Based on a true story.

The Death Match

The story is often told of how the Dynamo team, playing as "Start, City of Kyiv All-Stars", was executed by a firing squad in the summer of 1942 for defeating an All-Star team from the German armed forces by 5 goals to 1. The actual story, as recounted by Y. Kuznetsov, is considerably more complex. [3] This match has subsequently become known as "The Death Match".

After the Nazi occupation of Ukraine began, several members of the Dynamo team found employment in the city's Bakery No. 3, and had continued to play amateur football. During Kiev's invasion, the collective was spotted by Germans and were invited to play against an army team. The collective would play under the name of "Start" and had comprised of eight players from Dynamo (Mykola Trusevych, Mikhail Svyridovskiy, Mykola Korotkykh, Oleksiy Klimenko, Fedir Tyutchev, Mikhail Putistin, Ivan Kuzmenko, Makar Honcharenko) and three players from Lokomotiv Kiev (Vladimir Balakin, Vasil Sukharev and Mikhail Melnyk).

In July and August 1942 "Start" played a series of matches against German and allied sides. On July 12 a German army team was defeated. A stronger army team was selected for the next match on July 17, which "Start" defeated 6-0. On July 19 "Start" defeated the Hungarian team MSG Wal by 5-1. The Hungarians proposed a return match, held on July 26, but were defeated again 3-2.

"Start"'s streak was noticed and a match was announced for August 6 against a "most powerful" "undefeated" German Luftwaffe Flakelf team, but despite the game being talked up by the newspapers, they failed to report the 5-1 result. On August 9 "Start" played a "friendly" against Flakelf and again defeated them. The team defeated Rukh 8-0 on August 16, and afterwards, some of "Start"'s players were arrested by the Gestapo, tortured – Mykola Korotkykh dying under torture – and sent to the nearby labour camp at Siretz. It is also conjectured that the players were arrested due to the intrigues of Georgy Shvetsov, founder and trainer of the "Rukh" team, as the arrests were made in a couple of days after "Start" defeated "Rukh".[4]

In February 1943, following an attack by anti-German partisans or a conflict of the prisoners and administration, one-third of the prisoners at Siretz were killed in reprisal, including Ivan Kuzmenko, Oleksey Klymenko, and the goalkeeper Mykola Trusevich. Three of the other players, Makar Honcharenko, Fedir Tyutchev and Mikhail Sviridovskiy, who were in a work squad in the city that day, were arrested a few days later[4] or, according to other sources, escaped and hid in the city until it was liberated[citation needed].

The story inspired two films: the 1961 Hungarian film drama "Két félidő a pokolban" and the 1981 American film Escape to Victory.


http://www.oleole.com/ukraine/dynamokiev/history/thifv.html