It may well be that Sascha Stegemann’s wrong decision will cost Borussia Dortmund the championship. There have been several such crucial moments in the history of the Bundesliga – the Sportschau looks back.
Stegemann has now admitted that Stegemann and, of course, the video assistant Robert Hartmann, who was brilliant with his passivity, were completely wrong in the Bundesliga game between VfL Bochum and Borussia Dortmund when they did not punish Danilo Soares’ foul on Karim Adeyemi in the 65th minute. The direct result of this catastrophic mistake was that BVB lost the lead in the table to Bayern Munich again with a 1-1 draw.
Whether this moment will go down in the history of the Bundesliga like a number of others will be decided in the remaining four games: if Dortmund finishes so close behind Bayern on May 27 that a win against Bochum would have been enough to win the title, the 2022/23 championship will always be associated with the name “Stegemann”. He would be on a par with Alfons Berg from Konz.
Berg from Konz: “A fatal one wrong decision from me”
However, Alfons Berg had no VAR by his side when he secured his place in the Bundesliga history books on May 16, 1992. However, that is not a great excuse for this non-whistle: the term “crystal clear” could have been invented for the foul by Rostock’s Stefan Böger on Frankfurt’s Ralf Weber.
A win would have meant the second title for Frankfurt since 1959. When the score was 1-1, Berg denied Eintracht the penalty kick, the game was then lost 2-1, VfB Stuttgart celebrated the championship thanks to a goal by Guido Buchwald five minutes before the end.
Charly Körbel, then assistant coach to Dragan Stepanovic in Frankfurt, then spoke plainly: “You work for a whole year towards one goal, and then you get so shitty. If the referee had whistled correctly, then we would be champions, now we are German lifeguards.”
After the final whistle there was a commotion, Weber approached Berg with his fists raised, teammates slowed him down. “I cried uncontrollably afterwards. I’m glad my team-mates held me back. Who knows what would have happened otherwise.”, said Weber later. After all, Berg admitted after viewing the scene on TV: “A fatal decision on my part.”
Roth was also wrong – but Kutzop saves him
It is thanks to Michael Kutzop that Volker Roth is not another referee legend on the same level as Berg from Konz. Roth also made a wrong decision on April 22, 1986, which almost made Werder Bremen champions on the penultimate day of the Bundesliga match. Werder were two points ahead of Bayern and it was practically a final for the title – if Bremen had won. In the 89th minute, when the score was 0-0, Bayern’s Sören Lerby cleared a scene in the penalty area with a header, but Roth wanted to have recognized a handball – by the way, even after looking at the pictures.
Every football fan knows the rest of the story to this day: Kutzop, who had previously converted 17 of his 17 Bundesliga penalties, stepped up, sent Jean-Marie Pfaff into the left corner and shot the right outer post. “I’ll never forget that shit noise”, said Kutzop years later. Eleven bottles of champagne were left uncapped in the Bremen dressing room, Werder then finally botched the title on the last day of the game with a 1-2 defeat in Stuttgart, and Bayern, coached by Udo Lattek, unexpectedly celebrated.
Strange – back pass, free kick, master of hearts
A Bayern title on the home straight – absolutely not an isolated case. This constellation also existed in 2001/02, even then one of the most famous referees in DFB history was significantly involved: Dr. Markus Merk.
This matchday, the last of the season, with this very special constellation, the crazy twists, the unbelievable emotions deep into injury time, has burned itself into the minds of football fans: Schalke celebrate first, but prematurely. Then Bayern cheer – Schalke is just “master of hearts”. In the end, an indirect free kick was decisive.
The situation before: Bayern needed a draw for the championship, but fell 1-0 down in Hamburg through Sergej Barbarez in the 89th minute. Schalke led 5:3 against Unterhaching at the same time, when the game was over, “Royal Blue” thought they had the goal of all dreams. But there was still play in Hamburg, then goalkeeper Mathias Schober picked up a pass that Merk interpreted as a “back pass” – controversial to this day. Bayern central defender Patrik Andersson threw the ball into the net, 1-1, final whistle – Schalke sank into a sea of tears.
