Our team was led to the semi-finals of the World Cup by a coach nicknamed Blatnoy. He was Vasily Stalin’s adjutant and died after a fight

The fate of Nikolai Morozov.

He is rarely named among the best Soviet coaches. 

I think, ask fans over forty to make the top 10 – and many will remember Morozov only from St. Petersburg, Yuri Andreevich. The one that created the teams with which Pavel Sadyrin then took titles.

Nikolai Morozov did not win championships with Cups, but achieved what Gavriil Kachalin , Konstantin Beskov and Valery Lobanovsky failed to do. Reached the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Before the World Cup, Morozov wanted to take the national team away from the women’s boarding house. The players were persuaded to stay

For the details of the 1966 World Cup in England, I turned to the defender of the national team (1964-1969) Vladimir Ponomarev.

– Before leaving for London, we were brought to Sweden, where we had to play a couple of games. We arrived at night, did not figure it out, and in the morning it turned out that we settled in a women’s boarding house. The girls around – well, mo-o-ore. They lived there, went in for sports. 

Our coach Morozov woke up, saw this contingent and said: “We are leaving here.”

– You are not reconciled?

– They persuaded Morozov to stay. During the day we trained, in the evening we went to discos. 

There was another case. We were wearing woolen suits with the letters of the USSR. And next to it is a swimming pool, in which Morozov categorically forbade swimming: it relaxes, you see, the body. 

I climbed onto the 5-meter tower, and below, in the stands – Chislenko, Voronin, Malofeev, Banishevsky, and someone else. The number screams: “Well, what? Will you jump from a 5-meter tower?

– Aren’t you lost?

– I answer: “Collect 20 dollars – I’ll jump.” I look: Valerka Voronin really began to collect money. Got 100 dollars. 

I look around, go to the edge of the tower. I jump and see: the door opens and Morozov comes out. I fly down and look at him, and he at me. Barely swam – the suit is heavy, the sleeves are stretched.