The 111 All-Time Greatest Bundesliga Games

Two Braunschweig games will be featured. But don't count on them being a display of Braunschweig's awesome defensive reputation. Some 15 goals will be scored...

 

Thanks Dor. I fear once I've come to the top 20, I will have run out of superlatives, that will be difficult.

Bayern - Schalke 0-7 will certainly be featured (the year was 1976).

 

Rank #81

Borussia Dortmund 6
Hamburg SV 2



Place: Dortmund, Westfalenstadion
Time: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.
Date: 28 March 1981
Attendance: 54,000
Referee: Engel (Reimsbach)

Goal Scorers:
1-0 Votava 10
1-1 Buljan 11
1-2 Buljan 31
2-2 Abramczik 45
3-2 Rüssmann 56
4-2 Burgsmüller 58
5-2 Edvaldsson 63
6-2 Burgsmüller 84


Commentary:
Before this game took place, Hamburg were sitting atop the Bundesliga table quite comfortably, ahead of Bayern by three points. Hamburg and Bayern had just met the previous Saturday with the game ending in a draw. Being placed eighth, Dortmund were fighting for a place in the UEFA-Cup. The most interesting part in this game was the duel between Hamburg’s archetype center forward Horst Hrubesch and Dortmund’s archetype center back, Rolf Rüssmann, two very physically imposing players. Horst Hrubesch was also indirectly duelling with Dortmund’s slick and sly Manfred Burgsmüller, a cross between a forward and a midfielder, Burgsmüller was leading the top scorers chart with 22 goals from 24 games, while Hrubesch was listed at number two with 17 from 24. Hrubesch lost both duels. Rolf Rüssmann did not only become ‘man of the match’, he also displayed one of the finest performances by a center back in Bundesliga history up to that date. Rüssmann arguably was the finest center back of the 1970s, but his involvement in the 1971 Bundesliga scandal meant that he would not get called up by Germany. By 1977, the DFB finally allowed Schalke players to play for the national team (them being Rüssmann and Klaus Fischer). Rüssmann was in extraordinary shape at that time and he was one of the best center backs at the 1978 World Cup, but soon after that disappointing World Cup was over, new manager Jupp Derwall abandoned Rüssmann for unknown reasons, making space for the young but equally talented Karlheinz Förster. Rüssmann was transferred from Schalke to Ruhrpott rivals Borussia Dortmund in December 1980, as Schalke desperately needed the money, the same had happened with Rüdiger Abramczik, another former Schalke player now plying his trade for BVB.

Rüssmann did not only manage to fully control the savage Hrubesch, he completely owned him in fierce aerial battles, which was a remarkable achievement, as Hrubesch arguably at that time was the most feared aerial striker in the world. And, in best centerback tradition, Rüssmann also stimulated Dortmund’s play, especially in the second half, wreaking havoc in Hamburg’s penalty box whenever he moved forward. Rüssmann’s performance was even more outstanding considering that he didn’t have the standard sweeper Hans-Joachim Wagner partnering him in central defense but unexperienced Norbert Dörmann (coincidentally also a former Schalke player). Dörmann proved to be the weak link in Dortmund’s defense, being partly responsible for both of Ivan Buljan’s goals. After Mirko Votava had scored the first goal with a wonderful header, Dörmann’s bad positioning allowed Hamburg’s center back Buljan to equalize and after 31 minutes Dörmann had fouled Felix Magath right in front of the box, which should have earned him a red card, but luckily the ref only showed the yellow card. But the resulting freekick resulted in Buljan’s second goal. Fortunately for BVB, on the right wing Rüdiger Abramczik had a massive game and right back Lothar Huber also kept Hamburg’s Jürgen Groh and Felix Magath extremely busy. Abramczik’s very vital equalizer seconds before the half time break gave Dortmund a new boost for the second half, in which they bulldozed over Hamburg in impressive style. Rüssmann himself scored with a tremendous header, minutes later Hamburg goalie Jupp Koitka parried a shot by Abramczik, but BVB’s midfield ace Burgsmüller had snuck up from behind putting the ball past Koitka. Needless to say, the Dortmund crowd was in ecstasy, and incredibly, five minutes later Dortmund scored another goal, it was again Abramczik that assisted it (though from an off-side position), having crossed the ball superbly directly onto Atli Edvaldsson’s right foot, who struck with an immense dropkick.

Hamburg were now subject to a humiliating beating, the last time they had suffered such a defeat was back in April 1978 when Borussia Mönchengladbach inflicted a 6-2 on them in Hamburg (but back then HSV was only a midtable team, unlike at the time of this bashing at the hands of Dortmund). The sixth goal was scored by Burgsmüller six minutes before time, and again it was Abramczik that had crossed precisely, allowing Burgsmüller to score his 23rd league goal with an easy header. Hamburg was lucky in only having conceded six goals, as their manager Aleksandar Ristic later commented, “it could have been a couple more”. Hamburg were undoubtedly handicapped by Franz Beckenbauer being unable to play, standard center back Ditmar Jakobs being of course not able to replace the Kaiser 100%. For Hamburg, this bashing signalled a dramatic turnaround to their (up to then successful) Bundesliga campaign. Two weeks later they were to lose 1-2 at Schalke (who were later relegated) and their comfortable three-points lead over Bayern soon melted away. By May Bayern and Hamburg both had accumulated the same amount of points when Hamburg lost a crunch home game 1-3 vs. Stuttgart. That was the final nail in their coffin. Dortmund could not repeat their performance vs. Hamburg in the remaining games, but they still came pretty close to UEFA Cup qualification. On the last matchday, it was between them and Borussia Mönchengladbach and as fate wanted it, both teams were pitted against each other on the final day...more on that later in the countdown.


