After the opening goal from the Bayer 04 defender, there were chances at both ends but both the woodwork for Oberhausen as well as the poor conclusion of counter-attacks for the Werkself as the game went on prevented any other goals. The Bayer team were third in the table level on points with Arminia Bielefeld and Rot-Weiß Essen.
Ahead of the next home game on Sunday, 8 October 1967, our team had their first training camp. On Friday night, coach Theo Kirchberg and his players boarded the bus and made their way to the Hotel ‘Bergische Schweiz’ in Engelskirchen to be able to prepare for the next game against Westfalia Herne far away from the noise of the city. From that game on it was part of the preparations although coach Kirchberg rounded off the run-in on Friday with the final training session. The players were supposed to build up power and energy in these two nights of peace and quiet. Saturday was free time for everybody. The great comradeship became ever tighter with games of Skat, walks and football tennis.
For the game against Westfalia Herne, only goalkeeper Hans Benzler was ruled out after collapsing in the previous match in Oberhausen. He was replaced by Friedhelm Renno. The Werkself showed their ability in front of 7,000 spectators at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium: Fitness, commitment and the absolute desire to win the game. The Westphalian team sat back from the start and the Bayer 04 fans had to wait up to minutes 63 before Friedhelm Strzelczyk netted the opening goal with a shot from the edge of the box. Helmut ‘Bello’ Richert netted a second goal on 82 minutes and, as the stadium announcer gave the results from the other matches in the Regional League West and announced that Bayer 04 were top of the league again, there was unlimited joy amongst the fans.
The next Sunday brought another home game. Hamborn 07 in eighth place came to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium and they took the lead on five minutes but Helmut Brücken responded to that goal by putting Bayer 04 2-1 up with goals on six and eight minutes. The Werkself increasingly gained the upper hand but the courageous Hamborn players improved in the second half and put the Bayer 04 defence under pressure once or twice. A counter-attack involving Klaus Görtz settled matters with the score at 3-1.
The Bayer 04 board now thought about promotion for the first time. "Food gives you an appetite" was a quote from sporting board member Heinz Papenhoff in the Stadt Anzeiger. The former Werkself player of the 1950s was very confident that the necessary conditions for a possible promotion to the Bundesliga were possible. At the same time, the coach and players were sceptical with only masseur Hans Bochniak seeing it differently: "Now we are top and we want to stay there!" (Kicker on 16.10.1967)
The Werkself then faced Bielefeld as league leaders. Only a few Bayer 04 fans made their way to Eastern Westphalia including the landlord of the Gaststätte Burghof on Rathenaustraße who hired a bus for the journey to the match. The game became the hoped-for top match and the Werkself were caught napping. The score was 2-0 after ten minutes but Helmut Richert pulled a goal back five minutes later. The Bayer team took control in the second half and bombarded the Bielefeld goal. The reward was a 3-2 lead thanks to goals from Karl-Heinz Brücken and Friedhelm Strzelczyk. The Werkself survived the last 30 minutes with a good amount of smart play and healthy strength as they remained the surprise team in the regional League West. A dry response from Helmut Richert to the unexpected away win: "Now we only need another two or three wins to avoid relegation."
The golden October was to be rounded off with a home win against Lüner SV but the Westphalians refused to play along. A very impressive performance brought Leverkusen to the edge of defeat. With a lot of luck, Leo Wilden netted the leveller on 86 minutes in front of 7,500 spectators. As Rot-Weiß Essen won their away game in Herne 3-1, Bayer 04 dropped to second place as they prepared for the next away game at VfR Neuß.
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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