Hamburg greeted your humble servant with sunless skies and rainy weather, which by all accounts is not going to improve any time soon. I can only hope that these heavenly drops will not turn into tears of Ukrainian fans late in the evening of November 28. For Kyiv, this match is very important from the point of view of the further fight for a possible entry into the playoffs of the Europa League, the loss of points with the Czech team will practically make the chances of reaching the top 24 impossible.

From the first steps, the city of Hamburg has a special football atmosphere, everywhere you can see fans of both teams, passionately supporting their favorite team… I would like to write a report on this, but I have to come back to reality. During my entire stay in the city, I have never seen even one poster about the game Dynamo – Viktoria. No reminder of the European Cup match, let alone a meeting with the fans of one of the teams.

And this despite the fact that the last time one of the Hamburg clubs played in European cups was in the 2009/10 season. However, I did not see any interest in the Europa League match in the city. If you take into account that there are quite a lot of Ukrainians living in Hamburg (during my two days of walking around the city, I constantly heard phrases familiar to my ears: “What?” “Where are you?” and “He went to..y”). Therefore, the lack of even minimal excitement surrounding the match of the Ukrainian team in the European Cups is somewhat disappointing. Although one taxi driver of Turkish origin, named Malik, asked me when we were going to the Volksparkstadion: “Am I going to Dinamo?” and added “Dynamo is very good”… At that moment Valery Vasyliovych Lobanovskyi flashed in his eyes, but it is not accurate.

The material was prepared with the support of the Official sponsor of FC Dynamo Kyiv in GGBET European Cup matches.

Continuing the theme of the “soccer” city of Hamburg, I would like to note one more interesting detail. One can understand the lack of advertising for the match between Dynamo and Victoria, but how can one explain the city’s absolute disregard for its home teams. Being in Hamburg for the second day, I did not see advertising banners for the upcoming matches of St. Pauli or Hamburg at all. Also, billboards with one of the teams or individual football players of local clubs did not fall into my field of vision. And this despite the fact that the same St. Pauli plays in the first Bundesliga and has a fairly solid popularity all over the world. Advertisement of a handball team? Of course, yes! Coverage of the next match of BC Hamburg Towers? Practically at every step! And even an advertisement for contact lenses with the participation of Bayern Munich players is more than a poster with the next match between St. Pauli and Holstein Kiel. And let me remind you that the match between the “Pirates” and the “Storks” is one of the Northern derbies of Germany. A strange situation.

During my entire stay in the glorious city of Hamburg, I realized one thing. They cheer here mainly for St. Pauli than for “black-white-blue”. I can’t say how long this has been going on. Perhaps the majority in the city always supported the club from the Hamburg district of the same name. It’s just a fact that I’ve seen people wearing scarves, hats, jackets, T-shirts and other paraphernalia of only one club – St. Pauli. Of course, the “dinosaurs” themselves are to blame for this, thanks to the disastrous results in recent years. However, one of Germany’s oldest and most successful clubs deserves more from its hometown crowd.

Undoubtedly, Hamburg deserves attention for its historical sights, such as the Church of St. Nicholas, the Hamburg Kunsthalle or the Reeperbahn, known throughout Europe for its looseness and noise. However, we came to Hamburg, first of all, for a football holiday, which is not felt at all before the match. Unfortunately…

Although who am I deceiving, our dear readers? Did I really think that there would be a holiday in Hamburg dedicated to the match between Dynamo Kyiv and Viktoria Plzeň, when in the city there is such an attitude towards local teams (we are not talking about ultras of Hamburg and certainly not about the well-known “pirates” of St. Pauli)? Ah, these fantasies. However, as the legendary Sherlock Holmes said after coming out of the “opium” state: “Fantasies are still better than a fog in the head.” And what is he wrong?

Time to get back to our football business. The press conference with the participation of the goalkeeper of Dynamo Georgy Bushchan and the head coach of the team Oleksandr Shovkovsky was quite ordinary, if we do not take into account the delay of the official representatives of the Ukrainian club by about 15-20 minutes due to traffic jams in the city. This event did not attract much attention. Apart from me and two other journalists from Ukraine, there was only one representative of the Czech mass media. Pretty confident victory with a score of 3:1.