---------------------Borussia Dortmund

------------------------------Immel

-----------Huber----Dörmann---Rüssmann---Hein

------------------Votava---------------H.J.Wagner

---------------------------Burgsmüller

------Abramczik---------Edvaldsson-------Geyer

---------------------Manager: Udo Lattek


-----------------------Hamburg SV

---------Wehmeyer----Hrubesch------Reimann

-----------Magath------Memering------Hartwig

-------------Groh----Buljan----D.Jakobs----Kaltz

-----------------------------Koitka

---------------Manager: Aleksandar Ristic


Subs:
73 Hieronymus in, Reimann out
81 Dressel in, Memering out

 

Rank #80

Fortuna Düsseldorf 7
Bayern München 1



Place: Düsseldorf, Rheinstadion
Time: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.
Date: 9 December 1978
Attendance: 26,000
Referee: Engel (Reimsbach)

Goal Scorers:
1-0 Allofs 1
1-1 Augenthaler 22
2-1 Allofs 24
3-1 Seel 51
4-1 Seel 58
5-1 Zimmermann 65 pen
6-1 Günther 74
7-1 Günther 86



Commentary:
Situation before the match: Bayern at fourth position in the league, trailing leaders Kaiserslautern by five points, Düsseldorf seventh, two points behind Bayern. Situation after the match: Bayern down one spot to fifth, Düsseldorf up three spots to fourth. The previous season Bayern were fighting against being relegated, ending up 12th, Bayern’s worst ever Bundesliga campaign. For the new season, Paul Breitner was added to the midfield and finally there was again a player able to lead the team. Gerd Müller had to fulfil that role the previous season but he wasn’t the right man for the job. So while Bayern were clearly on the way up again, they still had moments of remarkable instability. Apart from this demolition in Düsseldorf they lost a Cup game at home against second division side Osnabrück with 4-5, lost to Arminia Bielefeld 0-4 also at home, but were also capable of some sound victories, 6-2 vs. Duisburg, 6-1 vs. Braunschweig, 4-0 vs. Dortmund, 7-1 vs. old foe Borussia Mönchengladbach and 5-1 vs. reigning champion Cologne. Part of Bayern’s problem was the authoritarian Hungarian manager Gyula Lorant, who was – excuse my language – a bad mother********er. But more on that later in the countdown.

Let’s look at the goals:
1-0: a bad placed goal kick by Sepp Maier, directly to Düsseldorf forward Emmanuel Günther who set up Klaus Allofs with a precise pass, Maier doesn’t even try to dive for Allof’s shot.
1-1: a diagonal pass by Norbert Janzon reaches Klaus Augenthaler who has no difficulties pushing the ball into the goal
2-1: Wolfgang Seel tackles the ball from Augenthaler, crosses the ball to the goalmouth where Klaus Allofs straddles the ball into the goal.
3-1: a through ball by Allofs reaches Seel (Bayern claim off-side) who feints Maier and then scores his second goal.
4-1: almost a repeat of the previous goal, a through ball by Hubert Schmitz reaches Seel, again Bayern claim him to be off-side, again Seel feints Maier – goal.
5-1: a through ball by Allofs reaches Seel, who outsmarts Bayern’s defense (who again claim off-side!) but then Maier brings him down, Gerd Zimmermann converts the penalty.
6-1: after a combination with Schmitz, Allofs serves the ball to Günther who scores.
7-1: Fleming Lund crosses the ball from the right flank, Günther’s header hits the goalpost and from there it falls into the goal.

As you can tell from this report, Sepp Maier had a pretty bad game and Düsseldorf’s young Klaus Allofs and Wolfgang Seel had played outstandingly well. Some people later suggested that Bayern deliberately lost this game by a big margin, in order to get rid of the hated manager Lorant, but that is speculation. Another explanation for this sorry performance by Bayern was that they players were still not fully firm in zonal defense, a system Lorant had introduced at Bayern the previous season.


--------------------Fortuna Düsseldorf

-----------------------------Daniel

------------Brei--------Zewe----G.Zimmermann---Baltes

----------------------------Köhnen

------------Weikl----------Schmitz--------K.Allofs

--------------------Seel------------Günther

--------------Manager: Hans-Dieter Tippenhauer


-----------------------Bayern München

------------K.H.Rummenigge---------Janzon

-------------------Oblak----------------Breitner

------------Dürnberger--------------------Niedermayer

------Horsmann---Augenthaler---Schwarzenbeck----Jol

----------------------------------Maier

------------------------Manager: Gyula Lorant

Subs:
73 Kapellmann in, Dürnberger out
73 Lund in, Seel out

 

Rank # 79

Borussia Mönchengladbach 2
Werder Bremen 4



Place: Mönchengladbach, Bökelberg
Time: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.
Date: 8 August 1981
Attendance: 21,800
Referee: Schimdhuber (Ottobrunn)

