A real invasion from Leverkusen was on the cards and the non-stop trams struggled to cope with the masses. At the kick off, there were 30,000 spectators at the stadium including at least 5,000 from Leverkusen. FC Köln immediately took charge and dominated possession. Frenetically driven on, the hosts created chance after chance but the Leverkusen defence around Habets and Frömmel along with goalkeeper Mutz offered brave resistance.
After the first half hour, Bayer 04 mounted the occasional attack and took a 1-0 lead on 33 minutes with a low shot from Emil 'Bubi' Becks. Shortly after that, the same player hammered the ball against the underside of the Köln crossbar – Leverkusen deservedly took a lead into half-time.
Köln came out fighting in the second half as they looked for the equaliser. However, they were brought to a juddering halt by their own defender Langen with an overhit back pass that the FC Köln goalkeeper de Munck was unable to reach.
The Bayer team defended the 2-0 lead with all they had and deservedly left the pitch as winners. The newcomers were now second in the table behind Rot-Weiß Essen.
Here are the line-ups of the two teams:
Köln: de Munck – Langen, Graf, Mebus, Schütz, Gawliczek, Becker, Alexius, Schemmerling, Röhrig, Schäfer
Bayer 04: Mutz – Habets, Frömmel, Nußbaum, Röger, Dr. Wichelhaus, Brecht, Spikofski, Becks, Flohr, Wiorek
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.
Show more
On 3 June 1953, Hans-Josef (‘Sepp’) Kretschmann became the fifth coach in the history of Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Born in Allenstein, East Prussia, on 21 March 1902, the football coach first studied to become a teacher before later switching to football. He took over the Werkself from Franz Strehle, under whom the team twice managed to stay in the 1st Oberliga West. However, Strehle did not extend his contract in Leverkusen after these two very successful years.
Show more
After promotion to Bundesliga North 2 in the summer of 1975, Bayer 04 are fighting relegation just eight months later. The club expects full commitment from everyone in this precarious situation. Promotion coach Manfred Rummel is to give up his main job as a teacher at the Mülheim special school and become a full-time coach at Bayer 04. The coach, who is very popular with the team, does not see himself in a position to fulfil the club's request. Despite a 2-0 home win against SpVgg Erkenschwick, Manfred Rummel is put on gardening leave by "mutual agreement".
Show more
Bayer 04, already been promoted to the 1st Oberliga West, played friendly after friendly in the second half of May 1951. And that continued throughout the following month.
Show more
Jacek Krzynowek was born on 15 May 1976 in Kamiensk, Poland, and grew up as a typical country boy. He spent his childhood less in structured training sessions and more on simple pitches, where he spent hours playing football with older boys. He realised early on that he had exceptional shooting power and enormous stamina. But for a long time, he didn't appreciate just how much talent he had. While others dream of a great career, professional football initially seems like a distant world to him that he only knows from television.
Show more
