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Volitional victory
In the 28th tour of the championship ‘’Ararat’’ met with one of the outsiders of the championship ‘’Dinamo’’ Minsk. ‘’Dinamo’’ who were 15th in the championship were under relegation danger and the match against ‘’Ararat’’ was one of the last chances to save the situation. For both teams the match was very important. ‘’Ararat’’ needed only victory and nothing else. By the way ‘’Dinamo’’ was the first team in the championship of the season 73 to defeat ‘’Ararat’’. So the Armenian team was full of revenge. Nikita Simonyan included in his team’s line up 3 forwards (Ishtoyan Margarov, Khazaryan) who were supported by 3 midfielders (Andreasyan, Petrosyan, Zanazanyan). From the first minutes of the match these 6 players kept the opponent’s goal under permanent fire. Worth mentioning Andreasyan’s powerful strike, but fortunately for ‘’Dinamo’’ Vergeenko was on alert. Such a start didn’t surprise ‘’Dinamo’’ and they immediately took the challenge, organizing sharp counter-attacks. During one of such counter-attacks ‘’Dinamo’’ were quite close to open the score and only Abrahamyan’s acrobatic jump saved ‘’Ararat’’. Though “Ararat’’ had a noticable advantage, but Nikita Simonyan’s alumni weren’t able to open the score for a long time. Ishtoyan could twice open the score, but in both cases he was slightly unlucky. Worth mentioning ‘’Dinamo’’ goalkeeper’s perfect play who saved his team in many difficult situations. As it happens very often the ball finally first appeared in ‘’Ararat’s’’ net. In the 24th minute of the match thanks to Kuskov’s accurate pass unmarked Prokopenko opened the score. The goal made ‘’Ararat’s’’ situation much more difficult. But fortunately the strong will of the players wasn’t broken. In 28th minute a combination organized by Nazar Petrosyan and Arkadi Andreasyan was finished with a long-range volley of the latter, but Vergeenko’s selfless jump once again saved ‘’Dinamo’’. After the break ‘’Dinamo’’ went deep into back, trying to keep the score. Nikita Simonyan, substituted Zanazanyan and Margarov with Poghosyan and Bondarenko who noticeably strengthened ‘’Ararat’s’’ attacking force. In the 50th minute Vergeenko once more showed his great reaction denying the strike by Poghosyan. However the success came from the wing attack. Nikolay Khazaryan became the real hero of the match. Thanks to his quickness and high technique Khazaryan was the leader of ‘’Ararat’s’’ attacking force in the second half. In the 73rd minute Andreasyan taking the ball, made a correct pass to Khazaryan in the left wing. The latter winning the battle with the defender Voronin gave no chance the goalkeeper equalizing the score. Seven minutes later the above mentioned combination was almost exactly repeated, with only one difference that this time Khazaryan instead of scoring himself made an accurate pass to Ishtoyan who didn’t fail from short distance, scoring ‘’Ararat’s’’ winning goal. ‘’Ararat’’ achieved a very important, volitional victory and made another vital step to the gold medals of the USSR championship. Fortunately for ‘’Ararat’’ ‘’Dinamo’’ Kiev ‘’failed’’ in Lviv, losing the match to one of the outsiders of the championship ‘’Karpats’’ on 11m. penalty shoot-out. So, ‘’Ararat’’ had one point more than ‘’Dinamo’’. Besides that ‘’Ararat’’ had to play one of the last 2 matches on home ground, while ‘’Dinamo’’ had 2 away matches.
