Match of Death

by James Riordan

Vova is a fifteen year old boy living in Kiev. His first love is playing football, but when the Nazis invade the Ukraine in 1941, priorities change, and Vova and his sister join the partisans, to attempt to fight the enemy. Soon Vova is given the chance to play football again, but in a game with very high stakes - if Vova's team win, they will be shot. Vova and his team have to decide whether to disgrace their country and lose the game, or whether to win - and die. BLMatch of Death is based on actual events that took place during the Second World War. BLJames Riordan undertook extensive research, travelling to Kiev to interview the sons of those who took part in the match.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Riōdan, Jeimuzu 1936-2012
Riordan, Dž.
Riordan, Džejms.
Riordan, James
Riordan, James William 1936-2012
Riordan, Jim, 1936-2012

James Riordan (10 October 1936 – 10 February 2012) was an English novelist, broadcaster, sports historian, association football player and Russian scholar.

Well known for his work Sport in Soviet Society, the first academic look at sport in the Soviet Union, and for his children's novels.

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amid football’s many moments involving Nazi Germany, one of the grimmest is the match between a team from Kiev and a Luftwaffe-based team known as Falkelf on 9 August 1942. The team from Kiev was expected to lose, even though they had won all their previous games – they were playing German team after all. In the end they beat Kalkelf twice, had ten members sent to concentration camps (four of whom died). Jim Riordan, former diplomat and historian, has written a number of scholarly books about Soviet sport but in this young adult novel based around the occupation of Kiev during the ‘Great Patriotic War’ uses the ‘Match of Death’ as the basis for an engaging story about a teenage boy caught up in the middle of it all.

Vova (Vladimir), a member of the Dinamo Kiev youth team, is caught up in the war form the outset, isolated form his parents who disappear during the first onslaught against Kiev and with his older sister Vera joins the resistance. We know by page 4 that he plays in the game and is destined for execution as a result, so from the outset this is a tale of loss. Riordan does well to depict the horrors of the occupation, although at the risk of glossing the effects of the Soviet scorched earth policy of Ukrainians left behind (Vassily Grossman’s journalism is worth reading on this point), and Vova becomes our eyes on the events, the massacres and what we would now call ethnic cleansing as well as the genocide of the Jews, including the massacre of over 33,000 in two days at Babi Yar (claimed by the Nazi’s a retribution for an attack on German troops – in the novel this attack is on the occupation headquarters in downtown Kiev).

Riordan’s grasp of Soviet history, including its sports history, serves him well and the novel is rich in nuance and detail, including the critiques of Stalin’s tactical errors that continued until the siege of Moscow when he finally had to admit that military and not only political factors were important (the emphasis on political factors cost four Soviet armies at Kiev). In doing so, Riordan has given us a cracking adventure story for boys and reminded us of the costs in the Soviet Union of war against fascism. Even without the factual basis it remains a fine young adult, boys’ novel.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This young adult book is based on actual events that took place in Ukraine during WW2: German soldiers cruelly slaughter Ukrainians, partisans hide in the woods and fight back (with horrible repercussions), and then Germans decide to "prove their superiority" by playing a soccer match against Ukraine's best soccer players. The referee is German and completely biased, and the Ukrainians are warned that if they win, they will die. So... the Ukrainians amazingly end up winning and four of the best Ukrainian soccer players are killed as a result (after being taken away to concentration camps). A monument to these four players now stands outside the soccer dome in Kiev. The book ends when the winning goal is scored. This book provides a fascinating glimpse into lesser-known WW2 events and introduces heroes who chose not to disgrace their country, even at the cost of their lives.

Note: This book contains accounts of grisly war violence. And I only gave the book 3 stars because of too much bad language (which I blacked out with a pen for when my soccer players and Ukrainian missionary read this). =)

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

It isn't very often a book makes me decide to visit a place but having read this story some years ago: when I was in Ukraine in 2005, I felt compelled to visit the site of the nazi atrocity at Babi Yar (just outside Kiev) and the monument to the players killed by the Gestapo (outside the Dinamo Kiev stadium). May not be the best book I've ever read but the knowledge that it is based on events which actually occurred made me wish to read it and I'm glad that I did.

[Steven Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a superb story, told simply, but well, and being novella length (about 40,000 words) you have no excuse for not reading it. You will get more out of 2 or 3 hours spent with this than scores of wasted hours watching box sets of American series shown on Sky.
Full review at: http://stevek1889.blogspot.co.uk/2014...

[De Ongeletterde · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vlot leesbaar boek over een historische voetbalmatch tijdens WO II in Oekraïne. Beetje jammer dat het nogal zwart-wit is (de Duitsers zijn, op Schmidt na, helemaal slecht, en de "goeien" in het boek spelen heel fair en hebben amper afkeurenswaardige eigenschappen).