Football Journey

Friday, January 30, 2026

Portugal the Cup

Cup:

Sporting CP                  4-1 SL Benfica

Benfica was unable to win a double and was actually destroyed at the Cup final. It was aging team on a downhill.

Sporting won the final against the archenemy and with inferior, compared to star-studded Benfica, squad.

Well done and 7^th Cup.

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Portugal

Portugal: ranked 11^th by UEFA. I Division. Next season the top league was increasing to 16 teams, so the last one was relegated and 3 teams were promoted from Second Division.

                                  Total                Home             Away
                         Pd  W  D  L    G    Pt    W  D  L   G      W  D  L   G
 1 SL Benfica            26 18  5  3  62- 17 41   12  1  0 43- 5    6  4  3 19-12
 2 Sporting CP           26 16  6  4  45- 14 38   11  1  1 33- 5    5  5  3 12- 9
 3 FC Porto              26 16  5  5  44- 21 37   10  3  0 28- 7    6  2  5 16-14
Second row from left: Pedroto(treinador),Rebelo,Vaz,Cardoso,Pedro,Carriço,Correia,José Mendes,Joaquim Torres
Front: José Maria,Arcanjo,Arnaldo,Octávio,Vitor Baptista,Wagner,Guerreiro,Jacinto João.
 4 VFC Setúbal           26 15  4  7  51- 16 34   11  2  0 38- 5    4  2  7 13-11
 5 Académica             26 13  7  6  38- 24 33   10  3  0 27- 7    3  4  6 11-17
 6 Boavista FC           26  9  4 13  18- 38 22    6  3  4 11-10    3  1  9  7-28
 7 CF Belenenses         26  7  8 11  20- 27 22    6  4  3 15- 9    1  4  8  5-18
 8 GD CUF                26  8  5 13  28- 37 21    7  2  4 18-11    1  3  9 10-26
 9 FC Tirsense           26  6  8 12  24- 45 20    6  5  2 20-14    0  3 10  4-31
10 FC Barreirense        26  5 10 11  21- 31 20    4  5  4 12-14    1  5  7  9-17
11 SC Farense            26  7  6 13  15- 33 20    6  6  1 12- 6    1  0 12  3-27
12 VSC Guimarães         26  4 11 11  15- 27 19    3  6  4  9- 9    1  5  7  6-18
13 Leixões SC            26  7  5 14  22- 44 19    7  2  4 16- 8    0  3 10  6-36
14 Varzim SC             26  7  4 15  23- 52 18    7  1  5 18-16    0  3 10  5-36

II Division – winners promoted to First Division

Divisao Norte:

Beira Mar

Divisao Sul:

Atletico (Lisbon)

Uniao Tomar – 2ndin the championship and winning promotion play-off.

Benfica – champion of Portugal once again.

Monday, January 26, 2026

USSR the Cup

Cup: Final [Aug 7]


Spartak Moskva          2-2  SKA Rostov-na-Donu 
  [Galimzyan Husainov 6, Gennadiy Logofet 90 – Ricardas Kucinskas 3, 
   Anatoliy Zinchenko 68. Att: 100,000] 






Final Replay [Aug 8] 
SPARTAK Moskva          1-0  SKA Rostov-na-Donu 
  [Nikolai Kiselyov 55. Att: 50,000]

Spartak's captain Galimzyan Husainov lifted the Cup.

After nerve-breaking final Spartak (Moskva) won their 9^th Cup.

Friday, January 23, 2026

USSR III Division

III Division: 124 played in 6 zones. Here are few of them.

Sudostroitel (Nikolaev) - 2^nd in Zone I

Lokomotiv (Vinnitza) - 7^th in Zone I

Iskra (Smolensk) – winner of Zone II

Spartak (Brest) - 9^th in Zone II

Dinamo (Bryansk) - 13^th in Zone II

Promotional tournament between the winners of the 5 third tier groups (zones) for 3 places in the Second Division. Krivbass (Krivoy Rog), the winner of Zone I (The Ukrainian Zone) for some reason did not play in the promotional tournament, but had a play-off against the 3rd- plced team in it after the tournament ended – possible reason for that strange arrangement could have been that the Ukrainian Zone was the toughest with 26 participants and Krivbass already played 50 championship games during the regular season.

Second League Final [Oct 31 – Nov 12, Sochi]

1.Zvezda Perm                    4   3  1  0  6-2   7  Promoted            [RUS]  
2.Avtomobilist Nalchik           4   1  3  0  2-1   5  Promoted            [RUS]  
-----------------------------------------------------
3.Iskra Smolensk                 4   1  2  1  2-3   4  Promotion Play-Off  [RUS]  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
4.Metallurg Lipetsk              4   1  1  2  3-4   3                      [RUS]  
5.Spartak Semipalatinsk          4   0  1  3  2-5   1                      [KAZ]  

Cross-Table:
                    1   2   3   4   5        
1.Zvezda Perm      xxx 0-0 3-1 1-0 2-1  
2.Avt Nalchik      0-0 xxx 0-0 1-1 1-0  
3.Iskra            1-3 0-0 xxx 1-0 0-0  
4.M Lipetsk        0-1 1-1 0-1 xxx 2-1  
5.Sp Semipalatinsk 1-2 0-1 0-0 1-2 xxx  

Promotion Play-Off [Nov 20, 24] 
KRIVBASS Krivoi Rog  3-1 2-0  Iskra Smolensk 
Promoted to Second Division:

Krivbass (Krivoy Rog)

Zvezda (Perm)

Avtomobilist (Nalchik)

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

USSR II Division

II Division

First League (Second Level). Top 2 teams – promoted. Last 5 relegated, for the league was reduced to 20 teams for 1972. 
 
