Exactly 30 years ago, on June 14, 1995, Dynamo defeated Volgograd Rotor in the final match of the Russian Cup in a penalty shootout (0:0, 8:7), which still remains the longest for the decisive matches of the tournament.
At that time, the Cup draw was divided into two seasons. In 1994, Dynamo passed the first two stages, beating Trion-Volga (3:0) and KAMAZ (2:1). In the off-season, the blue and white squad was seriously updated, and a number of newcomers could not take part in the main Cup matches due to the fact that they had already played for other teams. As a result, Dynamo were left without the help of Oleg Terekhin, Sergey Kolotovkin, Alexander Grishin and Vladimir Semenov in the quarterfinals with Lokomotiv (2:2, 5:4 on penalties) and the semifinals with Spartak (1:0).
Also, leading defender Yuri Kovtun and injured main striker Dmitry Cheryshev did not play in the finals due to disqualification. As a result, the coaching staff had to include several understudies in the application at once, while Rotor, one of the strongest Russian clubs in the 1990s, was able to set the optimal composition. Our story will go on about the heroes of that match and how their fate turned out next.
Andrey Smetanin (25 years old at the time of the final match, 120 minutes on the field, reflected penalty in the post-match series)
The confidence and reliability of the main goalkeeper of the blue and white was passed on to the whole team. In the decisive game, he made some cool saves, and in a series of post-match shots he took the eighth shot of Igor Korniets, confirming the title of the penalty taker. After the match, the fans literally carried Smetanin in their arms.
In total, as part of Dynamo, he won four medals of the Russian championship, after which he moved to Spartak, with which he became a two-time national champion. Then, after playing for the Saratov Sokol and a number of teams from the lower leagues, Smetanin finished his career in 2006. For some time he was the general director of the mini-football Dynamo-2, and now he trains young goalkeepers in the Youth of Moscow and actively participates in the Dynamo veteran movement.
Eric Jachimovic (26 years old, 120 minutes, converted penalty)
The Belarusian central defender joined the team in 1994 as a 3-time champion of Belarus and quickly became a real pillar of defense. He played all three cup matches of 1995 from whistle to whistle and realized both penalty shootouts.
Having won silver and bronze of the Russian Championship in addition to the Cup, Yakhimovich went to Turkey, where he became the bronze medalist of the championship with Gaziantepsport. The last stop in big football for him was China and the local Shandong Luneng club. After returning to Moscow, Eric entered the Higher School of Coaches, worked as a children's coach at the Dynamo school and a breeder in the main team of Dynamo. To this day, he continues to remain faithful to the blue and white colors and is the leader of the Dynamo veteran team at the Never-Fading Stars tournament.
Sergey Nekrasov (22 years, 120 minutes, realized penalty)
Without this flanking station wagon, it was difficult to imagine Dynamo in the 1990s. It was the double of a graduate of the Dynamo school that allowed the team to win a hard-willed victory over KAMAZ from Naberezhnye Chelny in the 1/8 finals of the tournament. He did not disappoint in the decisive game either.
In the winter of 1999, he was injured and, not fully healed, reached the semifinals of the Cup in Volgograd. Nekrasov again played 120 minutes against Rotor in his 196th match for Dynamo, helped the team reach the finals with an assist and ended his career at a high level. He spent the next 7 years in the lower divisions, after which he finished with football. Nekrasov has repeatedly won with Dynamo veterans at the "Unquenchable Stars" tournament, and now works in the non-departmental security of the Moscow government.
Alexey Kutsenko (22 years, 120 minutes, realized penalty)
A pupil of the Lokomotiv school joined Dynamo in 1991, but Konstantin Beskov began to let him in to the main squad only in 1994. The young striker played his first full match just against his hometown club in the Cup quarterfinals, scoring Dynamo's first goal and realizing a post-match penalty. He did not miss from the point in the final either.
However, Kutsenko was not destined to become the main striker of the blue and white, and in 1998 he moved to the Saratov Sokol. Then there were Novorossiysk "Chernomorets", Tula "Arsenal" and Ramenskoye "Saturn". Currently, Alexey regularly scores for Dynamo veterans and has already become the champion of the Never-Fading Stars three times. He also works as a sports manager in ANO Jupiter.
Vitaly Safronov (22 years, 120 minutes, converted penalty)
The attacking midfielder came to Dynamo from the Samara Wings of the Soviets in early 1995 and went there in the summer of 1996. During this time, he helped the team take the trophy, having fully played three cup matches, and also reached the quarterfinals of the Cup Winners' Cup.
Subsequently, he played for Baltika, Fakel, Volgar-Gazprom, Salyut-Energiya and Rostov SKA, ending his career in 2007. Then he graduated from coaching and headed his native Kaluga for several years, and now he is coaching Balashikha near Moscow.
Oleg Samatov (29 years old, 120 minutes, realized penalty)
The only person who played in all 5 matches of that Cup draw for 90 minutes. He was replaced only in the added time of the game with Lokomotiv, from where he moved to Dynamo in 1994. After 2.5 seasons in our team, Samatov moved to Dynamo Stavropol, then to Saturn and Slavia from Mozyr, with which he won the championship and the Cup of Belarus.
After finishing his career, he has been working as a physical fitness coach for 20 years, including at Arsenal, Spartak, Krylia Sovetov, Yenisei and Shinnik. Since January of this year he has been working at SKA-Khabarovsk.
Alexander Tochilin (21 years, 120 minutes)
The promising defender got into professional football thanks to Beskov, who first invited him to Asmaral, and then to Dynamo. He made his debut as part of the blue and white in the quarterfinals with Lokomotiv, and the final was only the sixth match in the base. It is not surprising that, recalling that match, Alexander noted with humor that he was more happy not to win the Cup of Russia, but that he did not have to beat the decisive penalty. He was the only fielder who did not get a turn in the series.
