Karpaty continued their pressure, trying to score once more, but it was one of the SKA players who scored a goal. Offside was undeniable, so the linesman was holding his flag until the referee disallowed that goal. In 1968, this very linesman made a wrong decision that cost Karpaty their place in the Higher League. This time, his resoluteness saved the game for us.

...With the match closing to its end, Karpaty made all their best to win the Cup. It was a truly sensational night of football in Moscow. The boys from Western Ukraine won the USSR Cup.

Indeed, it was a moment of great togetherness. After the match, Ukrainians around the world started to send their congratulations to Lviv. The main post office was receiving thousands of telegrams every hour.

In Lviv, thousands of happy fans took the police van and moved it to the city center. The next day it was looking like the whole city came to the airport to meet their heroes. "People broke the fence and started to run to the plane," said Ihor Kulchytskyi. "It took for us two hours to get to the city center! We were leaving autographs to everyone... We even left some autographs on banknotes and Communist Party membership cards!"

In 1970, Karpaty made their debut in the European Cup Winners' Cup and finally gained promotion to the Highest League. 8 seasons amongst the best USSR teams brought some more great achievements. But only that 1969 achievement stayed untouchable: Karpaty Lviv is the only lower-division team that won USSR cup.

In fact, it was much more than football for people in Ukraine. In the 1960s, KGB began the new wave of repressions against Ukrainians. It was a very dark decade for Ukraine and Lviv, which was considered by USSR authorities as "the most dangerous nationalist city". In 1969, one football match gave the powerless Ukrainian nation the chance to declare its unity. Ihor Kulchytskiy says that our national revival began in 1969 in Moscow. "So many Ukrainians were singing Ukrainian songs on the Moscow's main streets. Our fans made themselves heard in Kremlin offices. It was the beginning."

In other words, that was one small step for a football team, but giant leap for the whole nation.