The morning training session was quiet and normal. As on most Wednesdays, there was extended shooting practice at two goals with shots from the edge of the penalty area, from crosses or in one-on-ones with the goalkeeper. The coach Reinhard Saftig was standing near my goal and watching impassively. Suddenly Franco Foda grabbed his thigh after a shot and started to limp. "I'm going in to see Tscholli, I think I've torn something." He slowly left the training pitch. Coach Saftig looked concerned.
Less than five minutes later it struck Ulf Kirsten. And there was deathly silence on the training ground when Andreas Thom fell to the ground with pain on his face and then went back to the dressing room. Reinhard Saftig was tearing his hair out and I heard a mumbled, "What are we going to do now?", next to my goal. He ended the training session and went straight to our physio Dieter Trzolek.
Saftig stormed down the corridor, entered Tscholli's room – and there were the three "injured players" sitting on the bench, grinning at him and shouting: "April fool!" The coach was hugely relieved as the selection problems had suddenly evaporated. The weekend brought a 1-1 draw in Cologne a couple of days later defeat on penalties in the DFB Cup semi-final in Mönchengladbach. We had to wait another year before making it to the cup final.
In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of October. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
Show moreThe Werkself secured victory against Bayern Munich for the first time on 1 November 1986. On matchday 12, Bayer 04 beat the Bundesliga league leaders 3-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Munich and go top of the table.
Show moreTorben Hoffman was born in Kiel on 27 October 1974. In his youth he played for TuS Schwarz-Weiß Elmschershagen. The qualified policeman joined Holstein Kiel in 1993. Two years later he moved on to VfB Lübeck in Bundesliga two. After relegation with Lübeck in 1997 he came to attention of SC Freiburg and they signed the defender. The team relegated from the Bundesliga went straight back up with Torben who moved under the Bayer Cross in 1999 after another year in the Bundesliga. However, he was unable to establish himself at Leverkusen making only sporadic appearances and he was rarely in the starting XI. He played in a total of 30 games for the Werkself.
Show moreThomas ‘Thommy’ Reichenberger was born in Bad Kreuznach on 14 October 1974. The son of a former Bundesliga player – his father Max made 38 Bundesliga appearances for 1860 Munich – played for Eintracht Bad Kreuznach as a youth player before moving up to the first team.
Show moreManfred ‘Manni’ Pomp was born in Aachen on 25 October 1964. His first football club was the Aachen police sports club (PSV) but he signed for Alemannia Aachen after a year.
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