 1.Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk          42  27  9  6  83-30  63  Promoted [UKR]    
 2.Lokomotiv Moskva              42  25 12  5  81-33  62  Promoted [RUS] 
--------------------------------------------------------
 3.Chernomorets Odessa           42  21 11 10  56-33  53  [-]      [UKR] 
 4.Metallurg Zaporozhye          42  16 14 12  51-39  46  [+]      [UKR]     
 5.Spartak Orjonikidze           42  19  7 16  52-57  45  [-]      [RUS] 
 6.Krylya Sovetov Kuibyshev      42  17  9 16  54-41  43           [RUS] 
 7.Textilshchik Ivanovo          42  14 15 13  45-43  43           [RUS]     
 8.Metallist Kharkov             42  18  7 17  50-49  43           [UKR]           
 9.Shakhtyor Karaganda           42  14 13 15  46-47  41           [KAZ]             
10.Dinamo Leningrad              42  14 12 16  35-40  40           [RUS]               
11.Torpedo Kutaisi               42  12 15 15  47-53  39  [-]      [GEO] 
12.UralMash Sverdlovsk           42  13 13 16  34-40  39           [RUS] 
13.Stroitel Ashkhabad            42  16  7 19  53-62  39           [TKM]

1-й ближний ряд: Б.Рыбин, В.Коротков, В.Санин, ? , В.Волков, В.Панков

2-й ряд сидят: В.Клещев, И.Вьюгин, Л.Борисов, А.Стенищев, В.Наумов, В.Рейнгольд, Н.Растегаев, Н.Глазков

3-й ряд: В.С.Марьенко(гл.тренер), И.И.Замятин(администратор), И.Домантиевский, А.Лысов, В.Фролов, А.Чернявский, Е.Кулемин, В.Чуркин, ?, Н.Вихарев, С.П.Воротилин(нач-к команды), В.Г.Гавриков(массажист)

14.Shinnik Yaroslavl             42  16  7 19  42-52  39  [+]      [RUS]         
15.Pamir Dushanbe                42  16  7 19  42-54  39           [TJK]
16.Alga Frunze                   42  13 12 17  45-52  38           [KGZ]             
17.Moldova Kishinev              42  12 14 16  35-42  38           [MDA]   
--------------------------------------------------------
18.Kuzbass Kemerovo              42  14 10 18  49-57  38  Relegated [+] [RUS]            
19.Daugava Riga                  42  10 16 16  23-34  36  Relegated     [LVA] 
20.Žalgiris Vilnius              42   9 17 16  30-45  35  Relegated     [LTU] 
21.Volgar Astrakhan              42   8 18 16  34-58  34  Relegated     [RUS]  
22.Rubin Kazan                   42   9 13 20  31-57  31  Relegated     [RUS]

Historic season for Dnepr (Dnepropetrovsk) – coached by young Valery Lobanovsky, they won promotion to the top league for the first time.

Monday, January 19, 2026

USSR I Division

USSR – ranked 10^th by UEFA .

Supreme League (First Level)

 1.Dinamo Kiev               30  17 10  3  41-17  44  Champions  [UKR] 
 2.Ararat Yerevan            30  13 11  6  37-28  37             [ARM] 
 3.Dinamo Tbilisi            30  14  8  8  33-33  36             [GEO] 
 4.Zarya Voroshilovgrad      30  11 11  8  29-23  33             [UKR]

Стоят: К.Бесков, В.Зыков, А.Гребнев, В.Пильгуй, В.Балясников, В.Долбоносов, В.Уткин, В.Смирнов, Л.Яшин:
сидят: Ю.Семин, В.Эштреков, В.Козлов, Г.Еврюжихин, Ю.Авруцкий, В.Штапов, Е.Жуков, И.Сабо.

 5.Dinamo Moskva             30   9 13  8  35-22  31             [RUS] 
 6.Spartak Moskva            30   9 13  8  35-31  31             [RUS] 
 7.Torpedo Moskva            30   4 20  6  27-27  28             [RUS] 
 8.Kayrat Alma-Ata           30   9 10 11  36-40  28  [+]        [KAZ] 
 9.Neftchi Baku              30   9 10 11  30-34  28             [AZE] 
10.Karpaty Lvov              30   5 18  7  30-35  28  [+]        [UKR] 
11.Dinamo Minsk              30   8 12 10  36-43  28             [BLR] 
12.CSKA Moskva               30   7 12 11  34-36  26             [RUS] 
13.Zenit Leningrad           30   8 10 12  29-32  26             [RUS] 
14.SKA Rostov-na-Donu        30   9  8 13  35-43  26             [RUS] 
----------------------------------------------------
15.Pahtakor Tashkent         30   8 10 12  29-46  26  Relegated  [UZB] 
16.Shakhtyor Donetsk         30  10  4 16  31-37  24  Relegated  [UKR]