Soviet Union Olympic football team

Soviet Union Olympic team

Nickname(s)	The Olympic Assembled (Olimpiyskaya sbornaya) (Олимпийская сборная)
Association	Football Federation of the Soviet Union
Most caps	Igor Dobrovolski, Yevgeni Kuznetsov, Alexei Mikhailichenko, Dmitri Kharine, Volodymyr Troshkin (14)
Top scorer	Igor Dobrovolski (8)
FIFA code	URS
First colours Second colours
First international
Bulgaria 1–1 Soviet Union  (Moscow, USSR; 27 June 1959)
Biggest win
Soviet Union 8–0 Cuba  (Moscow, USSR; 24 July 1980)
Biggest defeat
East Germany 4–1 Soviet Union  (Warsaw, Poland; 28 June 1964)
Summer Olympic Games
Appearances	2 (first in 1980)
Best result	Gold Medal, 1988

Olympic medal record
Men’s Football
	1980 Moscow	Team
	1988 Seoul	Team

The Soviet Union Olympic football team was the national Olympic football team of the Soviet Union from 1952 to 1990. Until 1980 it was rather the Soviet Union national football B team. The team participated in all of the qualification football tournaments for Summer Olympics (except for 1980 when it qualified as hosts). Until 1992, when age restrictions were officially introduced, the Soviet Union used the first team both in qualification tournaments and finals except for 1960 and 1964 when the second national team was used for the qualification tournaments (the first team succeeded it in the finals in those years).

History[edit]

Officially the Olympic national team was founded in 1959 after the FIFA adopted its decision in 1958 prohibiting players who played in the World Cup finals from participation in the Olympics. The Soviet Union did not participate in the World Cup until 1958 (see 1958 World Cup (qualifications)); instead, it used its first team (base team) to compete at the Olympics (since 1952) as it deemed that tournament more important. The USSR continued to use its best players in the Olympics after 1958 despite the FIFA ruling, with the branding "Olympic team" being rather formal, with all the players being part of the national team and competing both at the World Cup and Olympics.

1960 Olympics[edit]

Qualification[edit]

In order to defend their Olympic title at the Rome Games, the Soviet Union national team had to go through a "selection sieve". According to the territorial principle, the team got into the 3rd European group, along with the teams of Bulgaria and Romania. This time it was decided to create an Olympic team separate from the main one, which included players from the nearest reserve of the main team. Of the players who took part in the qualifying games, only goalkeeper Boris Razinsky represented the team that won the Melbourne gold. Boris Arkadiev was appointed as the head coach. The coaching council also included M. I. Yakushin and A. S. Ponomarev.

The calendar of games was drawn up in such a way that the Soviet Union national team took part in all the first four games, and the national teams of Bulgaria and Romania had to fight each other in the last two.

3rd Group[edit]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Bulgaria	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	5
Soviet Union	4	1	2	1	3	2	+1	4
Romania	4	1	1	2	2	4	-2	3

Games[edit]

29 June 1959

?:?

Soviet Union	1 – 1	Bulgaria
Korolenkov 68'	Report	Milanov 26'

Lenin Central Stadium, Moscow

Attendance: 102,000

Referee: Bengt Lundell (Sweden)

19 July 1959

?:?

Soviet Union	2 – 0	Romania
Urin 10' Metreveli 61'	Report

Lenin Central Stadium, Moscow

Attendance: 102,000

Referee: Erio Pattiniemi (Finland)

2 August 1959

?:?

Romania	0 – 0	Soviet Union
	[ Report]

August 23 Stadium, Bucharest

Attendance: 80,000

Referee: Grzegorz Alexandrowicz (Poland)

13 September 1959

?:?

Bulgaria	1 – 0	Soviet Union
Kolev 11'	[ Report]

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 45,000

Referee: Josef Stoll (Austria)

Bulgaria qualified for the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Roster[edit]

• Head coach – Boris Arkadyev (CSK MO Moscow)
• Coaching council staff members: Mikhail Yakushin (Dynamo Moscow) and Aleksandr Ponomarev