Goal Scorers:
1-0 Matthäus 9
1-1 Möhlmann 13 pen
2-1 Hannes 15 pen
2-2 Siegmann 31
2-3 Meier 44
2-4 Möhlmann 64



Commentary:
This game is significant due to the effect that it heralded the arrival of the great Werder Bremen side of the 1980s, the club that would dominate most of the decade together with Bayern. Throughout the 1970s, Werder was either a midtable team or struggled against relegation, never finishing above the tenth position in the league table. By 1980 the team had finally run out of luck, being relegated to the second Bundesliga North after a humiliating season that featured epic defeats against Bayern (0-7), Cologne (0-5), Bochum (2-5), 1860 Munich (4-6, four of the goals being scored in the last two minutes!!), Hamburg (0-5) and Dortmund (0-5). It looked as for Werder, the 1980s would bring a miserable decade of second division football. Before the start of the second Division season, Werder’s managing director Rudi Assauer spent 1 million marks to lift the squad, hired veteran coach Kuno Klötzer who had already got Düsseldorf, Essen and Offenbach promoted during the 1960s and 1970s. The veteran sweeper Klaus Fichtel was bought from Schalke (35 years old) and 34-year-old ‘brown bomber’ Erwin Kostedde joined the club coming from France. Fichtel was the right man to stabilize Werder’s defense and with Kostedde, Werder finally had a goalgetter, one that had just won the Golden Shoe in the French first division. Also new was the tiny but effective outside left Norbert Meier. Kostedde was to scored 29 and Meier 15 goals. However Kuno Klötzer had to abandon his managing job in February, as his wife was severely injured in a car accident with Klötzer being unable to concentrate on his job in the process, so Rudi Assauer took over coaching duties for eight weeks.

In April 1981 he hired then jobless Otto Rehhagel who made sure Werder would get promoted in the last two months of the season. Picking Rehhagel was arguably the greatest decision by any Werder director, as Rehhagel would lead the club to domestic and international glory, remaining at Bremen for the next 14 years. Thus it came that Werder was back to topflight football after only a one-year break, but the first game of the season saw them facing a very difficult task, starting away at Gladbach’s famous Bökelberg. In this game Werder demonstrated that they would be a force to be reckoned with in the future. Borussia Mönchengladbach was tipped by many to play a leading role in the new season, often named as the third best Bundesliga side after Bayern and Hamburg. Gladbach was clearly underestimating Bremen, they played way too offensively and made it easy for Werder to exploit their defensive weaknesses, this coupled with Werder unexpectedly being the more creative side led to their shock 4-2 triumph at Gladbach. For Werder the season had started in outstanding fashion, the team finished fifth-placed at the end of the season. The next year, Rudi Völler would join the club and from then, things really started to take off for them.


--------------Borussia Mönchengladbach

-----------------------------Kleff

-------Fleer-------Hannes----Schäfer----Ringels

----------Matthäus------Bödeker------Bruns

------------Pinkall----------Mill---------Wuttke

--------------Manager: Jupp Heynckes


----------------------Werder Bremen

------------N.Meier------Kostedde------Reinders

--------------Bracht-----Möhlmann------Kamp

---------Otten-----R.Gruber---Fichtel----Siegmann

--------------------------Burdenski

 

Hamburg SV 6
1. FC Köln 0



Place: Hamburg, Volksparkstadion
Time: Tuesday, 8 p.m.
Date: 8 May 1979
Attendance: 62,000
Referee: Linn (Altendiez)
Red Cards: Flohe 54, Neumann 54

Goal Scorers:
1-0 Memering 15
2-0 Hartwig 34
3-0 Keegan 43
4-0 Keegan 73
5-0 Kaltz 80 pen
6-0 Magath 83



Commentary:
After winning the league and Cup the previous season, Cologne were the big favorites at the start of the new season, but the team struggled during the first half of the season, at times dropping to fourteenth position in the table. Hamburg had only managed to finish tenth the previous season, but their new coach Branko Zebec activated the huge potential of the team, players like Kevin Keegan, Manfred Kaltz and Felix Magath belonged to the best players in Europe and newly signed center forward Horst Hrubesch would soon be one of the most feared strikers in European football. Zebec was an ice-cold tactician with a murderous training schedule, but for Hamburg’s players it did pay-off. Many of them commenting in later years that they never had a better manager than Zebec. By May 1979, being placed sixth in the league, Cologne was somewhat back on track, having reached the semi final in the European Cup where they unluckily got eliminated by Nottingham Forest (3-3, 0-1). But this was clearly Hamburg’s year, they were on a roll, a seamless whole of a team with no weaknesses, they had one of Germany’s best goalkeepers in Rudi Kargus, a stable defense in with full backs Manfred Kaltz and Peter Hidien, central defenders Peter Nogly and Ivan Buljan, a midfield consisting of Kevin Keegan, Felix Magath, William ‘Jimi’ Hartwig and Caspar Memering and the two forwards Horst Hrubesch and Willi Reimann.

