BBC article on Dynamo Moscow's tour of Britain

[der Berliner 3,747]

Full article here: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/54839305

 

The Rangers`part is - by comparison - quite short and somewhat "tainted" ...

 

Rangers v Dynamo Moscow

In Glasgow, such was the clamour to see the game that tickets worth 21 shillings were going for £10 - almost 10 times their original cost.

Dynamo were awarded a free-kick 20 yards out after two minutes. With no wall to contend with, Kartsev stepped up and fired inside the keeper's right-hand post for 1-0.

Dynamo continued to dominate, but Rangers forward Billy Williamson managed to win a dubious penalty, which Willie Waddell missed by smashing straight at Khomich.

Then, Dynamo scored the goal of the tour. Bobrov, on the edge of the penalty area, drew in two defenders before passing across the box to Beskov. With his left foot, Beskov passed back to the right between retreating defenders, and the unmarked Kartsev smashed the ball low into the opposite corner. The Daily Telegraph said it was "as perfect a goal as has ever been scored at Ibrox".

Five minutes before half-time, Rangers finally had some luck. A hooked ball was falling about eight yards from goal. When it dropped, Khomich jumped to catch it and clashed painfully with Jimmy Smith, the ball bouncing off Smith's midriff into the empty net.

Despite intense effort in the second half, Rangers just could not make another opening.

But then Williamson drove into the box on the left wing and, when he tried to get past the full-back, Rangers appealed for a penalty. The referee waved it away, but changed his mind after consulting his linesman.

George Young stepped forward to take it. He hit the ball firmly to Khomich's left, with the keeper barely moving. The game finished 2-2.

[26th of foot 6,084]

Typical BBC.

 

Both my grandfather and father attended the game. The BIG talking point was the fact Dynamo played a substantial part of one halve with twelve(12) men on the park. 

 

Imagine the BBC describing a game with dubious refereeing, whilst deliberately ignoring the most dubious happening during the match.

 

Further, Moscow Dynamo in 1946 were the same as Moscow Dynamo in 1972, they were the preferred club of the KGB(secret police of the Soviets).

[der Berliner 3,747]

Regarding "Dynamo", it was some sort of "sports organisation in a number of Socialist countries, namely the Soviet Union and the G.D.R. (SC Dynamo), which was usually supplied by (sic!), made up of (sic!), used by (sic!)  as well as supported by the police forces of the respective countries. It was not by default linked to any intervention or influence by the police forces, secret police, security services et al ... despite what is popularly claimed in "the West". The army in East Germany had a similar organisation, "ASK (army sports club) Vorwärts", to which ASK Vorwärts Berlin belonged, the one we played against in days gone by. That section was later switched to "Dynamo Berlin", while "Vorwärts " was moved to Frankfurt/Oder.

Can`t say much about Dynamo Moscow, but much of what is made of the "Stasi`s influence" on Dynamo Berlin`s (i.e. BFC Dynamo) domination of late G.D.R. football - as it was the head of Stasi`s "favoured club" - has since been devaluated, being more like an Urban myth whipped up by other football supporters rather than fact. What is obviously fact is that a number of talented East German footballers were "delegated" to BFC Dynamo (being the most representative East German club in European competitions), but likewise, the Dynamo sports organisation developed large numbers of good sportsmen from very young age onwards. (And before people step in here, state-doping et al, so readily thrown into the fray nowadays as "a given", was no more or less common than in the Western world. The big difference to the West was, as noted above, a state-funded development from talented sportsmen from school level onwards, so by default, more talented people (on average) were found and developed.)

[Scott7 6,016]

Honved were the army team in Budapest. Puskas played with the rank of major. That makes our lads lance corporals notwithstanding their own considerable merits.

[compo 7,052]

14 minutes ago, Scott7 said:

Honved were the army team in Budapest. Puskas played with the rank of major. That makes our lads lance corporals notwithstanding their own considerable merits.

Being a tad generous our lads would have be more like raw recruits 

[JohnMc 2,765]

The history of Dynamo Kiev is fascinating, there's a few books on it well worth reading. They not only had state backing during Soviet times but because they travelled to the 'west' regularly for matches they were used as a cover for all sorts of scary stuff. 

 

I must have mentioned this before @der Berliner but on my only trip to Berlin I struck up a conversation with my airport taxi driver who it turned out was a Dynamo Dresden supporter. The first match he ever attended was Dresden against Rangers in the old Fairs Cup in the late 60s and he'd followed Rangers results ever since. We were flailing around in the lower leagues at the time and we sympathised with each other's plight as Dresden were doing something similar. Ended up sitting outside my hotel chatting about football for about 20 minutes. He got a good tip. 

[Uilleam 5,948]

1 hour ago, Scott7 said:

Honved were the army team in Budapest. Puskas played with the rank of major. That makes our lads lance corporals notwithstanding their own considerable merits.

I am told (and I am told that it is true) that Major Puskas could stand on the centre spot with a bag of footballs, and knock passes, hitting each of the corner flag poles in turn.

[onevision 1,571]

5 minutes ago, Uilleam said:

, hitting each of the corner flag poles in turn.

That's nothing, Scotland players managed that last night when shooting at goal.

[ChelseaBoy 2,441]

Enjoyed the account, as i remember my grandad recounting that him and his mates couldn't afford the ticket price and stood outside Ibrox listening!!

Dynamo's visit certainly got the post war footie fans out in numbers. This is the Chelsea west stand in a purported 100,000 gate (they stopped counting at the 74,000 who paid! 

 

[alexscottislegend 2,328]

I first heard about this game in Hugh Taylor: 'Follow Follow'. He also mentioned the 12 men on the field. For a different take George Orwell wrote a famous article denouncing the Stalinist regime but I can't find a reliable link. I do remember he annoyed me by referring to Rangers as 'Glasgow.'