The anniversary is coming! No matter how VfL Wolfsburg performs. At the end of the season, VfL had 25 years of Bundesliga football behind them! In one piece. Few of the current Bundesliga clubs can say that about themselves. But besides Wolfsburg, only Leverkusen and Munich have never been relegated from the upper house. 25 years of the Bundesliga – before the anniversary comes, we’ll take you on a little journey through time. Match day after match day. In the last second division season.
advertisement
–
25 years – not a very big anniversary in many areas. Rather unusual in the Bundesliga. Exceptionally consistent. Because only eleven clubs from a total of 56 Bundesliga clubs since 1963 have played more than 25 seasons in a row in the upper house.
The little VfL Wolfsburg. For a long time he was number 5 in the north – behind Bremen, HSV, Braunschweig and Hanover. Feared in the upper league, but in the 2nd Bundesliga the team from Elsterweg was only six years of its history, in the Bundesliga the wolves were not known at all. Wolfsburg stood for Volkswagen. Period. Until it was with trainer Uwe Erkenbrecher, manager Peter Pander and officials like Wolfgang Heitmann or Manfred Aschenbrenner Visions gave and in 1992 again succeeded in promotion to the 2nd division.
–
A single-digit position was the goal of VfL for the 1996/1997 season. A cautious and realistic approach after a troubled 18 months, in which only Gerd Roggensack led VfL into the 1995 cup final as the successor to Eckhard Krautzun, who had made it to the quarter-finals. That Semi-final 1-0 at the higher class 1. FC Köln with a goal from Siggi Reich remained the highlight under Roggensack. For promotion, he no longer led the team that had long been promoted.
Roggensack had already been replaced by ex-HSV professional Willi Reimann in October 1995 after a home 0: 5 against Bochum. The gnarled Hanseate was able to advance a well-known team on paper with his stoic manner, so that they remained unbeaten 14 times in a row in the second half of the 95/96 season. Then it went into a very special season.
–
The 14th matchday of the second division season 1996/97
What was like that before: A Saudi Arabian Boeing 747 and an Ilyushin passenger plane from Kazakhstan collide in the air near New Delhi in India, killing all 350 occupants. The 17 millionth VW Golf (a flash-red TDI) rolls off the assembly line in Wolfsburg.
The game: The commitment was right, but VfL wasn’t mature enough in this supposed top game. The guests, trained by the later long-time Wolfsburg coach Wolfgang Wolf and with the future Wolfsburg Bundesliga professionals Zoltan Sebescen and Tomislav Maric, stood as expected in the back of the floodlit game on a Friday evening. They had an enormous number of failures in their regular formation. VfL hadn’t been powerful enough before the break and wasn’t full of ideas after the break. Coach Willi Reimann would have wished for more wing play, the experienced Michael Spies, who had driven again and again, analyzed: “We didn’t have the calm, we pulled out the crowbar too early. Top teams put their boots down in such a situation and wait for theirs Chance. We didn’t have that patience. ” The pressure led to some chances, but what found its way onto the case, held the strong Thomas Walter. Wolf also sprinkled salt on the wound, said: “We allowed ourselves to be pushed too far back, but it was already evident in the first half – Wolfsburg will not be dangerous out of the game.” When the 14th matchday was complete, the promotion place for VfL as fourth was gone – in a top group, however, which reached up to eleventh place.
–
The statistics
VfL Wolfsburg – Stuttgarter Kickers 0-0
(15. Nov. 1996)
- VfL: Zimmermann – Maucksch, Jensen, Tomic – Präger, Spies, Ballwanz, Deering (78th Kapetanovic), Keller – Tyszkiewicz (70th Mihtarski), Meißner (70th Ratke).
- Kickers: Walter – Lösch, Pfuderer, Strogies – Nylen, Raspe, Sebescen (84th Wüllbier), Chatzis, Hofacker – Labak, Maric (46th Sirocks).
- Referee: Prengel (Düsseldorf). Viewers: 4800.
- Yellow cards: Embossing (5), Ballwanz – delete.
- WAZ player of the game: Spies.
–
Table after the 14th match day of the second division season 1996/97
1. FC K’lautern ….. 26: 7..30
2. Fortuna Cologne ….. 28: 16..23
3. Hertha BSC…….22:14..22
4. VfL Wolfsburg..16: 8..22
5. St. Kickers……. 19:15..22
6. Uerdingen……..22:16..21
7. Mainz 05………..23:18..21
8. VfB Leipzig ……. 27: 26..21
9. SV Meppen……17:16..20
10. Gütersloh ……… 16: 19.20
11. Unterhaching….10:10..19
12. Carl Z. Jena……18:18..18
13. E. Frankfurt……18:20..16
14. Mannheim……..20:27..14
15. RW Essen …….. 20: 33..13
16. Zwickau…………14:21..12
17. Lübeck……………9:24..11
18. Oldenburg……..16:33..10
–
In an AZ / WAZ series, we trace the path to promotion – follow it match day after match day parallel to the new Bundesliga season. We don’t yet know what the end of the season will be in 2021/22; all the fans know what was the end of the season in 1997. But some were still young then, some not even born.
You can take part in this journey through time. Feel free to send us emails if you also like photos (as files, please no originals; to [email protected]) with your special memories of games, or post them on the corresponding match day in the sports buzzer post that will appear at Facebook.
–
