The former Berlin Bundesliga team Tennis Borussia visit the Ulrich Haberland Stadium for the first home game of the season on Wednesday 9 August. Around 8,000 spectators enjoy a football first at the ground on Bismarckstraße. Bayer 04 are on fire and end up with a clear 5-2 victory. Coach Willibert Kremer fielded the same starting line-up for the third time in succession. In addition to the two midfielders Klaus Bruckmann, who nets a brace, and Thomas Hörster, substitute Matthias Brücken scores two goals again with the first just one minute after he comes on. And both Bayer teams, our Werkself as well as Uerdingen, are top of Bundesliga 2 North with four points and eight goals for and three against.
Arminia Hannover are helpless three days later. This time it just took a good first half for everything to go right. Brilliant moves coupled with excellent and successful finishing put Bayer 04 top of the table on matchday three, a position not relinquished for the rest of the season. When coach Willibert Kramer draws a critical conclusion at the post-match press conference, he heard something at that moment that he did not like at all: A fan club stage a huge show of support at the exit to the stand and the unmissable chants from the first half of "Bayer will be champions, Bayer will be champions" are not music to his ears. He prefers to put the brakes on euphoria and highlight a rather weaker second half performance.
In the night of Tuesday 15 August, the Ulrich Haberland Stadium receives an unwelcome visit. Supporters of another football club leave behind their own calling card: They break open a gate, then with incredible force one of the two aluminium doors, smash the windows of a new ticket office and smear '1 FCK ' on a wall. Whether the destructive fans came from the Pfalz or a club from the other side of the Rhine is something I leave to each and everyone to decide
In spite of all that, the Bayer team focus on the next away game. The newly promoted side from Kiel are considered to be underdogs but coach Willibert Kremer says he will be satisfied with one point in the build-up to the game. Kiel's coach Kuno Böge says he will put a marker on Matthias Brücken when he comes on. But that does not help much as the substitute only needs seven minutes after his introduction to score the winner at 2-1 with five minutes to play. Norbert Ziegler levelled the opener from the Storks earlier in the game.
On 25 August, a Friday night, VfL Osnabrück are the visitors to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Where less than 1,000 supporters were a year earlier, there are now 8,000 enthusiastic fans at the stadium. An almost unchanged team had succeeded in attracting back supporters within a very short space of time. The fans provide passionate support for a Bayer 04 team that give the side from Lower Saxony no chance at any point in the game with the same line-up as in the most recent matches: Bockholt – Posner, Gelsdorf, Klimke, Scheinert, Hörster, Bruckmann, Ziegler, Gniech, Szech, Herzog
After an impressive 3-0 win with two goals from centre forward Peter Szech and a penalty from team captain Dieter Herzog, the Werkself are on their own at the top of the table in Bundesliga 2 North with a maximum ten points. And again coach Willibert Kramer warns: "Enthusiasm yes but no euphoria. We want to keep our feet on the ground." But that feeling of being top of the table is obviously felt by every Bayer 04 fan in August 1978.
Claus-Dieter, known as ‘Pele’, Wollitz was born in Brakel on 19 July 1965 in Brakel. He earned the nickname of the Brazilian global super star at the age of six because he was able to the juggle the ball for a long time as a child. What was originally meant as a stunt would follow him all his life. Every football fan associates the name Wollwitz with his nickname: Pele.
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José Roberto da Silva Junior, Zé Roberto for short, was born in the Brazilian city of São Paulo on 6 July 1974. He started playing football at the Pequeninos de Joquey soccer school at the age of seven. Via the club Palestra Sao Bernardo, the left footer moved on to the professional club Portuguesa de Desportos where he made his debut in 1994.
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25 years ago, the Bayer 04 U19 team under their two coaches Thomas Hörster and Dirk Dreher were Regional League West champions and thereby participants in the finals of the German championship.
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After promotion to Bundesliga 2, the football boss Hermann Bacall had his hands full putting together a powerful team. For the first training session at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on 14 July 1975 there were nine new signings including five players who became regular starters in the team that won promotion to the Bundesliga in 1979.
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After the success of the previous year, the gymnastics and sports club Leverkusen hold the ‘Wiesdorfer Sportwoche’ week of sports for a second time (the city of Leverkusen is only founded in 1930). The week of sport started on Sunday, 12 July 1925. In the years before World War I there were municipal gymnastics and games festivals. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the club in 1924 the board and many helping hands started the week of sports. An internal municipal games festival developed into a national event which made a name for itself after a year particularly due to the relay element.
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