1.01.2023Bayer 04

Miscellany: The Miracle of Leverkusen – The winter break part one – 35 years on

Into the winter break with the Christmas present of Barcelona as opponents in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. Back then it was usual to have a longer break between the two legs. In the 1987/88 season, the Bundesliga restarted for us on 20 February with an away game at FC Nürnberg. Coach Erich Ribbeck sets 13 January for the start of the build-up. Up to that day every player is on holiday and able to enjoy a few weeks off. The injured players Herbert Waas, Bum-kun Cha, Klaus Täuber and Andrzej Buncol had time to recover.

Preparations for the Rückrunde also involve a training camp in Tenerife. However, the first two weeks start with indoor football, which is really popular in the 80s and 90s. The shindig involves 18 tournaments when the teams were able to qualify for the finals that saw the first DFB Indoor Cup (also called the Hall Masters). The big finals tournament is held in Frankfurt. Every club has to have played in at least two tournaments. A complicated system saw eight teams qualify for the DFB Indoor Cup.

So-called assessment points determine qualification with final places and points from the last three seasons plus the first half of the current campaign are taken into account. The individual tournaments are given a values rating, which in turn depends on the assessment of the participants and individual tournaments. Winners and finishers were awarded place points. The total of all the numbers produce the final points tally, which is reflected in the table. From those, five other teams qualify alongside the hosts Eintracht Frankfurt. Ten Bundesliga teams have already ruled out participation in the DFB Indoor Cup as they prefer training camps in preparation for the Rückrunde.

Bayer 04 take part in three tournaments – in Hanover, Dortmund and Herne. Although the tournament in Hanover was not recognised as a qualifying tournament the Hall Masters.

The team set off for Hannover and Herne on Friday 15 January 1988. The team fail completely in Herne on that Friday losing all three group matches against DSC Wanne-Eickel (1-2), Westfalia Herne (1-2) and Hamburg SV (2-3). The other but the team in Hanover do not do much better – 2-2 against TSV Havelse, 0-0 against Hannover 96 (Reserves) and a 4-1 win against ASC Nienburg. Saturday sees the two 'indoor specialists' Knut Reinhardt and the second team player Dieter Regh arrive in Herne from Hanover to give the team support in the important tournament. That is the play-offs, the quarter-finals for us against the top team from the other group, in this case Rot-Weiss Essen. We inflict a 5-1 defeat on Essen. The semi-final brings revenge against Hamburg SV with a 3-2 victory but then we lost 6-3 to Wattenscheid 09 in the final. The team in Hanover finishes in a disappointing fourth place.

The tournament in Dortmund follows a week later. Again we reach the final but suffer a heavy 5-2 defeat to VfL Bochum. At the end of the day, the two second places are not enough to qualify for the DFB Indoor Cup. Preparations for the Rückrunde, and obviously the UEFA Cup quarter-final against Barcelona, begin with a flight to Tenerife on 25 January.

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