Company GGBET believes that it is Dynamo mhas an advantage. For the victory of “blue-white” they give a coefficient of 2.5. A draw was rated at 3.4, and Victoria’s success at 2.9.

The “drought” itself lasted about eight minutes and was not particularly memorable. It ended with a slogan from Oleksandr Volodymyrovych: “Glory to Ukraine!”, to which everyone loudly replied: “Glory to the heroes!” After finishing, I went to the pre-match training of the Kyiv team. It should be noted that there is a wonderful atmosphere in the team. The players joke a lot with each other, but at the same time they are very focused during training exercises. Although I still did not understand which “Sailor” Buyalsky was constantly beating “in jerks”, it was fun to watch.

Returning to the conference hall of the Volksparkstadion for the pre-match press conference of the official representatives of the Czech team, I was lucky enough to see the evening training of the football players of the Hamburg team on one of the training fields next to the stadium. After looking at him for no more than a minute, I continued my soaked way. Yes, all this time the rain didn’t think to stop, so your “slave of the letter” got wet and froze “like a kitten”, using a popular saying. Did you think I was sorry? Ha! I’ll tell you honestly, I’m just getting high from all this football-related stuff. Rain, snow, heat – it doesn’t matter. When you are in the middle of a high-level football process, you understand all these small details, all this “kitchen” that affects the main product of the Game – the football match.

I was a little late for Victoria’s press conference, lingering at the reception near a pretty Ukrainian woman… but that’s a completely different story. Upon entering the conference hall, the representatives of the Czech delegation immediately paid me an unexpected amount of attention, probably because I was the only Ukrainian journalist in the room. Returning to the first Ukrainian-Czech duel between journalists, in the return match, the “blue-yellow” team of mass media representatives lost without a chance — 1:4 or 1:5. Before I could sit comfortably in my seat, Victoria’s press attache took the initiative and suggested that I ask a question to Czech midfielder Lukasz Kalvach.

I wasn’t ready for such a rapid attack, but I wasn’t confused either, quickly turning to the experienced Czech with the question: “Which of the Dynamo players would you mark first?”. To this Lukash replied: “Shaparenko, Brazhko and the entire line of attack.” In general, the press conference of Koubek and Kalvakha was distinguished by her “lightness” and positive attitude. The head coach of Victoria occasionally joked, “flirted” with journalists and generally had no “taboo” on any questions. To my question about the favorite of the confrontation, Myroslav Koubek answered with a smile: “We will have to play on the road, so it will be difficult”, thus sarcastically (in a good way) noting that this match is actually an away match for Dynamo as well.

I would like to especially thank Dynamo Kyiv for providing the services of a translator from Czech to Ukrainian and the translator himself, whose name, unfortunately, I have forgotten.

Well, writing this “poem” in the middle of the night, I want to hope that my trip to Hamburg will bring a long-awaited victory to Oleksandr Shovkovskyi’s team, and before the next match in San Sebastian, someone from Dynamo’s representatives will remember the fart journalist Football.ua with the words: “We need to take this with us!”…

And finally. Huge thanks to the Defense Forces of Ukraine for the opportunity to visit European cities and cover matches of Ukrainian clubs in Europe. Without you, our Protectors, none of this would have happened! No football, no travel, no life… Glory to the fallen and living Heroes! Glory to Ukraine!

PS Dear Ukrainians living in the city of Hamburg, do not ignore the matches of Dynamo Kyiv in the Europa League, the boys really need your support and help. Let’s not delay and give maximum support to the Ukrainian team in the international arena.

PS Gröninger is TOP!

PS In the center of the city, near residential buildings, a few meters from the carriageway, there are old, well-kept sofas on which young people sit carelessly and sip some “hot” or not so “hot” drinks. For some, this is everyday life, and for others, dreams…