Ponomarev Alexey

Born 23/04/1918.
Country USSR.
Clubs: "collier" Gorlovka (1936), "Tractor" Stalingrad (1936, 1937-40), "Torpedo" Moscow (1941-50), "Shakhtar" Stalin (1951-52).
In the championships of the USSR: held 240 matches and scored 145 goals.


It's like a password and a tip: "Torpedo" post-war years, and Alexander Ponomarev. There is an older version: Stalingrad "Tractor", the pre-war - Alexander Ponomarev. Do not dare to call another example of this kind. Spartak "and Simonian? But next to him were Dementiev Ilyin, Net, Salnikov ... Dynamo and Blokhin? So do not say, remembering Kolotova, Munteanu, Onishchenko, Kon'kova ... Moscow Dynamo and Soloviev. A Beskov, Kartsev, Trofimov? Dinamo Tbilisi and Paichadze? Memory tells Gogoberidze and Dzhedzhelava ... CSKA and Fedotov? Again not go. Immediately Bobrov, Nikolaev, Grinin, Demin ...

I even think that Ponomarev deliberately chose those teams where everything had come together, placing surveillance is called around. Greedy he was before the game to head to the captain's armband, to the role of the leader, master, to the attention of enthralled Tribune. He and the tunnel on the field was raised not all - one way out, and his clumsy razvalochku know. Only accidentally wandered into the stadium to the man imagined in her awkwardness and Lenz, . and regulars anticipated, . as, . barely hear a whistle, . Sexton vstrepenetsya, . lights, . will ram and fast turn into, . and agility, . and comrades were forced to adapt themselves,
. He looked like a fist-fighter, which was equal to the wall, waiting for his valiant blows, he hit hard, straight, swinging.

No tricks in a football game will not live. We habitually say "beat", and could say "lied", "cheated", "held" that even rather. Ponomarev was cunning in his own. He had no doubt that stand on their feet for any confrontation, scratch the ball, vyluschit him as a nut and will break. He went straight to the enemy, to challenge him, and often won in the open. Well, really hit him was the heavy. Like anyone else, he was able to beat toe, "pyrom". And the defenders come across. It seemed, . they, . according to all rules of protective Crafts, . necessarily take away the ball from striker, . going straight, . artlessly, . and he shielded the ball to their low, . hard hit by the body - edakii armored car! - His legs growing into the lawn, . more pressure, . another step, . and Ponomarev's eye sees the gate,
. And then blow. He cooked it in mind in advance, before they enter into battle, and the goalkeepers were unable to guess his intention.

Ponomariov played at the same time with Beskova, Paichadze, Simonyan, G. Fedotov, competition for recognition among the Frontline was a desperate. In terms of aesthetes, Ponomarev was self-taught, a player without the school, security officials, and it seemed where it really compete with the sophisticated trickster ... And he not only had his camp fans (it is still possible to explain the club attachment), . but with characteristic clarity football recruiting points in matches, . when his "Torpedo" with violent mischief epic Basil Buslaeva play with, . both display, . famous team, . where he had, . so to speak, . Individual competitors, . center-forwards CDKA, . Moscow and Tbilisi "Dinamo", . "Spartacus" ...,

. In 1946, the champion was perfect CDKA, and leading scorer - Ponomarev
. In 1948 he again praised the CDKA, and in the first compiled the list of "Top 33" at number one center forward was listed Ponomarev. In 1949 (at the football chronology Dynamo year) "Torpedo" came out in the Cup final against the champion of the USSR (before removing it from the path of CDKA) and won. Ponomarev, very serious and important, with the captain's armband, a firm, businesslike holding a crystal vase as a property - this image is one of the most famous photo profiles of our football, he now and then reprinted in various publications.

. No verbal evidence, not bias charmed fans exalted Ponomareva, and scored his goals
. Many years later, Blokhin broke his record for the country championships. Their own contemporaries, whom we highly revere to this day, Ponomariov surpassed all. It was not unexpected, as G. Fedotov, did not have a navigator's horizon Beskova, was not graceful, as Simonyan, did not become an innovator, as a "wandering forward" Paichadze. But he, like anyone, fought and scored. It is his words: "One who seeks comfort becomes Scorers. He said them, when he was a coach, for the edification of the young. In this aphorism it all. What is true is true, Ponomareva not frightened, does not discourage the most puzzling, seemingly hopeless position, he always believed that the break through. And punches. And to the end remains true to himself, did not leave in the depth of field. Frontline - and none other. In 1949, he was 31, and he scored 23 goals. The second followed from torpedovtsev scored 9. Because after the war and called "Torpedo" team of Alexander Ponomarev.

Soccer resides in our imagination, but it requires craves extraordinary, rare, strange, alluring hype. "Team one indomitable, fierce striker" - it sounds, this is something heroic, football personality appears to us an all-powerful, the exceptional. Do not intend to challenge well-established and entered into memory and in literature the image. What happened, happened. And let these remains.

But football is expensive and the knowledge that something selects, recognizes, takes note, left in reserve, and another questioned, puts aside. This invisible, inner life of the game is not considered yesterday's legends, she was more of the truth, which will be needed tomorrow.

. Because inevitable and dispassionate, relentless question: "Will they repeat and do we really want?"

. With a unique scorer, "Torpedo" still not done with this command equivalent CDKA and Moscow Dynamo
. Six championships - and only one prize, third, place. If the game about the structure of the then two leaders talked a lot, and later celebrated their contribution to the development of football ideas, the game "Torpedo" did not admit to merit inquisitive academic parsing. Sympathy, admiration - yes, please. Himself Ponomarev stirred football world. Someone wondered at his unbelievable feats (one beat all!), While others struggled with how to protect yourself from his shock breakout. Yet version of the game "on Ponomareva" did not tempt. Not only because others like him are not born. Laws of high quality soccer do not allow such open depending on one. However, in the "Torpedo" was a good player: Akimov, A. Gomez, V. Moshkarkin, G. Zharkov, VN Morozov, but it was loaded Ponomarev, and everyone knew about it beforehand.

. Whatever it is impossible to forget this forward, looming on the defenders, like them, and there
. And the sudden force of his blows do not forget. Here he became friends with the enemy, it seems, is to be something to follow, and poked the ball grid. And the goalkeeper in the hearts tear off his cap and throws it in pursuit of the ball: "Oh, Sexton!"