Veterans back on the ball in Berlin

The competition in Europe's most respected tournament for veterans teams will know what to expect: The Bayer 04 Vets have taken part in this big indoor event in the capital seven times to date and four times they have brought the title back to the Rhineland; 2011, 2012, 2013 and, most recently, in January 2019. The eleventh tournament in 2020 is being held under the slogan "Experience football legends live!" Bayer 04 are in Group A with the two western rivals Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 plus Dinamo Tbilisi from Georgia and Group B is made up of the three Berlin clubs Hertha, FC Union and Tennis Borussia plus Werder Bremen. "We've done really well in Berlin up to now and hopefully that won't change," said Dirk Dreher, manager of the veterans team.

The Bayer 04 Vets played outdoors last week. In the Klosterpforten Cup in Marienfeld, an established competition on small pitches, the Werkself 'Oldies' made a very impressive start but unfortunately had to bow out in the quarter-finals thanks to a 1-0 defeat against a company team, Melos. "We created enough chances for two matches but kept on being frustrated by their outstanding goalkeeper. And then the opposition scored the winner from their one chance," said Dreher. In the group matches, Bayer 04 clocked up three convincing 3-0 victories against Steinel (goals from Erdal Celik, Ioannis Masmanidis and Hüzeyfe Dogan), Bethel (Dogan, Masmanidis, Assimiou Touré) and Schüco (Celik, Masmanidis, David Müller). The Round of 16 brought a 2-0 win against Hagedorn (Masmanidis, Marcel Podszus).