Experienced coaches Gavriil Kalachin and Nikolai Guliaev had a great team, but quarterfinal against hosts of the contest upset their plans.
Absolute result in qualification
USSR opponents in qualification were Turkey and Norway. Kalachin’s men defeated them both in home and away fixtures.
Thus Soviet players qualified for the World Cup with eight points. Though FC Dynamo Kyiv won the domestic league in 1961 not a single performer of the team featured for USSR in qualifiers.
To Chile with one plane
On May 25 1962 USSR team left for South America.
Ex-Dynamo Kyiv player Viktor Serebrianykov has recalled that flight.
- We left for America from Lisbon at night. I woke up as some Brazilian newly-weds were struggling for life-jacket. I looked into the illuminator and saw that we lost one plane (later I got to know that pilots just ejected one turbine). There was a panic! Twenty minutes later we landed. I remember that flight very well.
In the first fixture of the World Cup USSR defeated Yugoslavia – 2:0. FC Dynamo Kyiv player Viktor Kanevskyi took the field in that match.
Later Soviet team played in a draw against Columbia – 4:4 and eventually defeated Uruguay by two goals to one and thus qualified for the quarterfinal.
Though Chile didn’t demonstrate the benchmark play of that time, but supporters inspired hosts and they outplayed USSR – 2:1.
As for FC Dynamo Kyiv representatives – only Viktor Kanevskyi performed at the World Cup. Yozhef Sabo and Viktor Serebrianykov also came to the contest with Soviet delegation, but they didn’t take the field.
Twists of fate
Forward Viktor Kanevskyi was FC Dynamo Kyiv first team regular till 1965. After that he joined FC Chornomorets Odesa together with Valeriy Lobanovskyi.
In 1988 Kanevskyi moved to the USA with his family. He founded his own football school in New York suburb.
Yozhef Sabo became fourfold Soviet Top League winner with FC Dynamo Kyiv (1961, 1966, 1967, 1968) and won the USSR Cup twice (1964, 1966).
In 1970 he featured for FC Zoria Luhansk and in 1972 reached the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup final with FC Dinamo Moscow.
Sabo took charge of FC Dynamo Kyiv several times and won the domestic league (1994, 1996) and Ukrainian Cup (1996, 2005). He also was Ukraine national team head coach. He is the Order of the merit of the Third (1999), Second (2004) and First Class (2011) chevalier.
Today Yozhef Sabo works as football expert on TV.
Viktor Serebrianykov wonthe Soviet Top League with Dynamo five times and USSR Cup twice.
He is the Order of the merit of the Third (2004) and Second Class (2011) chevalier.
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