Hamburg’s first goal was scored after a great solo run by Memering in the 15th minute, the second came after Cologne goalie Harald ‘Toni’ Schumacher had miscalculated a shot by Hartwig. After 43 minutes, Kevin Keegan scored the third goal, having been assisted by Hrubesch after a corner by Reimann. Hamburg’s players and fans being in jubilant mood, as their team was about to move from third place to second place behind Kaiserslautern, who were only drawing Nuremberg, but still three points ahead of Hamburg. The second half was marred by two red cards for Cologne’s midfield aces Heinz Flohe and Herbert Neumann. Flohe had hit Hartwig, leaving the ref no choice than sending him off, this enraged Neumann to such a degree that he insulted the referee, who didn’t hesitate showing the red card to Neumann, too. Disaster was now complete for Cologne but Hamburg first found it difficult to adapt to the new situation. For roughly 20 minutes, Cologne played fairly well defensively, leading the crowd to express its displeasure by whistling. However during the last 15 minutes Cologne was too worn out to keep up with Hamburg. Keegan had converted a cross with a header to score the fourth goal, then Cullmann fouled Reimann in the box, Kaltz converted the penalty. Seven minutes before time, Magath scored Hamburg’s sixth goal with a freekick. The German champion Cologne looked like a heap of ruins while Hamburg had cemented its reputation of being the best side in Germany, despite trailing Kaiserslautern by three points. Two weeks later Hamburg were about to beat Kaiserslautern soundly 3-0 in the Volkspartstadion and from then on nothing stood in their way to bring the first German championship to Hamburg since 1960.


---------------------------Hamburg SV

-------------------------------Kargus

---------------Kaltz-----Nogly----Buljan-----Hidien

-----------------------------Memering

----------------Hartwig------Keegan-----Magath

---------------------Reimann---------Hrubesch

----------------------Manager: Branko Zebec


-----------------------------1. FC Köln

-------------Van Gool------Okudera------Mohr

-------------Flohe--------H.Neumann-----Glowacz

---H.Zimmermann---Strack---Cullmann----Konopka

---------------------------Schumacher

-----------------Manager: Hennes Weisweiler

Subs:
46 Willmer in, van Gool out
53 Littbarski in, Konopka out

 

Rank #77

Borussia Mönchengladbach 4
Borussia Dortmund 5



Place: Mönchengladbach, Bökelberg
Time: Saturday, 4 p.m.
Date: 11 September 1965
Attendance: 34,000
Referee: Lutz (Bremen)

Goal Scorers:
0-1 Emmerich 22 pen
1-1 Milder 43 pen
1-2 Sturm 49
2-2 Rupp 59
3-2 Netzer 63
3-3 Emmerich 64
3-4 Wosab 69
4-4 Netzer pen
4-5 Emmerich pen



Commentary:
This game was somewhat exemplary for the young Mönchengladbach side that got promoted in 1965 from the regional league and that didn’t care too much about defending, but very much for attacking in the first couple of years. Nicknamed “Fohlen” (foals) due to their youth, Gladbach soon got a reputation for outstanding attacking qualities coupled with careless defending, and the result of this attitude were games like this thriller vs. Borussia Dortmund five games into Gladbach’s first Bundesliga season. Gladbach’s forwards Netzer, Heynckes, Rupp and Laumen would soon be rated among the Bundesliga’s very best, all of them becoming capped players during the next couple of years, but in defense, the only player that stood out was 18-year-old Berti Vogts. It wasn’t before 1969 that Gladbach’s legendary manager Hannes Weisweiler (who was renown for developing young new talent) gave in to the growing criticism of his playing style, buying two seasoned defenders from outside his own talent pool (Nuremberg’s Ludwig ‘Luggi’ Müller and Stuttgart’s Klaus-Dieter Sieloff). Compared to the Mönchengladbach side, Dortmund’s was a very experienced that was steeled in a number of European Cup ties and that went on to beat Cup holders West Ham United (aggr. 5-2) and Liverpool (2-1) on British soil in the 1965-66 Cup Winner’s Cup competition, becoming the first German club to win a European trophy. The most remarkable aspect of this game was probably that the experienced BVB players embraced this nerve-wrecking exchange of blows, especially in the second half. The young Gladbach side was expected to be attacking naively, the surprise was that Dortmund joined the party. Dortmund’s hopes were laying partly on their new center forward Siegfried ‘Siggi’ Held, who had joined the team in the summer of 1965 but first didn’t get to play due to injury. Thus this was his first game for BVB and of course he needed time to adapt to his new surroundings. Despite Netzer’s obvious talents at playmaking, the Gladbach forwards didn’t find a way to get behind Dortmund’s tough defenders. Gladbach played too laborious, too many backheels and stuff. Gladbach’s inside forward Bernd Rupp had a very hard time against Dortmund’s centerhalf Wolfgang Paul while the dangerous Jupp Heynckes was double-covered by Willi Sturm and Rudi Assauer. Gladbach missed the necessary ‘bite’ in the first half, perhaps being too intimidated by the famous Dortmund side.

