vo oor

A MAJOR 1 a

_ Soviet soccer success depends

on effort, speed ani endurance

The year 1958,

fifteen of the world’s strongest teams in football, that
20th century, will assemble in Stockholm for the final

tournament.
Melbourne Games,

I venture to say
will do well in Sweden.

By YURI VANIAT

a hard-fought game with Poland recently.

The post-war successes of
Soviet football. have won
World-wide recognition. The

temporary crisis in the game

ofthe best Soviet clubs, re-
flecteq in the XVth Olympic
Games in Helsinki in 1952 (the
9-5 draw with and 3-1 defeat
to Yugoslavia, who consequent-

ly occupied runner-up posi-
tion) was surmounted in 1954
with the appearance of a gal-
axy of young, first-class play-
ers and the Moscow. Dynamo.
goalie of international class,
Lev Yashin.

Currently the USSR has over

% The Soviet soccer squad qualified to play in the World

9

Cup in Sweden next year by edging Poland 2-0 in a

hard-fough:: game last’ menth, Photo shows Russian forward

alentin Ivanoy bowling over ‘a Polish defender, Ivan Woz-
Niak. The game drew a crowd of 110,000.

MOSCOW

not so very far off now, will be a notable year for sports followers:
most popular athletic pastime of the
rounds of the ‘current world title
that the USSR picked team, the Olympic champions of
They won the right to go into the finals after

the

1,600,000 footbaliers. In the
last few years the USSR Cup-
tie tournament has attracted
from 16,000 to 17,000 teams.

USSR
national still has a number of
weak spots—the centre half,
left wing and, partly, the in-
side forwards. But asa whole,
the team will have to be given
due consideration by the fav-
orites in the approaching
Stockholm tournament. I have
in mind the British, Hungarian,
French, and Latin American
sides.

What distinguishes the style
of the Soviet teams from
Anglo-Scottish, Latin Ameri-
can, and Central European
styles?. What are the peculari-
ties of the Soviet s'yle?

The game of the leading So-
viet eievens rests on “three
whales.” They are collective
effdrt, speed, and endurance.
Let us examine these three
components separately.

In some countries there are
instances of technique for
technique’s sake, when in an

In my opinion, the

exhibition of individual skill,

players disregard collective ac-
tion. The Britishers played
this way for a long time and
“most of the Latin American
sides are doing so even today.
Then there is technique for
the sake of the team’s benefit,
for the sake of making an
easier task of collective action,
when individual ‘skill is put at
the service of partners. This
is the style of the.Soviet foot-
ballers. Such Soviet football
stars as wing-half Igor Netto,
forward Eduard Streltsov, Ser-
gel Salnikoy (unfortunately,
he is shpping. down” in
standard at present) and Boris
Tatushin, the “jet bomber” of
the Soviet national, show ex-
pertly how to combine well-
planned collective manoeuvres
with brilliant solo operations.
The ‘high pace and speed of
the Soviet teams are well
known. The players have ach-
ieved a high level in speed
performances. Even the fast-
est teams—the ltalians, Bra-
zilians, and Wungarians—are
outclassed in this ‘respect.
Finally, one more word. We
‘must always keep in mind that
sport is a competition of char-
acter. That is why in Soviet
football great importance is
attached to the breeding of
courage, will, and the skill to
fight for victory right up to
the last second’ of the game.

his.

% Soviet goalie Yevgency Erkin of Moscow Selects leaps in

the air in a vain attempt to stop a shot during the match

with North Bay Trappers.

The Russians won, 6-3.

All three

goalies on the visiting team favored this jumping syle, and on
them it looked good, for they won five of their eight games
against Canadian amateur teams. f

Gert Whyte's

SPORTLIGHT

ANY of -my. readers (two)
are hot as firecrackers over
the denegration (there’s that
word again)
Soviet puckniks by National
Hockey League president
Clarence Campbell, and expect
me to come roaring into action
with a blast at the NHL prexy.

In case you weren’t listen-
ing, Campbell said the good
Showing of Moscow — Selects
(five wins, two losses and a
draw) didn’t surprise him, but
he’s convinced at least 20 to
25 professional Canadian teams
would “clobber” them.

Sorry, dear readérs, but up
to this point I agree with
Campbell, in spades.

The Selects showed plenty
of condition, puck - passing
skill, shooting, ability. More
important, they demonstrated
that they’re good students.

Item: in their first game the
defensemen made the mistake
of backing up on the goalie,
blocking his vision. After
watching Canadian defensemen
in action they. overcame this
fault in their latter games.

Item: in their opening game
the Selects forgot to shoot
the goal mouth, tried passing
until they had an almost sure
chance to score. This strategy
didn’t pay off, so in subsequent
games they fired more shots,
scored oftener, .

All this proves that the Mos-
cow lads, playing a game that
was born in Canada but has
only become popular in the
‘Soviet Union since 1946, still
have plenty to learn, and are
not ashamed to pick up point-

of the visiting |

ers as they go along.

It also proves that they are
learning so fast in another few
years time Campbell may have
to eat his words, for it is in-
evitable that Russian hockey
will in the not distant future
come up to NHL alibre,
though it’s-a long way below
that now.

So far, no disagreement be-
tween me and Campbell. But
when he goes on to say the
Selects will return home and
“use their victories for propa-
ganda.value” I say, “Nuts.”

This is cold war stuff, Clar-
ence, worthy of Dulles but not
of a sportsman, which you
claim to be.

It was the U.S. which coined
the slogan, “We must beat the
Russians at all costs” prior to
the Melbourne Olympics. The
USSR won the unofficial points
victory, and their athletes won
the most gold medals, but Rus-
sian journals didn’t crow that
they had whupped the Yank-
ees.”

The visiting hockey players
proved they could compete
with Canada’s best amateur
teams—that’s what they came
over to tind out. Naturally,
they must feel good about it.
But they also watched NHL
hockey and realize that it is a
cut or two above the amateur
brand. So, instead of boasting,
I'll wager they’ll be training
harder to improve — and in a
few years time will be ready
to accept Campbell’s sugges-
tion that open-~ international

competition is in order.

December 13, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 11