Yes, I'd like to see videos dispalyed.
The next day we had a light training session at a Hertha ground on Siebenendenweg in Zehlendorf. However, nobody knew about it and the gates were locked. There was only one alternative: climb and jump over the gate. We were lucky nobody was injured.
When we woke up the next morning on the day of the match it felt like the temperature had dropped by 20 degrees and it was raining. The many Bayer 04 fans, who set off to Berlin on the matchday from Leverkusen in bright sunshine and high temperatures by bus, car or on special trains, were in for a chilly surprise on arrival. And nobody was prepared for rain. Bayer 04 general manager Reiner Calmund reacted immediately. He organised 10,000 red cagoules and distributed them to the Bayer fans.
Coach Dragoslav Stepanovic set out the approach to the game in a final pre-match meeting. We wanted to play with focus, commitment and pressure. Don't give anything away and take our chances.
There was great tension in the bus on the way to the match. Everybody is self-absorbed and focus on their job. It's the same in the dressing room until the Hertha lads arrived in the dressing room next door. Loud music booms out from a music system. "Eye Of The Tiger" by the group Survivor from the Rocky film is ringing in our ears but does not disturb our preparations. As the Women's final is being played, we go to warm up on the Mayfeld. With studs on asphalt, through loads of people and back again after warming up. But there weren't any comments or at least I didn't hear them because I was focused on the game.
We took control from the start to non-stop whistles from 60,000 Berliners. As Hertha rarely got the ball to launch their own attacks, the whistles formed a constant sound in the stadium. The scoreline at half-time was 0-0 but that does not put us off at all. We carried out the orders of the coach to not give anything away and we created one or two slight chances.
The breakthrough comes on 77 minutes. From a Pavel Hapal cross, Ulf Kirsten rises highest to head home the only goal of the game. There is boundless celebration at the final whistle. Basically we only achieved what everybody expected of us but it was a big relief for us to have deservedly won the cup even if the results was not so emphatic.
When the cup was presented, ARD just switched over to show the Tagesschau news programme. It was similar in the evening with the Aktuelles Sportstudio on ZDF. Only the Bayer 04 fans are happy like us and the same on the next day at the town hall. After our own party in the evening and little sleep, we flew to Cologne the next morning. From there we went by bus to the town hall in Leverkusen to be welcomed by a crowd of 5,000 Bayer 04 fans. Some of them had been in the stadium the day before and had travelled through the night.
It was my second title with my Bayer but also unfortunately the last one. It's time for another one again!
A longer report on the cup triumph in 1993 (in German) is in a special edition of the Werkself Magazine available HERE.
The date is 26 October 2022. Xabi Alonso has been the coach at Leverkusen for three weeks and the Werkself are fifteenth in the Bundesliga with nine points. Fear of relegation looms.
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Arne Larsen Økland was born on 31 May 1954 in Bømlo, Norway. As a boy, he was interested in football and fishing. He’d spend his days in the fjords fishing for cod. At some point, he joined the local football club SK Vard Heugesund. Later, at the age of 23, he joined Bryne IL. The club was playing in the first division at the time and Økland became its top striker. But there was relatively little money to be made in Norwegian football, and he received no more than the equivalent of €1500 a year. Football was nothing more than a hobby. Arne Larsen's main job was as a tax auditor.
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Hans Jörg Butt was born on 28 May 1974 in Oldenburg. Jörg, or Butti as he was known to his teammates, played for TSV Großenkneten in his youth. In 1991, he transferred to VfB Oldenburg, for whom he played his first games in the senior team in 1994/95. In the Regionalliga Nord, he played 33 times in the first season and 34 times in the second season for the North Germans, with whom he was also promoted to Bundesliga 2. He made a name for himself for the first time in the promotion season with his speciality of scoring penalties. He netted four times for Oldenburg.
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The 1948/49 season saw the first major clash with 1. FC Köln. Both teams become champions of their respective Rhine district leagues and would compete against each other for promotion to the Oberliga West. Sportvereinigung Bayer 04 Leverkusen, as our club had been known since December 1948, went for a short training camp at the Bayer recreation centre in Dabringhausen/Große Ledder for the first time and focused on its preparations in the idyllic rural setting.
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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of May. It isn’t always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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