It took Gladbach almost half an hour before they got to test Dortmund’s goalkeeper Hans Tilkowski. At that time BVB was already 1-0 up (Lowin had fouled Held and Lothar Emmerich converted the penalty safely). Nobody suspected this game to become a penalty fest, but shortly before half time referee Lutz gave a second penalty, this time for the home side, which Egon Milder converted. In the second half, the character of the game completely changed, for some reason Dortmund abandoned its defensive basic setting and committed itself to attacking much more than in the first half. This soon yielded fruits as in the 49th minute, Willi Sturm spotted a familiar whole in the Gladbach defense, scoring with a superb distant shot from outside the box. From now on the game became an enthralling exhibition of uncompromising attacking football, goal scenes a plenty in front of both goals, Dortmund’s outside right reinhold Wosab being especially unlucky in first hitting the post, then the crossbar. Ten minutes after Dortmund’s second goal, Gladbach managed to equalize: Günter Netzer had lifted one of his impeccable freekicks directly at the head of the small Bernd Rupp, whose header found the net in the 59th minute. 120 seconds later, it was again Günter Netzer with a freekick, this time he converted the opportunity himself by subtly flicking the ball over Dortmund’s wall beyond goalie Tilkowski. A stunning goal. Another 120 minutes had passed when Lothar Emmerich was found unmarked by Albert Jansen after Jürgen Weber had brought in a corner from the right, Emmerich’s header was well placed: 3-3! The overecstatic Gladbach crowd was silenced mercilessly and five minutes later, the Gladbach supporters were close to tears when Reinhold Wosab scored a tap in from three meters: 3-4! But all was not lost, a Heynckes solo was abruptly ended by an irregular interception by Theo Redder, the penalty was of course Netzer’s to take and he duly scored the 4-4. Three minutes later a Dortmund player was brought down on the edge of the Gladbach box, ref Lutz pointing to the penalty spot for a third time: Emmerich was not in the mood to waste this opportunity: 4-5! It was a very debatable call, though. The game continued to be led very attacking from both sides, but Gladbach was becoming ever more dominant in the dying minutes. It looked as if it paid off as the referee gave a penalty for the fourth time three minutes before time, again a very soft decision, but Egon Milder wasn’t calm enough and Tilkowski saved. This was the last highlight in a very entertaining encounter and due to its refreshing attacking style (remember this was the time catennaccio ruled European football!), Gladbach would soon become the most popular club in Germany and by the 1970s, also one of the most popular clubs in all of Europe.


-------------- Borussia Mönchengladbach

--------------------------Krätschmer

-------Jansen------Milder------Vogts-----Wittmann

---------------Löwin-----------------Netzer

------Laumen----Heynckes------Rupp-----Elfert

-----------Manager: Hennes Weisweiler


--------------------Borussia Dortmund

----------Emmerich---------Held----------Wosab

----------W.Sturm--------J.Weber---------Kurrat

----------Redder----Assauer----Paul----Geisler

---------------------------Tilkowski

------------------Manager: Willi Multhaup

Subs:
none

 

Rank #76

Bayern München 5
VfB Stuttgart 3



Place: Munich, Olympiastadion
Time: Friday, 8 p.m.
Date: 30 April 1993
Attendance: 56,000
Referee: Krug (Gelsenkirchen)

Goal Scorers:
1-0 Helmer 3
1-1 Sverrisson 7
2-1 Schupp 24
2-2 Gaudino 37
3-2 Matthäus 52
4-2 Matthäus 56
5-2 Wohlfarth 61
5-3 Strunz 63


Commentary:
This meeting was between reigning champs VfB Stuttgart and league leaders Bayern München, thus being a top duel even if Stuttgart was not as good as in the previous season. Bayern had to prove that the 1-4 bashing at Bremen the previous week came more than unlucky, but while they showed to be a first class attacking unit, their defense again looked suspect and as is well known, good offensive wins games but good defense wins championships. Thus the Bayern officials were more worried about the outcome of this game than enthused. Jorginho was criticized for playing too offensively and sweeper Olaf Thon because he didn’t keep his defense together like a good sweeper should. Thon had already played a catastrophic pass in the Bremen game that had led to the decisive third goal. The spectators however loved every minute of it. The deciding difference between the two teams that night was a player called Lothar Matthäus, who scored two vital and intoxicating goals early in the second half. Let’s check the goals then:

1-0 Helmer scores with a header after a cross by Ziege.
1-1 Sverrisson also scores with a header after a corner by Gaudino.
2-1 a cross by Sternkopf to Kögl, who can’t control it but the ball luckily rolls to Jorginho who passes it over to Markus Schupp whose shot marks Bayern’s second goal.
2-2 Markus Sternkopf plays a terrible bad ball, Maurizio Gaudino exploits the situation coolly.
3-2 Lothar Matthäus scores with a thunderous right-footed shot after a short solo.
4-2 again Matthäus, this time with a left-footed steam hammer of a shot.
5-2 Roland Wohlfarth finishes off a counter-attack
5-3 Thomas Strunz neatly chips the ball over Raimund Aumann.


---------------------------Bayern München

---------------------------------Aumann

----------------------------------Thon

-----------------------Helmer------------Kreuzer

------Jorginho-------Schupp--------Wouters-------Ziege

--------------------------------Matthäus

-----------------------Scholl-------------Wohlfarth

------------------------Manager: Erich Ribbeck


----------------------------VfB Stuttgart

-----------------------Kögl---------Sverrisson

-------------------Golke----------------Gaudino

-----------Buck-------------Buchwald-----------Strunz

------------------Strehmel---------------G.Schäfer

-------------------------------Dubajic

--------------------------------Immel

------------------Manager: Christoph Daum

Subs:
15 Sternkopf in, Ziege out
70 Kienle in, Dubajic out
79 Frontzeck in, Golke out
83 Münch in, Sternkopf out

 

There's one encounter left between these two sides, but it doesn't look good for VfB.