As a result, this was the beginning of Tochilin's long journey to Dynamo: for 14 seasons he scored 281 matches (13th place in the club's history) and 7 goals scored. In addition to the Cup, he twice became the bronze medalist of the Russian championship – in 1997 and in 2008. The farewell match at the Dynamo stadium, which was closing for reconstruction, was the last in his career for the 34-year-old Tochilin.
After that, he worked for several years at the Academy of Blue and White, and in 2015 headed the St. Petersburg Dynamo, then moving with him to Sochi. For several years, Tochilin led the team from the Second Division to the Premier League, where it debuted in 2019. Later, he headed Olymp-Dolgoprudny, Kuban and returned to Sochi, with which he broke up in December 2023.
Sergey Podpalyy (31 years, 116 minutes)
An experienced defender joined Dynamo in 1995 and immediately received the captain's armband. He had to concede it to Andrei Smetanin in the 118th minute, as the referee of the final, Igor Siner, removed the Tan after a penalty not scored by Rotor.
"I reproach myself for my lack of restraint, but after the ball hit the post, I lost my mind from happiness and the triumphant phrase, not too ethical, of course, flew off my lips by itself – you can't give a penalty in such a match for nothing, for nothing," Podpaly recalled this episode.
He left Dynamo already in 1996, played in Stavropol, Tyumen, Nizhny Novgorod, and finished his career in Gomel, where he then began his coaching career. Together with Gomel, he became the champion and winner of the Belarusian Cup, then repeated this success already in Latvia with Ventspils. Later he worked in various Russian teams, and now he is the sports director of Ryazan.
Andrey Kobelev (26 years, 110 minutes)
Another Dynamo leader, who returned from Spain before the start of that season, could not finish the final match due to injury, falling short of a penalty shootout in just 10 minutes. During his three Dynamo periods, the author of the youngest goal in the club's history (at the age of 16 years and 8 months) spent 311 matches with the team (9th place in history) and scored 58 goals (15th place).
Having completed his career as a player in 2002, Kobelev graduated from the Higher School of Coaches and joined the coaching staff of the main team in October 2004. In 2006, he became the head coach of the blue and white for the first time and two years later led them to the bronze medals of the Russian championship. In terms of the number of matches in the coaching position of the main team, he is second only to Mikhail Yakushin, Konstantin Beskov and Alexander Sevidov.
Igor Nekrasov (20 years, 82 minutes)
Sergey Nekrasov's younger brother, also a Dynamo graduate, played for the base for only the fourth time in the final. Igor played his fifth and last match in a Dynamo T-shirt three days later in the Russian championship game with Dynamo-Gazovik. After that, he played in the lower leagues in various teams near Moscow and the Irkutsk Zvezda. The only football player from that squad who is no longer alive.
Sergey Shulgin (32 years, 70 minutes, realized penalty)
The most experienced football player from the application for the final entered the field at the beginning of the second half to take care of the main scorer of Volgograd Oleg Veretennikov. As a result, he did not score from the game, and Sergey became the author of the decisive blow in the penalty shootout. Note that this was the first appearance of the Dynamo defender on the field that season.
"After a broken leg and a course of treatment, it took only a month since I took off the cast and was just getting fit. And here the task is to take care of such a dangerous scorer. I don't presume to judge how well I managed to cope, but that he didn't score a goal is already good," Shulgin recalled.
He played his last match in his career in March 1996, after which he was the head of the team at Novotroitskaya Nosta, the breeder of Saturn and Zenit, as well as the general director of Saturn-2. Now he works for a company not related to sports.
Ravil Sabitov (27 years old, 50 minutes)
It was him who was replaced by Shulgin at the beginning of the second half due to injury. The Dynamo pupil could not gain a foothold in the base from the first time and in the early 1990s he played in Sukhumi Dynamo, Moscow Lokomotiv and Belgian Waregem. Returning in 1995, he fit in well with Beskov's team, but his health failed – due to a knee injury, he had to end his career a year after the triumph.
Sabitov graduated with honors from the Higher School of Coaches. He worked as a head coach at Khimki, Torpedo and the Russian youth national team no older than 19, which he led to the final of the 2007 European Championship. He managed to work in Kazakhstan and Finland, and has been coaching in Latvia for the last 5 years, currently heading the Olaine club.
Ruslan Ishkinin (21 years, 38 minutes, converted penalty)
On the day of the finals, the Dynamo high school student turned 21 years old, and as a gift he got the second match for the basis of Dynamo, which brought him a trophy. The first one happened in the quarterfinals with Lokomotiv – in both matches the talented midfielder realized his shots in the post-match penalty shootouts.
Dynamo played its third and last match in a T-shirt three days after the final. The next season he played for Saturn Ramenskoye, after which he played for Kolomna for five years, where he finished his career in 2002. Now Ishkinin is engaged in the berry business.
Sergey Bogomolov (23 years, 10 minutes, realized penalty)
It is a unique case in the history of domestic football when a football player won a trophy in his only match at the highest level. After the final game, the striker only got into the application of the base once and never again played at a level higher than the Second League.
After the end of his career, Bogomolov worked with the youth team of Khimki, and now he is the senior coach of Khimki SSHOR.
Coach: Konstantin Ivanovich Beskov
The legendary coach returned to his hometown club in 1994 and in two seasons won silver medals of the championship and the Cup of Russia with the team – results that have not been surpassed so far. Shortly after the triumph at Luzhniki, Beskov announced the end of his great coaching career, which included three national Cups and the Cup Winners' Cup final with Dynamo, the silver of the European Championship and the bronze of the Olympic Games with the USSR national team. In May 2006, Konstantin Ivanovich died at the age of 85.