The champion is actually known
Four days later after the match against ‘’Dinamo’’ Minsk, in Moscow ‘’Ararat’’ met CSKA in the 29th tour of the championship. That day had been taking place matches in 3 European club championships, so the other matches of 29th tour had been appointed on October 28. In fact ‘’Ararat’’ and CSKA were the first to finish the championship, whereas the last tour matches of the championship were appointed on Nonember 1and 2. Due to this fact the result of the match with CSKA was very important. In case of victory ‘’Ararat’’ would take 3 points more and ‘’Ararat’’ could actually be crowned as the USSR champion. For many years CSKA considered to be a tough opponent for ‘’Ararat’’. Till 1970 for ‘’Ararat’’, CSKA was an unbeaten team. In previous 18 battles only in 5 ‘’Ararat’’ managed to end in a draw. However, the first victoty over CSKA ‘’Ararat’’ celebrated only in 1970 in Moscow (2:1). Begining from 1971 all 5 matches between these teams finished with ‘’Ararat’s’’ victory (6:0 on aggregate). Besides that ‘’Ararat’’ never lost to CSKA since 1971. So, the statistics was really promising. Despite bad weather the match was an attractive one. Both teams started the match in aggressive manner. CSKA could already open the score in the 2nd minute. The defender Utkin made a dangerous pass to the penalty area of ‘’Ararat’’, but Dudarenko was late just an instant, atherwise the ball could appear in the net. But gradually ‘’Ararat’’ took the match under his control. The attacking trio of ‘’Ararat’’ with great assistance of Andreasyan and Poghosyan kept CSKA’s goal under permanent fire. In the 19th and 29th minutes respectively Poghosyan and Ishtoyan could open the score, but fortunately for CSKA’s goalkeeper Shmuts they failed to do so. However, a few minutes later Ishtoyan corrected his mistake finishing the attack organised by Poghosyan and Markarov with a goal. Feeling the danger of defeat CSKA took decisive actions. They tried hard to equalize the score in the remaining minutes of the match, but nevertheless, ‘’Ararat’’ players defended in a strong and clever manner and deserved the hard victory. So the difference between ‘’Ararat’’ and ‘’Dinamo’’ Kiev was already 3 points and the champion of the country was decided. Though ‘’Dinamo’’ Kiev had one match left, but the Ukrainian side had 2 tough battles in Alma-Ata and Tashkent. What about ‘’Ararat’’ the Armenian team had to beat ‘’Zenith’’ in ‘’Hrazdan’’ stadium in the last match in order to be unattainable for the other teams.
28th Tour
‘’Ararat’’ – ‘’Dinamo’’Mn. 2:1 (0:1)
October 20, Yerevan, ‘’Hrazdan’’ stadium 60.000 spectators.
Referee: I. Lukyanov (Moscow)
‘’Ararat’’ – Abrahamyan-4, Gevorgyan-4, Sargsyan-4, Kovalenko-4, Mesropyan-4, Andreasyan-4, N. Petrosyan-4, Ishtoyan-4, Margarov-4 (Poghosyan 46-4), Zanazanyan-4 (Bondarenko 46-4), Khazaryan-4
‘’Dinamo’’ – Vergeenko-5, Voronin-4, Girko-4, Slovak-4, Semyonov-4, Kurnev-4, Bogovik-4, Prokopenko-4 (Vasilevski 79), Vasilev – 4, Klimovich-4 (Timofeev 81), Sakharov-4:
Goal scorers: Prokopenko (24), Khazaryan (73), Ishtoyan (80)
Substitutes 2:1
‘’Dinamo’’M – ‘’Torpedo’’ 1:1, 4:5, 11m. penalty
‘’Dinamo’’ Tb. – ‘’Spartak’’ 1:0
‘’Dnipr’’ – ‘’ Zarya’’ 2:0
‘’Karpats’’ – ‘’Dinamo’’ K. 0:0, 4:5, 11m. penalty shoot-out
‘’Kayrat’’ – ‘’CSKA’’ 1:1, 4:3, 11m. penalty shoot-out
‘’Shakhtar’’ – ‘’SKA’’ 3:0
‘’Pakhtakor’’ – ‘’Zenith’’ 5:0
29th Tour
‘’CSKA’’ – ‘’Ararat’’ 0:1 (0:1)
October 24, Moscow ‘’Dinamo’’ stadium 8.000 spectators
Referee: V. Alov
‘’CSKA’’ – Shmuts, Utkin, Babenko, Kislyakov, Kaplichni, Shlapak, Khisamudinov (Kopeykin 58), Syomin, Fedotov, Kozlovskikh, Dudarenko:
‘’Ararat’’ - Abrahamyan, Gevorgyan, Sargsyan, Kovalenko, Mesropyan, Andreasyan, Bondarenko, Ishtoyan, Margarov (N. Petrosyan 73),Poghosyan, Khazaryan (Martirosyan 89)
Goal scorer: Ishtoyan (33)
Substitutes 2:0
Goals: Dorofeev, Telinger:
www.fcararat.am
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