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club
	1GK	Boris Razinsky	(1933-07-12)12 July 1933 (aged 26)	4	CSK MO Moscow
	2DF	Dmitriy Bagrich	(1936-03-26)26 March 1936 (aged 23)	4	CSK MO Moscow
	2DF	Anatoliy Soldatov	(1931-07-11)11 July 1931 (aged 28)	3	Spartak Moscow
	2DF	Mikhail Yermolayev	(1935-11-04)4 November 1935 (aged 24)	3	CSK MO Moscow
	2DF	Nikolai Linyaev	(1933-07-17)17 July 1933 (aged 26)	3	CSK MO Moscow
	2DF	Anatoly Krutikov	(1933-09-21)21 September 1933 (aged 26)	1	Spartak Moscow
	2DF	Ivan Morgunov	(1929-01-01)1 January 1929 (aged 30)	1	Lokomotiv Moscow
	3MF	Stanislav Zavidnov	(1934-10-14)14 October 1934 (aged 25)	3	Zenit Leningrad
	3MF	Yury Kovalyov	(1934-02-06)6 February 1934 (aged 25)	3	Lokomotiv Moscow
	3MF	Boris Batanov	(1934-07-15)15 July 1934 (aged 25)	2	Zenit Leningrad
	3MF	Valery Korolenkov	(1939-03-17)17 March 1939 (aged 20)	2	Dynamo Moscow
	3MF	Aleksandr Sokolov	(1930-02-26)26 February 1930 (aged 29)	1	Dynamo Moscow
	3MF	Shota Yamanidze	(1937-03-15)15 March 1937 (aged 22)	1	Dinamo Tbilisi
	4FW	Slava Metreveli	(1936-03-30)30 March 1936 (aged 23)	4	Torpedo Moscow
	4FW	Zaur Kaloyev	(1931-03-24)24 March 1931 (aged 28)	3	Dinamo Tbilisi
	4FW	Valeri Urin	(1934-08-10)10 August 1934 (aged 25)	2	Dynamo Moscow
	4FW	Avtandil Gogoberidze	(1922-08-03)3 August 1922 (aged 37)	1	Dinamo Tbilisi
	4FW	Igor Zaitsev	(1934-04-21)21 April 1934 (aged 25)	1	Lokomotiv Moscow
	4FW	Viktor Voroshilov	(1926-08-15)15 August 1926 (aged 33)	1	Lokomotiv Moscow
	4FW	Viktor Sokolov	(1936-09-28)28 September 1936 (aged 23)	1	Lokomotiv Moscow

Notes:

• Age on 12 December 1959.

1964 Olympics[edit]

Qualification[edit]

According to the results of the draw, the USSR national team got into the third European group of the qualifying tournament for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. The country was represented by the Olympic team, but in reality, the second team: the players of the first team (Glotov, Korneev, Mudrik) played together with the players of the nearest (Anichkin, Lobanovsky, Urushadze) and deep (Biba, Sevidov, Fadeev) reserve of the main team. There were no age restrictions for the players, for example, the goalkeeper Kotrikadze at the time of the first meeting with the Finns was less than 27 years old. The team was headed by Vyacheslav Solovyov, who combined this post with a similar job at CSKA. Assistant - E. I. Lyadin.

The tournament regulations did not provide for a group round-robin tournament. The teams had to play two-legged knockout matches. In the preliminary round, the East Germany Olympic football team knocked out the team of another Germany – West (payback for the last qualification). At the next stage, they had to challenge the Dutch, and the Soviet Union Olympic team challenged their access to the next round in the play-off with Finland.

Group 3[edit]

First round[edit]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Soviet Union	11–0	Finland	7–0	4–0

22 July 1963

Soviet Union	7–0	Finland
Serebrianikov 16', 46' Kazakov 27', 39' Biba 38' Matveyev 61' (pen.), 89'	Report

Tsentralny Stadion, Kiev

Attendance: 40,000

Referee: Stanislav Fenzl (Czechoslovakia)

1 August 1963

Finland	0–4	Soviet Union
	Report	Serebrianikov 23' Biba 25' Kazakov 48' Matveyev 75'

Olympiastadion, Helsinki

Attendance: 6,500

Referee: Bertil Lööf (Sweden)

Second round[edit]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
United Team of Germany	2–2	Soviet Union	1–1	1–1

31 May 1964

United Team of Germany	1–1	Soviet Union
Frenzel 10'	Report	Sevidov 88'

Zentralstadion, Leipzig

Attendance: 80,000

Referee: Joseph Heymann (Switzerland)

7 June 1964

Soviet Union	1–1	United Team of Germany
Kopayev 14'	Report	Kleiminger 62'

Tsentralny Stadion imeni Lenina, Moscow

Attendance: 82,000

Referee: Hans Karlsson (Sweden)

According to the rules of the tournament, the teams had to play the third decisive game on a neutral field. The arena of the match was picked the Warsaw Stadium of the Decade.

