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.
Bayer 04 started the new season on 20 July 1950. To the applause from almost 2,000 spectators, the Werkself stepped onto the pitch at the Am Stadtpark stadium and the season target was clear to the supporters: finally achieve promotion to the Oberliga West. Under the direction of new coach Raymond Schwab, who brought one of his Essen players with him in the shape of Karl-Heinz Spikofski, the team did a couple of laps. Coach Schwab gave a speech in front of all the fans where he clearly imparted his request for calm in the stands and he said he hated nothing more than heckling or laughing when mistakes are made. He hoped the Bayer 04 supporters would follow his advice.
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Horst Knauf was born in Cologne on 16 August 1960. As a teenager he played for PSV Köln before signing for the Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19s as a talented midfielder in 1976. He made the move up from the second team to the Bundesliga squad in 1980. Over the following three years he played 39 Bundesliga games and scored two goals. Above all in the difficult 1981/82 season for the Werkself with the play-off games against Kickers Offenbach, he played a big part in saving Bayer 04 with 21 appearances. But under the new coach Dettmar Cramer he rarely made a start and he decided to move on.
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Holger Aden was born in Hamburg on 25 August 1965. He learned all about playing football and, above all, scoring goals at the two Hamburg clubs Niendorfer TSV and TSV DuWo 08 Hamburg. After progression from the youth teams, he played for other Hamburg clubs. One after the other he appeared for Concordia Hamburg, Altona 93 and SC Norderstedt. The centre-forward regularly found the back of the opposition net. He scored 22 goals for SC Norderstedt in the 1988/89 season.
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Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz in the GDR on 26 September 1976. He displayed his talent for football at a young age. After his family moved to Karl-Marx-Stadt, now called Chemnitz, he started playing for BSG Motor ‘Fritz Heckert’ Karl-Marx-Stadt where he constantly continued to develop his ability on the pitch. From year seven he went to the children and youth sports college and there he received systematic support in sport that led, against the background of his increasing ability, to a move to FC Karl-Marx-Stadt. At the age of 16, he had to take a six-month break due to growing pains, but then there was no stopping Michael after that.
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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of August. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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