In front of a full house, the match develops into a battle with Preußen taking a 2-0 lead into half-time. In the second half, the Werkself push the opponents back into their own half. Centre forward Helmut Lasser and midfield maestro Richard Job deservedly level with goals on 52 and 68 minutes. Less than seven minutes after the equaliser at 2-2, a Dellbrück defender saves the ball on the line with his hand. Richard Job puts the penalty wide of the target. A real blow seven minutes later: Preußen centre forward Schmidt scores his third goal to keep the title race alive.
Despite this 3-2 defeat, Bayer 04 end the season as champions of the Rhine District League 1 but lose out in the play-off for promotion to the First Oberliga West over two legs against FC Köln. Leverkusen are members of the newly established Second Oberliga West from the 1949/50 season
The images clearly show how important football was to people over 70 years ago. The crowds are on the edge of the pitch and with the missed penalty you can see spectators standing on the pitch next the goal, one with a camera in his hand. You can almost feel the passionate atmosphere at the Preußen stadium…
Emil 'Bubi' Becks was born in Essen on 12 March 1925. As a teenager he played for Union Frintrop. He moved on from Adler Frintrop to the senior team at Rot-Weiß Oberhausen where he scored ten goals in 19 games in his first year in the First Oberliga West. As a skilful centre forward, he brought his teammates into play and was always dangerous in the penalty area. With increasing age he played further and further back with his last games in defensive midfield.
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It is 27 March 1955. Bayer 04 are set to play relegation-threatened Borussia Mönchengladbach at the Stadion Am Stadtpark. In the Oberliga West in the 1954/55 season, Rot-Weiß Essen are in top spot ahead of the club from Herne, SV Sodingen. The Werkself are having a good season and need every point after the defeat in Münster a week before to get back to second place, which would qualify the club for the games for the German Championship title.
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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of March. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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Ahead of matchday 25 in the 1999/2000 season, the Werkself are in second place in the Bundesliga two points behind reigning champions Bayern Munich. The champions have been top of the table since matchday 10 and the rest of the league are trying to stay in touch with Bayern. From matchday 24, an exciting race develops between Bayer 04 and FC Bayern that lasts to the end of the season.
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SV Baesweiler are the visitors to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on 2 March 1975. With a 2-1 win in front of a crowd of 1,600 the Werkself get revenge for the defeat in the reverse fixture but the best thing about this game were not just two points. Leverkusen failed to really impress against battling visitors. It looked very good after an early goal from Matthias Hemmersbach on eight minutes but the Werkself again went too far with individual actions. Bayer 04 were on top in the first half. And Peter Surbach made it 2-0 with a header at the start of the second 45 but suddenly everything fell apart. Baesweiler pulled a goal back on the hour mark and besieged the goal brilliantly minded by Hubert Makel. In the end it was down to him that the game ended with a 2-1 win.
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