Second round third match[edit]

in Warsaw, Poland

Team 1	Score	Team 2
United Team of Germany	4–1	Soviet Union

28 June 1964

United Team of Germany	4–1	Soviet Union
Kleiminger 16' Urbanczyk 39' Vogel 82' Fräßdorf 87'	Report	Serebrianikov 55'

Stadion Dziesięciolecia, Warsaw

Attendance: 25,000

Referee: Eduard Babauczek (Austria)

United Team of Germany qualified for the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Roster[edit]

• Head coach – Vyacheslav Solovyov (CSKA Moscow)
• Assistant – Yevgeny Lyadin

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club
	3MF	Viktor Serebryanikov	(1940-03-29)29 March 1940 (aged 23)	5	Dinamo Kiev
	2DF	Albert Shesternyov	(1941-06-20)20 June 1941 (aged 22)	5	CSKA Moscow
	2DF	Eduard Mudrik	(1939-07-18)18 July 1939 (aged 24)	4	Dinamo Moscow
	3MF	Andriy Biba	(1937-08-10)10 August 1937 (aged 26)	4	Dinamo Kiev
	2DF	Vladimir Ponomaryov	(1940-02-18)18 February 1940 (aged 23)	3	CSKA Moscow
	2DF	Murtaz Khurtsilava	(1943-01-05)5 January 1943 (aged 20)	3	Dinamo Tbilisi
	3MF	Valery Maslov	(1940-04-28)28 April 1940 (aged 23)	3	Dinamo Moscow
	4FW	Yury Sevidov	(1942-08-24)24 August 1942 (aged 21)	3	Spartak Moscow
	1GK	Sergo Kotrikadze	(1936-08-09)9 August 1936 (aged 27)	2	Dinamo Tbilisi
	4FW	Gennadi Matveyev	(1937-08-22)22 August 1937 (aged 26)	2	SKA Rostov-on-Don
	4FW	Boris Kazakov	(1940-11-06)6 November 1940 (aged 23)	2	Krylia Sovetov Kuibyshev
	4FW	Valeriy Lobanovskyi	(1939-01-06)6 January 1939 (aged 24)	2	Dinamo Kiev
	1GK	Ramaz Urushadze	(1939-08-17)17 August 1939 (aged 24)	2	Torpedo Kutaisi
	2DF	Vladimir Glotov	(1937-01-23)23 January 1937 (aged 26)	2	Dinamo Moscow
	2DF	Viktor Anichkin	(1941-12-08)8 December 1941 (aged 22)	2	Dinamo Moscow
	2DF	Aleksei Korneyev	(1939-02-06)6 February 1939 (aged 24)	2	Spartak Moscow
	4FW	Lev Burchalkin	(1939-01-09)9 January 1939 (aged 24)	2	Zenit Leningrad
	4FW	Eduard Malofeyev	(1942-06-02)2 June 1942 (aged 21)	1	Dinamo Minsk
	4FW	Oleg Kopayev	(1937-11-28)28 November 1937 (aged 26)	1	SKA Rostov-on-Don
	1GK	Vladimir Lisitsin	(1938-08-20)20 August 1938 (aged 25)	1	Kairat Alma-Ata
	2DF	Anatoly Krutikov	(1933-09-21)21 September 1933 (aged 30)	1	Spartak Moscow
	2DF	Gennady Logofet	(1942-04-15)15 April 1942 (aged 21)	1	Spartak Moscow
	4FW	Oleg Sergeyev	(1940-01-30)30 January 1940 (aged 23)	1	Torpedo Moscow
	4FW	Valeriy Fadeyev	(1939-07-20)20 July 1939 (aged 24)	1	Dinamo Moscow

Notes:

• Age on 31 December 1963.

1972 Olympics[edit]

Qualification[edit]

Play-off stage[edit]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Soviet Union	4–0	Netherlands	4–0	0–0

2 June 1971

Soviet Union	4–0	Netherlands
Kozynkevych 44', 64' Troshkin 54' Shalimov 74'	Report

Tsentralnyi Stadion "Dinamo", Moscow

Attendance: 23,000

Referee: Aurelio Agnonese (Italy)

16 June 1971

Netherlands	0–0	Soviet Union
	Report

Attendance: 5,000

Referee: Rudolf Scheurer (Switzerland)

Group 1[edit]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		URS	FRA	AUT
1	Soviet Union	4	4	0	0	13	2	+11	8	1972 Summer Olympics finals		—	5–1	4–0
2	France	4	2	0	2	10	9	+1	4			1–3	—	5–1
3	Austria	4	0	0	4	1	13	−12	0			0–1	0–3	—

