FC Start Art Print, The Death Match, Kyiv 1942, Vintage Black and White Wall Art

Five three. In occupied Kyiv in the summer of 1942 a team of former Dynamo players, working in a bread factory, played a series of matches against garrison sides of the occupying forces. The last was against Flakelf, a Luftwaffe team.

The warning delivered beforehand was not subtle. They won five three.

Several of the players were later arrested by the Gestapo and sent to camps, and some did not come back. The propaganda that grew around the match afterwards has made the details hard to separate from the myth. The score is not in doubt, and neither is what happened to the men who ran it up.

Stories worth passing on, not just remembering.