
In a preview of this game, the former Bayer 04 player Franz Wichelhaus said he would drop the Leverkusen centre forward Fritz Tiede. The blond Fritz, as he was called under the Bayer Cross, was the strong in the air centre forward for the Werkself. Born in Cologne, he came to Leverkusen in 1951 and scored 44 goals for the Werkself in 57 Oberliga matches in his five years at the club. The lofty Fritz did have one handicap – he was longsighted. More than once he was in the opposition half with the ball and before he made a pass he ensured it was one of his teammates: "Walter, is that you?"
That Sunday was another Tiede day. Mönchengladbach were unable to frustrate the tall blond player even with a number of fouls. On 13 minutes, Emil 'Bubi' Becks crossed into the Gladbach penalty area where Fritz Tiede scored with a wonderful flying header. Just four minutes later, the former FC player Walter Nußbaum scored direct from a free kick from 30 metres out to make it 2-0.
That was the half-time score in front of a crowd of 5,000 spectators. In the second half there was end to end action but the match dropped off initially. The Werkself only really came back into the game when Fritz Tiede scored with a brilliant overhead kick on 67 minutes at 3-0. On 89 minutes, Leo Bering made the most of the many chances in the last 20 minutes with a great long-range strike.
The 4-0 victory did not bring the Werkself closer to rivals SV Sodingen but the way the team played provided hope for the remaining seven games.

Minas Hantzidis was born on 4 July 1966 in Kettwig, near Essen, and he grew up in Germany. He developed a passion for football at a young age and, whilst still a youth player, moved from Wuppertaler SV to Bayer 04. The attacking and goal-scoring midfielder then made a name for himself in his first senior season at Bayer 04. In the reserve team, he scored goal after goal in the first half of the season, soon began training with the first team and was brought on as a substitute for the first time by manager Erich Ribbeck on 22 November 1985 in a home match against Bayern Munich.
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Sascha was born on 3 July 1986 in Leverkusen. He is the son of former Bundesliga 2 player Manfred Dum, who mainly scored goals for Union Solingen but also played for FC Saarbrücken, SC Freiburg and Wuppertaler SV. Sascha started playing for the youth teams at HSV Langenfeld at an early age. There, he caught the eye of scouts from Bayer 04 and joined the club at a young age. Following a growth spurt in the U15 team, which forced him to take a nine-month break, the left-footed player finally had the ideal conditions to establish himself in the Bayer 04 youth ranks. Even as an U17 player, he made the leap into the U19 team. Blessed with immense pace, Sascha primarily played in attacking midfield. Not the most technically gifted, but possessing a powerful shot, he found himself training with the first team in the summer of 2005 alongside Gonzalo Castro, while he was still a U19 player.
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The Werkself could not have hoped for a better start to the Bundesliga 2 North season in 1976/77. At the end of a week-long training camp in Quickborn, Schleswig-Holstein, coach Willibert Kremer’s side secured two convincing victories over BSC Brunsbüttel (5–0) and TuS Holstein Quickborn (6–0). Following this flying start, Bayer 04 faced a considerably tougher challenge on 23 July 1976 at 19:30 CEST at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium against Bundesliga side Karlsruher SC.
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On 27 June 2001, new head coach Klaus Toppmöller and his assistant Peter Hermann led the Werkself out of the changing rooms for their first training session. Joining them as they stepped onto the pitch at training ground 1 were the four new signings: Hans Jörg Butt, Yildiray Bastürk (with special permission from VfL Bochum, as Bayer 04 and VfL had not yet agreed on a transfer fee), Zoltan Sebescen and Michael Zepek, the record holder for appearances for the youth national team.
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Hans Sarpei was born on 28 June 1976 in Tema, Ghana, and came to Germany with his parents at the age of three, where he grew up in Cologne. Even before he was born, his mother and father worked in Hamburg in the import-export sector. There they met an older man who introduced them to German culture and supported them. Out of gratitude, Hans was later given his first name, although this man died before he was born. Hans comes from a sporting family; his older brother Edward and his nephews Hans Nunoo Sarpei and Kingsley Sarpei were or are also professional footballers.
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