Yes, I'd like to see videos dispalyed.
"Tomorrow's match is off."
"Why?"
"Due to rain."
Everybody looks up and somebody asks sceptically:
"What rain?"
"Don't ask, the game's off tomorrow."
There was light drizzle but you couldn't say it was raining.
The background: At the end of 1989, Bayer 04 signed the East Germany international Andreas Thom. The boss Reiner Calmund wanted to present him to the public and our own fans at a home game. And ideally without the diversion of another Bundesliga match. How he managed to have the match before Christmas called off will always remain a puzzle to me. Because the weather was good and the rain absolutely minimal.
The match was then played on 17 February 1990. Andi Thom got off to a flying start in front of 12,000 spectators at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. He was in the right spot for a diagonal ball from Andrzej Buncol. Martin Kree made it 2-0 from the penalty spot just before half-time. After the hour mark, the Pole Marek Lesniak sealed the win with a third goal. The match ends in a well-deserved 3-1 home win. The Werkself are second in the table after Matchday 21 level on points with FC Bayern.
The only bad news was an injury to midfielder Cristian Schreier who was in outstanding form. He had to leave the pitch on the half-hour mark and was sidelined for the next two months. Fifth place at the end of the season was enough to qualify for the UEFA Cup.
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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