13 October 1971

Soviet Union	4–0	Austria
Zanazanyan 13', 69' Kozynkevych 36' Kopeykin 87'	Report

Stadion "Druzhba", Lviv

Attendance: 21,000

Referee: Petar Kostovski (Yugoslavia)

3 November 1971

Soviet Union	5–1	France
Zanazanyan 12' Andreasyan 21', 29' Ishtoyan 36' Hreshchak 51'	Report	Riefa 69'

Hrazdan Stadium, Yerevan

Attendance: 50,000

Referee: Bertil Lööw (Sweden)

18 November 1971

Austria	0–1	Soviet Union
	Report	Andreasyan 74'

Bundesstadion Südstadt, Maria Enzersdorf, Lower Austria

Attendance: 300

Referee: Franz Geluck (Belgium)

25 May 1972

France	1–3	Soviet Union
Tonnel 59'	Report	Machaidze 42' Blokhin 49', 87'

Parc des Princes, Paris

Attendance: 22,000

Referee: David Smith (England)

Roster[edit]

In bold are players and coaches that actually went to Munich, see Olympic team squad for more information.

• Head coach – Aleksandr Ponomarev (away game with France Boris Nabokov)

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club
	1GK	Vladimir Oleinik	(1950-03-10)10 March 1950 (aged 21)	2	Spartak Ordzhonikidze
	1GK	Vladimir Pilguy	(1948-01-26)26 January 1948 (aged 23)	1	Dinamo Moscow
	1GK	Lev Kudasov	(1943-06-24)24 June 1943 (aged 28)	1	SKA Rostov-on-Don
	1GK	Oleksandr Tkachenko	(1947-01-24)24 January 1947 (aged 24)	1	Zaria Voroshilovgrad
	1GK	Aleksandr Prokhorov	(1946-06-18)18 June 1946 (aged 25)	1	Dinamo Kiev
	2DF	Vadym Sosnykhin	(1942-08-10)10 August 1942 (aged 29)	3	Dinamo Kiev
	2DF	Stefan Reshko	(1947-03-24)24 March 1947 (aged 24)	3	Dinamo Kiev
	2DF	Norair Mesropyan	(1946-04-30)30 April 1946 (aged 25)	3	Ararat Yerevan
	2DF	Vyacheslav Bulavin	(1946-04-18)18 April 1946 (aged 25)	2	Zenit Leningrad
	2DF	Vadim Ivanov	(1943-01-17)17 January 1943 (aged 28)	2	Spartak Moscow
	2DF	Valeri Zykov	(1944-02-24)24 February 1944 (aged 27)	2	Dinamo Moscow
	2DF	Viktor Matviyenko	(1948-10-26)26 October 1948 (aged 23)	2	Dinamo Kiev
	2DF	Nikolay Abramov	(1950-01-05)5 January 1950 (aged 21)	1	Spartak Moscow
	2DF	Nikolai Khudiyev	(1949-05-15)15 May 1949 (aged 22)	1	Spartak Ordzhonikidze
	2DF	Sergei Dotsenko	(1947-09-07)7 September 1947 (aged 24)	1	Dinamo Kiev
	2DF	Boris Serostanov	(1949-10-17)17 October 1949 (aged 22)	1	SKA Rostov-on-Don
	2DF	Rostyslav Potochnyak	(1948-01-26)26 January 1948 (aged 23)	1	Karpaty Lvov
	2DF	Vladimir Golubev	(1950-04-16)16 April 1950 (aged 21)	1	Zenit Leningrad
	2DF	Viktor Zvyahintsev	(1950-10-22)22 October 1950 (aged 21)	1	CSKA Moscow
	3MF	Oganes Zanazanyan	(1946-12-10)10 December 1946 (aged 25)	6	Ararat Yerevan
	3MF	Arkady Andreasyan	(1947-08-11)11 August 1947 (aged 24)	5	Ararat Yerevan
	3MF	Volodymyr Troshkin	(1947-09-28)28 September 1947 (aged 24)	5	Dinamo Kiev
	3MF	Serhiy Bondarenko	(1948-11-09)9 November 1948 (aged 23)	4	Ararat Yerevan
	3MF	Volodymyr Veremeyev	(1948-11-08)8 November 1948 (aged 23)	4	Dinamo Kiev
	3MF	Leonid Buryak	(1953-07-10)10 July 1953 (aged 18)	1	Chernomorets Odessa
	3MF	Khasan Mirikov	(1950-06-03)3 June 1950 (aged 21)	1	Neftianik Baku
	4FW	Eduard Kozynkevych	(1949-05-23)23 May 1949 (aged 22)	4	Karpaty Lvov
	4FW	Bohdan Hreshchak	(1949-03-31)31 March 1949 (aged 22)	3	Karpaty Lvov
	4FW	Gennadiy Shalimov	(1947-11-29)29 November 1947 (aged 24)	2	Torpedo Moscow
	4FW	Yuri Avrutskiy	(1944-05-10)10 May 1944 (aged 27)	2	Dinamo Moscow
	4FW	Boris Kopeykin	(1946-03-27)27 March 1946 (aged 25)	2	CSKA Moscow
	4FW	Vladimir Goncharov	(1946-11-21)21 November 1946 (aged 25)	1	Zenit Leningrad
	4FW	Levon Ishtoyan	(1947-09-03)3 September 1947 (aged 24)	1	Ararat Yerevan
	4FW	Anatoliy Vasilyev	(1944-08-25)25 August 1944 (aged 27)	1	Dinamo Minsk
	4FW	Givi Nodia	(1948-01-02)2 January 1948 (aged 23)	1	Dinamo Tbilisi
	4FW	Vladimir Gutsaev	(1952-12-21)21 December 1952 (aged 19)	1	Dinamo Tbilisi
	4FW	Oleh Blokhin	(1952-11-05)5 November 1952 (aged 19)	1	Dinamo Kiev

