A week after the glorious 4-0 home win against FC Köln in front of a crowd of 15,000, hopes for another win in Leverkusen are high. And again there is immense interest in the game. The first spectators enter the stadium two hours before kick-off. The stadium announcer again and again asks people to move back. In the end, 17,000 spectators fill the Bayer ground including a young man from Hamburg called Uwe Seeler who wants to get an idea of the strength of the teams in the Oberliga West and perhaps see a future opponent. His team Hamburg SV are already champions of the Oberliga North. When the last fans enter the ground with ten minutes to go before kick-off every vantage point is taken. The bravest climb onto the gates of the entrance and the windows in the houses on Walter-Nernst-Straße are also in high demand.
Referee Helsper from Mülheim starts the game at 15.00. After 15 minutes Josef Zesar goes off injured for treatment in the dressing room. He limps back onto the pitch a couple of minutes later and from then on is a static figure at left back. Nevertheless, the Werkself take the lead on 39 minutes with a goal from playmaker Walter Nußbaum. The same player converted a penalty two minutes to make it 2-0 but Solingen pulled a goal back before half-time at 2-1 to the celebration of the large travelling support.
When centre forward Fritz Tiede is brought down in the penalty area on 56 minutes, referee Helsper again points to the spot. But this time Nußbaum hits the post. Years later, die-hard Bayer 04 fans hold it against him. Three minutes later the referee again awards a penalty – this time for SV Sodingen. Johann Adamik takes the chance to level and leaves the Bayer keeper Fredi Mutz helpless.
The Werkself bombard the goal brilliantly minded by Günter Sawitzki. The Sodingen defenders are tough on the Bayer players and unfortunately often go beyond acceptable limits. The visitors are hemmed in. Leverkusen try with all their might again and again to penetrate the opposition defence and beat the outstanding Sodingen goalkeeper to no avail.
When the final whistle blows after 90 hard-fought minutes, the Sodingen players raise their arms in celebration. The Leverkusen players make their disappointed way to the changing rooms. There is still a minimal chance of second place but the last two opponents for SV Sodingen do not offer much hope for the Werkself. The team from Westphalia appear to be certain of clocking up their points.
In den letzten beiden Spielen bestätigt sich das Gefühl. Der SV Sodingen gewinnt beide Spiele, die Werkself verliert sogar noch am letzten Spieltag bei Alemannia Aachen. So erreicht Bayer 04 mit dem 3. Tabellenplatz zwar seine bisher beste Platzierung der Vereinsgeschichte, aber die Enttäuschung über das Ende der Saison herrscht leider vor.
Ein Jahr später steht Bayer 04 Leverkusen am Abgrund. Nach einer enttäuschenden Saison steigt die Werkself 1956 aus der 1. Oberliga West ab und verschwindet für die nächsten Jahre in der Versenkung des Zweitliga-Daseins.
Tranquillo Barnetta was born in St. Gallen in Switzerland on 22 May 1985. Quillo, as he was called in the football world, has Italian roots. His great-grandfather emigrated from Italy to the east of Switzerland. Quillo was interested in football early on and he played for the St. Gallen club FC Rotmonten from the age of six. He joined his favourite club FC St. Gallen at the age of 11. There he became a youth international. He won the European Championships with his teammates in the Switzerland U17 team in 2002. The youngsters from Switzerland beat France 4-2 on penalties in the final to become U17 European champions.
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Since the establishment of the Bundesliga on 28 July 1962 for the 1963/64 season, there have been five Regional Leagues: North, Berlin, West, South-west and South. The champions of those five leagues qualified directly for promotion play-offs that were played in two groups of four teams. That included the two second-placed teams in the West and South-west Regional Leagues. The two runners-up from the North and the South played a qualifier for the eighth place in the promotion games.
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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 is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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There were high summer temperatures in Leverkusen on 25 May 1985. Matchday 32 brings FC Köln to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium with only 13,000 spectators at the derby. That is primarily due to the Werkself with Bayer 04 rarely impressing in that season and they are eleventh in the table before the game just three points ahead of sixteenth, the play-off spot. But with the two points for a win rule back then – two points were awarded for a win – and with the significantly better goal difference, the Werkself need every point to get out of trouble.
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It was all or nothing on the final matchday in the Verbandsliga in the 1974/75 season. Only now would it be decided who were champions and thereby participate in the promotion games to the Bundesliga 2 North. The earlier rivals Viktoria Köln, SC Jülich 10 and Bonner SC have fallen by the wayside.
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