A movie set in the spring of 1944, The Match follows the preparations for and the final soccer match between an elite German football team and a group of prisoners in a Nazi war camp.
The prisoners are determined to win this match no matter what because it could be a huge blow to the Germans’ pride. Directed by Dominik and Jakov Sedlar, this historical drama stars Franco Nero, Casper Phillipson, Armand Assante, Markus Gertkne, among others. The screenplay is written by Dominik Sedlar and Stephen Ollendorff.
A movie that gets the adrenaline pumping even before the actual match has begun, thanks to the stunningly shot practice sequences. There is a constant sense of will-they-won’t-they, as the audience is driven to the edge of their seat with the tension mounting in the game.
The true story
After the Nazi army took over the Soviet Union in 1941, they wished to portray an illusion of a prosperous life to the local population instead of showing themselves as cruel despots. For this purpose, they organized several cultural and sports events. Football as a sport had become really popular in Eastern Europe by the 1940s and one of the more popular teams in Ukraine was Dynamo Kyiv.
However, after the German invasion, the national league had been abolished as the players had been taken prisoners in war camps. They were being forced to work in factories under the Nazi occupation forces, to produce bread for the German soldiers.
In the spring of 1942, the former Dynamo goalkeeper, Mykola Trusevych was released and began looking for his other teammates with the help of his boss at Bakery Number 3. Trusevych found 8 of his former team members along with three members from their rival team, Lokomotiv Kyiv.
Together they founded the local military team called the F.C.Start. They won several victories, which aroused German curiosity. Indeed, the team had turned into a symbol of hope for the zone (Bread Factory no.1).
The Nazi authorities decided to play a match with the Start. Flakelf, the Luftwaffe team had already been defeated once by Start. On 6th August, 1942, FC Start bet Flakelf with a score of 5-1. The German team included – Harer, Danz, Schneider, Biskur, Scharf, Kaplan, Breuer, Arnold, Jannasch, Wunderlich, and Hofmann.
The Germans, however, wanted a rematch. They wanted to use this as a propaganda tool in favor of the Nazis. Flakelf’s victory would have shown the German supremacy against the local team. Thus, on 9th August, 1942, i.e., on Adolf Hitler’s birthday, the teams met again for what later came to be called the “Death Match”.
With around 2000 spectators, the match was held at the Zenit Stadium in Kyiv, refereed by an SS officer. In spite of heavy police presence, people came out to support their team against the occupiers – it was not just a football match, it was a symbolic battle between Ukraine and Germany.
The Start team was asked to perform the Nazi salute before the start of the match, to which they refused, using instead their slogan as a demonstration of their strength. The poster for the match informed that the Flakelf had a “strengthened” team. The final score of the match was 5-3 in favor of the Start.
Only half of the match is properly documented. The half-time score was 3-1 with Start in the lead. In fact, the referee did not let the match reach the 90-minute mark, maybe to avoid further humiliation for the Luftwaffe team.
After the match, the Germans took a photograph with the opponent team, showing a relaxed atmosphere. The photograph was not published during Soviet times. Afterward, the winners drank vodka in celebration and met for a party in the evening.
The Start players were aware of the fact that it would have been better for them to lose the match. Nevertheless, they pushed on. There are several stories about what happened to the team after the match.
The most accepted version is that it was soon broken up, its members were arrested by the Gestapo on 18th August, 1942. During the NKVD interrogation, the players revealed that they were denounced to the Gestapo by the Rukh team’s trainer Georgi Shvetsov. According to them, he was enraged with Rukh’s 8-0 defeat against Start (on 16th August, 1942).
Thus, he informed the Gestapo that the former Dynamo players were officially members of the NKVD, and could organize sabotage acts in Kyiv. Most Ukrainian historians believe this to be the real reason behind the arrest,
After three weeks in the Gestapo prison, eight of the Dynamo players were deported to Syrets concentration camp. About half a year after the arrest, Trusevich, Kimenko, Kuzmenko were executed amongst other prisoners on 24th February, 1943.
The survivors from the camp stated that the bodes were thrown into the mass grave at Babi Yar. None of them, however, believe that the execution was a direct result of the “Death Match”. Although there are several versions to the reason behind the execution.
The Match is based on these events of Soviet history. Although the timeline is mismatched, the general progression of the story in the movie is similar to that described above. These events have found depiction in several movies in popular culture. Some of the more famous ones are – Two Half Times in Hell (1962), The Longest Yard (1974), Escape to Victory (1981), Dynamo: Defending the Honor of Kiev (2001), The Death Match: Dynamo Kiev vs. the Nazis (2008) and Match (2012).