Ballack’s own goal costs “Vizekusen” the title
On the last groove, the Munich team also won their first title in the new millennium. The carpet for Bayer Leverkusen was already rolled out, the original bowl on matchday 34 in the small stadium in Unterhaching, of course – because leaders Leverkusen had arrived there with a three-point lead. A Bayer fan had already made the likeness of Christoph Daum with a crown, along with the words “Millennium Master”.
That was understandable, because Daum had finally promised before the match day: “Last game Unterhaching, the last hurdle and we’ll take that too. Saturday, 5:15 p.m., we’re champions. Basta!” And Daum continued to sound cheerfully at that time: “We are programmed to win, so nobody can stop us.” Except Michael Ballack.
He hit Hachinger’s lead in his own goal – and the disaster took its course. A collective fear of failure broke out, and Reiner Calmund grew paler and paler in the stands. But in neighboring Munich, despite a clear lead against Werder Bremen, they didn’t want to believe in this miracle – after all, there were still 70 minutes to play in Haching. It was only when Markus Oberleitner made it 2-0 in the 72nd minute that the jubilation erupted in the Olympic Stadium and lasted until the final whistle: Bayern were champions again, Bayer was only runners-up.
2007 – “Hitz” hammers Stuttgart to the championship
Seven years later, as with Ballack, it was again a single goal that was retrospectively classified as decisive for the championship. Back then, Pavel Pardo had an eye for open space, but you have to have that much courage first. He hit his corner ball from the right into the center, but far outside the Cottbus penalty area – and found Thomas Hitzlsperger’s full span.
“Hitz, the hammer“, the Stuttgart midfielder was not called then, he was only awarded this award later by the English boulevard. But he was already able to “hammer” on May 19, 2007, it was this brilliantly crashing volley goal from a good 20 meters that until today VfB’s title win in the 2006/07 season is identified.
When Hitzlsperger pulled away, Stuttgart was surprisingly 1-0 down and threatened to gamble away the championship on the home stretch despite a fantastic comeback with six wins in a row. Competitor Schalke was back in first place for eight minutes from the 19th minute (VfB fell behind due to Cottbus striker Sergui Radu) until the Hitzlsperger hammer, before it made it 1-1 and later the winning goal from Sami Khedira (63rd minute). ) brought the turning point.
Hitzlsperger later recalled: “After that goal we all had confidence that we would turn the game around and finish it. It was a liberation.”
Champion moments also in the relegation battle
An unforgettable liberation, a redemption, a resurrection – it was in 1999. At that time, the moments that continue to this day were not about a championship, but about saving them from relegation, and at the same time about a downfall.
It was a drama in so many acts that the ARD radio conference with the three main actors Günther Koch in Nuremberg (against Freiburg), Manni Breuckmann in Bochum (against Rostock) and Dirk Schmitt in Frankfurt (against Kaiserslautern) went down in football history : Five teams were relegated before the 34th matchday.
“We’ll get in touch from the abyss” at “FC Wackelknie”
One of the most famous radio slogans of all football radio times was back then “We report from the abyss”spoken by Günther Koch, who “his” Nuremberger in “FC wobbly knees” so unbelievably nervous that the “Club”, which was in twelfth place (!) before the match day, tumbled across the pitch.
Despite the collective wobbling, Nuremberg could only be relegated if Frankfurt would add the 5:1 at the same time after the 4:1. Original sound Dirk Schmitt: “Then it’s Fjörtoft, he’s in the penalty area. And he scores! Goooooooor, hooooooor, for Frankfurt Eintracht, 5-1. Good Lord! What a performance! And that puts 1. FC Nürnberg back in the second division!” Fjörtoft scored after a sensational step-over.
In the meantime, Bochum and Rostock had also been on the brink. And in the end it was Nuremberg again, because Frank Baumann missed the empty goal from five yards out and a Marek Nikl header bounced back into the field from the inside of the post. Manni Breuckmann finally said sympathetically about the station to colleague Koch: “And Günther, I feel sorry for you too. Allow me to say something personal at this point.”
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