Yes indeed. Strunz played for Stuttgart for three seasons (1992-1995) but then came back to Bayern, while Ludwig Kögl left Bayern I think in 1990, as Bayern got Michael Sternkopf from Karlsruhe.

 

Right on, spread the word, it pays off checking the Bundesliga from time to time!

 

Rank #75

Borussia Dortmund 3
Borussia Mönchengladbach 3



Place: Dortmund, Westfalenstadion
Time: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.
Date: 3 December 1977
Attendance: 53,872
Referee: Walz (Waiblingen)

Goal Scorers:
0-1 Simonsen 19
1-1 Frank 29
2-1 Frank 42
2-2 Heynckes 54
3-2 Wagner 75
3-3 Del’Haye 89


Commentary:
“Gladbach - Europe’s best counter-attacking side!” read the headlines after this great display at Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion, which had pitted the second placed team vs. the ninth placed team, but they were in fact closer than the league table suggested, as only four points stood between the two sides before the game. A riveting performance by both sides that would have deserved two winners, a game in which the home side had looked like the certain loser during the first 20 minutes, so superior was Mönchengladbach due to its creative play, paired with cleverness and routine. After 19 minutes, Herbert ‘Hacki’ Wimmer had put in a cross from the left wing and little Allan Simonsen’s flying header goal was well-deserved. In midfield, Dortmund’s Burkhard Segler palpably lost the battle versus Gladbach’s midfield engine Herbert Wimmer, while Dortmund’s most important player, the cunning Manfred Burgsmüller, stood in the shadow of Rainer Bonhof. Backed by this clear domination in midfield, Gladbach looked like the certain winner, but approaching 30 minutes Dortmund more and more started to overcome their difficulties in building up their game, a long ball by Segler to attacking right back Lothar Huber initiating the equalizer: center forward Wolfgang Frank exploited Huber’s cross with a header, his first goal for BVB since he joined them from Braunschweig.

As a result, Dortmund’s morale got a good boost and the home side backed by the crowd managed even to pressurize the guests, two minutes before the break a flippant mistake by Bonhof got exploited by Frank: 2-1. Berti Vogts too didn’t look to convincing at that moment, making the Dortmund fans start to chant “Huber for Germany! Huber for Germany!” And indeed Lothar Huber in this game proved that he was one of the best attacking right backs in the Bundesliga, arguably more valuable in that department than Berti Vogts, but Vogts was of course the Germany skipper and much more experienced plus way better at pure defending, so the chances of Huber making the 1978 World Cup squad despite his great performance were still rather slim at that point. Huber also provided a good marking job on Gladbach’s dangerous left wing Jupp Heynckes, but even then he couldn’t prevent Heynckes from leaving his mark on the game nine minutes after the break, this time Wimmer had crossed from the right wing and Heynckes outjumped the smaller Huber, his header finding the goal, destroying Dortmund’s dreaming of victory. This goal was made possible due to a lapse in the Dortmund defense, as Heynckes should have been marked by the taller central defenders once he snuck into the penalty box (a typical move by him). A quarter of an hour before time, Dortmund however struck back in style, Huber again had put in one of his crosses from the right wing, sweeper Hans-Joachim had moved up front and being unmarked hit the ball with a great volley shot that left no chance of saving to Gladbach’s excellent goalkeeper Wolfgang ‘Otto’ Kleff: 3-2! Westfalenstadion in ecstasy! A minute before the final whistle, however, Dortmund’s goalie Horst Bertram let the ball slip after a Bonhof shot and Karlheinz “Calle” del’Haye was there tapping the ball over the line. Shock and horror among the Dortmund supporters, festivities in the Gladbach section. With this draw, Gladbach kept its second place in the league table, trailing leaders Cologne by just one point. Gladbach and Dortmund were again to meet that season, an encounter that was to produce one of the most sensational results in Bundesliga history ... more on that later in the countdown.


-------------------------Borussia Dortmund

---------------------------------Bertram

----------Huber-----H.J.Wagner----Theis----W.Schneider

---------------------------------Votava

-------------------Segler-------------------Burgsmüller

------------------Geyer--------Frank-------Lippens

----------------------Manager: Otto Rehhagel


---------------------Borussia Mönchengladbach

-------------------Heynckes---Del’Haye---Simonsen

-----------------------------------Kulik

--------------------Wimmer-------------------Bonhof

----------------Wohlers----Vogts---Wittkamp----Schäfer

-----------------------------------Kleff

------------------------Manager: Udo Lattek

Subs:
78 C.Nielsen in, Kulik out
80 Vöge in, Lippens out
84 Held in, Frank out

 

Rank #74

Eintracht Braunschweig 5
Bayern München 2



Place: Brunswick, Stadion an der Hamburger Strasse
Time: Saturday, 4 p.m.
Date: 15 April 1967
Attendance: 38,000
Referee: Siepe (Cologne)

Goal Scorers:
1-0 Gerwien 4
2-0 Ulsass 23
3-0 Saborowski 30
4-0 Saborowski 41
5-0 Moll 68
5-1 Müller 73 pen
5-2 Brenninger 78



