Kyiv Footballers Beat a German Team Under Occupation

On 9 August 1942, a crowd estimated at one to two thousand spectators gathered at Zenith Stadium in German-occupied Kyiv to watch a football rematch between a local team named Start and a German side called Flakelf. The match poster set the ticket price at five karbovanets. Start had already defeated Flakelf 5-1 just three days earlier, on 6 August. Despite the German side fielding a reinforced squad for the return fixture, the local players secured a 5-3 victory, having established a 3-1 lead by half-time through goals from Ivan Kuzmenko and Makar Honcharenko.

The Start team represented Kyiv's Bread Factory No. 1, where the bakery's director, Josef Kordik, had encouraged the employees to organise a squad. The roster drew heavily upon former professionals; according to Hynda, Start was made up of nine former Dynamo Kyiv players and four from Lokomotiv Kyiv. Start played regularly throughout the summer of 1942, recording victories over Ukrainian clubs as well as teams representing Hungarian and German military units. Research by historian Volodymyr Hynda later documented that matches between occupying military teams and local sides were frequent across Ukraine, with local clubs winning 61 of the 113 matches whose results he could establish.