Notes:

• Age on 31 December 1971.

1976 Olympics[edit]

Qualification[edit]

Play-off stage[edit]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Yugoslavia	1–4	Soviet Union	1–1	0–3

7 May 1975

Yugoslavia	1–1	Soviet Union
Eftić 76'	Report	Bulgakov 78'

Gradski stadion, Banja Luka

Attendance: 8,000

Referee: Erich Linemayr (Austria)

21 May 1975

Soviet Union	3–0	Yugoslavia
Buryak 57' (pen.), 61' Hatzipanagis 87'	Report

Tsentralnyi stadion imeni V.I.Lenina, Moscow

Attendance: 40,000

Referee: Constantin Petrea (Romania)

Summer Olympics record[edit]

Note:^[1][2]   Champions    Runners-up    Third place    Fourth place  

Olympic Games record										Qualification record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	→	Outcome
1952	National team									N/A							Qualified directly
1956										2	2	0	0	7	1	1956	Won over Israel in play-off
1960	did not qualify									4	1	2	1	3	2	1960	2nd in Qualifying group 3
1964										5	2	2	1	14	3	1964	Lost to Germany in play-off
1968										National team						1968	Lost to Czechoslovakia in play-off
1972	National team									6	5	1	0	17	2	1972	1st in Qualifying group 1
1976										6	5	1	0	14	2	1976	1st in Qualifying group 1
1980	3rd place	3rd	6	5	0	1	19	3		Host nation						1980	Qualified as host nation
1984	Boycotted									6	3	2	1	9	4	1984	1st in Qualifying group A
1988	Final	Champion	6	5	1	0	14	6		8	6	2	0	12	2	1988	1st in Qualifying group 1
1992	did not qualify									Under-21 team						1992	3rd in Qualifying group 3
Total	2/11		12	10	1	1	33	9		37	24	10	3	76	16

Venues[edit]

Soviet managers[edit]

The list does not include games of the senior team such as participation at the Olympic tournaments finals (1952–1980).

Manager	Nation	Years	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	Win %	Qualifying cycle	Final tour
Boris Arkadiev		1959	4	1	2	1	3	2	25	1960
Vyacheslav Solovyov		1963-1964	5	2	2	1	14	6	40	1964
Aleksandr Ponomarev		1971	5	4	1	0	14	1	80	1972
Konstantin Beskov		1975	6	5	1	0	14	2	83.33	1976
Konstantin Beskov		1980	6	5	0	1	19	3	83.33		1980
Vladimir Salkov		1983	2	1	1	0	5	2	50	1984
Eduard Malofeyev		1983-1984	4	2	1	1	4	2	50	1984	1984*
Anatoly Byshovets		1986-1988	14	11	3	0	26	8	78.57	1988	1988

Notes:

• The USSR Olympic team withdrew from the football tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics.
• Since 1991 UEFA qualifies a national under-21 football team to the Olympics.

See also[edit]

• Football in the Soviet Union
• Soviet Union national football team
• Soviet Union national under-21 football team
• Soviet Union national under-19 football team

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• URSS national football team website