Commentary:
Before this duel, Bayern were placed fourth in the league table trailing Braunschweig by four points, thus nothing less than a victory was needed in order to keep the Southern Germans in the title race. Bayern’s young side was still involved in all three important competitions, apart from still being a candidate to win the Bundesliga, they also had reached the semi final in the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the quarterfinal in the German Cup. It looked as if Bayern were about to reach the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup having beaten Standard Liege 2-0 in the first leg just a couple of days earlier in convincing style. Braunschweig was a team that almost nobody before the season expected to play a significant role, some even predicted them to be fighting against relegation that season. The only pundit that actually predicted Braunschweig to win the Bundesliga was Bayern’s coach Zlatko ‘Tschik’ Cajkovski! But even he probably wasn’t entirely serious with his pre-season pick. Braunschweig had one outstanding player in Lothar Ulsaß, the technically gifted and dangerous linkman that was also regularly called up for German duty during those years but never really managed the breakthrough. Apart from Ulsaß, Braunschweig had a grown team of players that knew each other for several years and that was particularly solid at the back. In fact, Braunschweig’s defense from those years is still renown today as one of the most effective ones. Built around sweeper Joachim Bäse and centerhalf Peter Kaack, flanked by the full backs Klaus Meyer and Jürgen Moll. Walter Schmidt often joined the central defense in order to apply the infamous “Doppelstopper” system. While strong at defense, Braunschweig wasn’t particularly impressive at attacking, their inside forwards Hans-Georg Dulz and Gerd Saborowski not being typical center forward types but more prone to linking up, especially Dulz. Linkman Lothar Ulsaß was the real goal scoring threat. That season Braunschweig set a record for conceding less goals than any other team (27), a record that stood for 21 years, but they also became the Bundesliga champion with the fewest goals ever scored (49) – a record that still stands today!

In this game, Braunschweig surprised Bayern with unusually attacking straightaway from the start of the game, which apparently scared the Bayern players who had expected everything, but not an uncompromisingly attacking Braunschweig side! Bayern looked nervous, inattentive, hurried and discordant. All this led to a miserable performance that Saturday afternoon, at the end Bayern had to forget about winning all three trophies that season and Bayern’s goalie Sepp Maier was so disappointed that he threatened to burn his jersey after the game! Franz ‘Bulle’ Roth didn’t succeed in neutralizing the heart of the Braunschweig side, Lothar Ulsaß. Only hours before the game, Bayern’s linkman Rainer Ohlhauser suffered a slight toxication at dinner in the hotel and had to be replaced by young Hans Rigotti. Together with the more experienced Dieter Koulmann, these two youngsters were picked to stimulate Bayern’s midfield play. But already after 180 seconds all tactical plans Bayern may have had had to be abandoned, as Hans-Georg Dulz had headed to Erich Maas, the quick outside left who performed a bicycle kick at the edge of the Bayern box, the ball falls into the goalmouth where Bayern’s left back Hans-Georg ‘Katsche’ Schwarzenbeck hits over the ball, outside right Klaus Gerwien does not hesitate exploiting the situation by hitting the ball behind the hapless Sepp Maier. Bayern now started relentless counter attacks, but the well positioned Braunschweig defense was hard to break down, thus it took them 17 minutes before the first shot on Horst Wolter’s goal. But soon after that, the Bayern players are silenced again: Outside left Erich Maas, one of the strongest players on the pitch, had again spotted a gap in the Bayern defense, which allowed him to serve Ulsaß at the edge of the penalty box, there he left the hesitant Roth behind (in a not entirely fair way, though) and then kicked the ball past Sepp Maier, who was storming out of his goal, but Ulsaß managed to get his toe on the ball a second before Maier could interfere. It looked very bad for Bayern at this point. Eintracht Braunschweig brought disarray into the Bayern team with their through balls and diagonal passes (“however the best passes they received came from our players” commented center half Werner Olk sarcastically after the game). An inattentive moment by Franz Beckenbauer after half an hour was exploited by Saborowski: 3-0! Beckenbauer had played weakly in defense, but on the other hand it was him who was most actively resisting the beating that was to come by directing Bayern’s offensive actions. However Beckenbauer had a bad day overall, so his efforts didn’t pay off. Eleven minutes after the demoralizing 0-3, Bayern had to come to terms with a fourth Braunschweig goal: After one of Maas’s countless well-placed crosses from the left, Schwarzenbeck and Olk engaged in an act of clownish comedy by crashing against each other instead of clearing, Saborowski cashed in gratefully, being able to pick which corner of the goal to shot the ball into: 4-0! The half time whistle by referee Siepe was greeted with enthusiastic cheers of joy by the thrilled Braunschweig supporters.

