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Bayer 04 Leverkusen are in fourth place on 35 points just three points behind VfB Stuttgart. However, there is a lot of pressure under the Bayer Cross as the general manager Reiner Calmund is threatening wage cuts for the first time. The club has financial problems and not qualifying for the Champions League threatens the Werkself players with losing up to 20% of their wages. Not the best circumstances for playing a good game at Hannover. And those fears are confirmed.
Hannover look like the certain winners after 60 minutes. The Lower Saxony team lead 2-0 with goals from the American Clint Mathis and the Greek Kostas Konstantinidis. The Werkself produced almost nothing up to that point. Coach Klaus Augenthaler brings on the Brazilian Franca on 57 minutes in place of Bernd Schneider and that gives the team a lift. After a free kick and an assist from Lucio, Dimitar Berbatov pulls a goal back with a header on 65 minutes. Franca then nets the equaliser eight minutes later. Bayer 04 win the ball back again after the kick-off and Oliver Neuville hits the bar from the edge of the box. The Werkself almost turned round a supposedly lost game in ten minutes. The visitors upped the tempo in the last 20 minutes, are denied by the bar again and several times by the Hannover goalkeeper, Marc Ziegler. The game ends in a 2-2 draw.
Bayer 04 qualify for the Champions League at the end of the season in third place but general manager Reiner Calmund ends working for the club at his own request at the end of the season. He departs after almost 30 years in different posts at Bayer 04 and there are one or two tears in his eyes as well as those of the Bayer 04 fans.
Dieter Bast was born in Oberhausen on 28 August 1951. He began playing football in the youth team at DJK Arminia Klosterhardt, a local club in Oberhausen. Whilst training as a toolmaker, he moved to neighbouring club Sterkrade 06/07 to play for their U19s, where he caught the eye of Bundesliga sides Rot-Weiss Essen and Borussia Mönchengladbach. Bast opted for Rot-Weiss and played in the Bundesliga from 1970 onwards. In his very first year, he made 22 appearances as a right winger, scoring three goals. Nevertheless, Essen were unable to avoid relegation.
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José Vítor Roque Júnior was born on 31 August 1976 in Santa Rita do Sapucaí, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. As a youth, he played for São José EC, a club in the east of the state of São Paulo. His professional career began in 1995 with Palmeiras São Paulo. There, Roque Júnior quickly established himself as a key player in the team, making more than 200 appearances and enjoying significant success. With the club, he won the Copa do Brasil in 1998 and the Copa Libertadores in 1999, the South American equivalent of the European Champions League.
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In this video you can see impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 from the month of August. It's not always about the beauty of the goals, but also a reminder of special games and players.
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The Werkself play their first top-flight match in Bayer 04’s history away at Sportfreunde Katernberg. 7,000 spectators turn up at the Am Lindenbruch stadium in that district of Essen. The Katernbergers have transformed the once ‘barren’ pitch into a real gem. On this Sunday afternoon, 19 August 1951, the lush turf provides the perfect conditions for a good game of football.
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Following a thoroughly successful start with a 2–1 home win against VfL Wolfsburg, the Werkself are organising a team event. On Wednesdays, they head to the Nürburgring together and do a few laps at speed. Manager Klaus Toppmöller welcomes this initiative, as it promotes team spirit and integration. During weekly training sessions, the team works extensively on various defensive tactics, as the manager was dissatisfied with his players’ pressing in the final minutes of the match against the Wolves.
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