Luckily for Bayern, Braunschweig cut down its efforts after the break, but they still managed to score an embarrassing fifth goal against Bayern: full back Jürgen Moll had joined the attack on the left wing, finding himself unmarked, he cut inside the Bayern box and knocked the ball behind Sepp Maier. However it looked as if Moll had been off-side earlier in the move. During the rest of the match Bayern were trying to cut their loss and after Bäse had brought down Brenninger in the box, Gerd ‘Bomber’ Müller converted the penalty 17 minutes before time. Five minutes later, Braunschweig were punished for their lack of concentration during the last 20 minutes as Müller crossed the ball to Dieter ‘Mucki’ Brenninger who headed the ball into the goal. This however didn’t keep Braunschweig from celebrating their great victory for the rest of the weekend. They had disposed off a rival for the Bundesliga title in impressive style and their manager Helmut Johannsen later remarked that: "we have proved that we have more to offer than just luck, tactics, physical shape and strength." Braunschweig later went on to win their only German championship, despite losing at home to bitter rivals Hannover 96 (0-1) and 0-3 at Karlsruhe. But at the end it all worked out for them, the same can be said about the young Bayern side, who went on to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the German Cup, rounding off a very successful season and at the end of the year they eventually got to beat Braunschweig, as it was them who were voted "Team of the Year 1967" by German sports journalists.


----------------------------------------------Eintracht Braunschweig

----------------------------------------------------------Wolter

-------------------------------------K.Meyer------Bäse------Kaack-----Moll

--------------------------------------------W.Schmidt--------------Ulsaß

------------------------------------Gerwien----Dulz------Saborowski-----Maas

--------------------------------------------Manager: Helmut Johannsen


-------------------------------------------------Bayern München

---------------------------------Brenninger---------G.Müller----------Nafziger

----------------------------------------Rigotti--------Koulmann---------Roth

----------------------------Schwarzenbeck----Olk----Beckenbauer----Kupferschmidt

--------------------------------------------------------Maier

---------------------------------------------Manager: Zlatko Cajkovski

Subs:
none

 

Rank #73

Werder Bremen 6
Hamburger SV 0



Place: Bremen, Weserstadion
Time: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.
Date: 1 May 2004
Attendance: 42,500
Referee: Fröhlich (Berlin)

Goal Scorers:
1-0 Barbarez 16 own goal
2-0 Ismael 22
3-0 Klasnic 39
4-0 Ailton 48
5-0 Valdez 80
6-0 Skripnik 84 pen



Commentary:
Before this game Werder Bremen were going through a mini crisis, having only won one of the previous five games (1-3-1), most dramatical was Bremen’s sudden inability to score goals, only managing two in these five games. Their lead over runners-up Bayern had melted from eleven points to six points hence the game versus Northern rivals Hamburg looked to be quite a crucial one. Had Bremen shown another "lacklustre" performance or even suffered a defeat, they would have had faced a serious problem one week before the crunch away game at Bayern. But in this game Werder showed that they were a mentally stable side that brought the best out of them in this tricky situation, coming up with their (so far) best performance of the whole season. The 6-0 demolition of Hamburg was the highest Werder victory in the 155th edition of this derby. Werder from kick-off on showed terrific aggressiveness which made Hamburg commit catastrophic mistakes. Hamburg goalie Tom Starke, Czech Tomas Ujfalusi and Bastian Reinhardt didn’t have their best days, which also added to the rout, but the main reason were Bremen’s fluid combinations executed at high pace. Upfront Ailton and Ivan Klasnic proved to be the Bundesliga’s most deadly pairing. The first goal was scored by Hamburg’s own Sergej Barbarez, then shortly after that Valerien Ismael scored with a right-footed strike, Klasnic scored the third goal after an assist by Tim Borowski (Werder's best player). Three minutes into the second half Ailton scored his 26th league goal that season. Werder were still dominating but being 4-0 up they had slowed down a bit but during the last ten minutes Nelson Valdez (after assist by Ismael) and Viktor Skripnik with penalty after hands by Bastian Reinhardt finalised the result. Just in time Bremen had knocked-off an awe-inspiring performance, playing like only a true champion would. One week later, the clash of titans in Munich would provide another outstanding performance by Thomas Schaaf’s team. More on that later.


----------------------------------------------------Werder Bremen

----------------------------------------------------------Reinke

----------------------------------Stalteri--------Ismael----------Krstajic-----C.Schulz

-------------------------------------------------------F.Baumann

-------------------------------------Lagerblom------------------------Borowski

----------------------------------------------------------Micoud

--------------------------------------------------Klasnic---------Ailton

----------------------------------------------Manager: Thomas Schaaf


------------------------------------------------------Hamburg SV

-----------------------------------------------------------V.Hleb

-------------------------------------Benjamin----------Barbarez--------Mahdavikia

---------------------------------------Wicky------------Schlicke----------Fukal

-------------------------------------B.Reinhardt-------Hoogma--------Ujfalusi

-----------------------------------------------------------Starke

-----------------------------------------------Manager: Klaus Toppmöller

Subs:
60 Cardoso in, Benjamin out
60 Romeo in, Hleb out
62 Valdez in, Klasnic out
72 Skripnik in, Lagerblom out
79 Charisteas in, Ailton out

 

I took the logo from the fussballdaten website. There's only one person at BigSoccer that can tell us for sure which logo was used in 1967...let's see if he checks the thread from time to time.

 

Thanks Alex for your input!

It's inquiries like that which keep the thread going. All kind of questions are always welcome!

 

It was a no brainer. The other Braunschweig game will be more of a surprise.

This rule of only allowing three images per post is quite annoying. I wanted to include a picture of every player featured in the top 20 games, but it looks like that won't work as planned.